Open-source software projects in music education: Stakeholders, structure and the development cycle

Open-source software (OSS) projects are relatively unexplored territory in music education research and practice. In contrast to commercial software development, OSS projects are informally organized and free in terms of administration and control. Developers contribute in several ways according to their own will and whenever they want. In music education, the possible OSS project stakeholders can vary from independent developers to researchers, schools and commercial companies. The structure of this multifaceted collaboration scheme can be very diverse and complex. This article will present a case from a sponsored music educational open-source project that developed a mobile phone-based music software for children. The characteristics of collaboration, project structure, roles of different stakeholders and open-source licensing from this project will shed light on different aspects and characteristics of OSS development in music education. As a conclusion, an iterative process model for OSS projects in music education will be drawn.