Open-source software (OSS) has become indispensable in today's tech world. It forms the foundation for countless applications and provides the infrastructure for many online services. Our project, the “Critical Open-Source Software Database” (CrOSSD, crossd.tech), aims to record, assess, and clearly present the health of critical OSS projects – using transparent metrics and automated analyses.

Where do we currently stand?

CrOSSD is already usable! Thanks to the netidee funding for CrOSSD1, we were able to develop a first functional version: a platform that continuously monitors and evaluates OSS projects. Various stakeholders – from the OSS community and companies to public institutions – can use it to make informed decisions about which projects need support and which are suitable for use in their own applications.

CrOSSD2: The Next Steps

With CrOSSD2, we are now moving into the next phase of development. This year, we're focusing on two major areas:

1. Health Analyses Through AI-Based Metrics

Until now, we've mainly tracked metrics that are relatively easy to automate – like commit activity or security updates. But to analyze more complex factors such as community engagement, funding, or sustainable development, we're turning to advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models. These technologies will help us analyze more nuanced, content-based metrics more efficiently.

Specifically, we're developing new algorithms that can automatically detect patterns in developer activity, documentation, and community discussions. For example, we aim to identify how actively a project is maintained or how well security guidelines are followed. The goal is to provide more transparency and enable even more precise evaluations of OSS projects.

2. Stronger Community Involvement

Our platform is meant to reflect the real needs of the OSS community. That’s why CrOSSD2 puts a strong emphasis on dialogue with developers, organizations, and other stakeholders. Planned initiatives include:

• Development of a structured interview guide: To gather comparable and meaningful data, we are creating a systematic questionnaire. This will serve as a foundation for qualitative social research.
• Expert interviews: Through targeted conversations with OSS users and developers, we want to identify the most pressing challenges. The collected data will be processed and analyzed to draw well-founded conclusions.
• Potential focus groups for deeper insights: Group workshops will be used to deepen key findings and explore new solution approaches.

Through these measures, we aim to ensure that CrOSSD2 remains practical and closely aligned with the needs of the open-source community.