Background 

Open Source Software (OSS) encompasses tools and solutions that are freely available to the community and often developed collaboratively by a large number of developers. While OSS has a broad user base, many users struggle to assess whether a particular software is still in good condition or up to date. In the previous project, CrOSSD, we addressed this issue by setting up a database platform that helps estimate the 'health' of OSS.

So far, our platform has primarily relied on quantitative data. With the CrOSSD2 project, we are changing this by incorporating qualitative criteria as well, thereby providing an even more comprehensive picture of an OSS project's status.

Target Groups 

The primary target group consists of OSS communities that need to assess the "health" of OSS projects, because they rely on them for research or use them to develop new solutions. This group places emphasis on improving the visibility of critical projects, having meaningful evaluation criteria for OSS at their disposal, and ensuring continuous development. Particularly relevant to this project are the CHAOSS community, with whom we will collaborate, and the netidee community.

Another key target group is software developers who use open-source software professionally. For them, the "health status" of OSS libraries is a crucial factor in deciding whether to use them or not.

Approach and Scope 

In CrOSSD2, we focus on usability and needs-oriented development. Unlike many existing solutions, we not only define metrics or criteria but also collect data with the aim to provide a clearer picture of how "healthy" specific projects are. This significantly enhances the applicability and practicality of our tool.

We use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs) to spare developers the details of the underlying metrics and making it easier for them to assess the status of OSS projects. In order to learn more about the needs of future users, we conduct interviews and surveys with focus groups. We also organize workshops and present the advantages of the CrOSSD platform to a broad audience.

Outcome 

OSS is indispensable in the IT industry and across all sectors that rely on it. However, OSS projects come with risks and uncertainties, which can raise doubts about their reliability. The CrOSSD platform provides a remedy here, by allowing users to assess the "health" of OSS projects and restore trust in them.

The CrOSSD platform is freely accessible at https://crossd.tech/ and is itself available as OSS. We present our research findings at scientific conferences and make them accessible to the general public