Johan Linåker

Senior Researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

https://unsplash.com/photos/group-of-people-with-signages-nKNrOZ5MXZY

My research commonly touches on the human and social aspects of software engineering, as the development of open technologies by design is a collaborative and social effort. This implies several challenges from a socio-technical perspective, often requiring a qualitative or mixed-method approach to investigate. My goal, however, goes beyond problem understanding, and is focused on developing knowledge and designing artifacts that can help to address the problem at hand in a real-world context. An iterative process I prefer to do in collaboration with the actors present in the problem context.

Areas I'm currently investigating include:

  • how public sector can use, develop, and collaborate on Open Source Software in a sustainable manner.
  • how public and private actors can share and collaborate on (open) data and related boundary resources in the context Open Data Ecosystems.
  • how public and private actors can analyze the health of an Open Source Software project, and thereby make appropriate sourcing decision or proactive health measures.
  • how and when open technologies can considered as digital commons, and how their sustainability may be informed by theory of the commons.
  • how public actors can apply and collaborate on procurement activities to enable an open and agile development of systems and software.

Research projects

Governance in an Open Government Data Ecosystem for skills provisioning and lifelong learning
  • 2022-03 to 2023-01 | SEK 500,000
  • Funded by Swedish Public Employment Service (Stockholm, SE)
  • Support for the Swedish Public Employment Service and multiple other national agencies in the government assignment on developing a cohesive data infrastructure for skills supply and lifelong learning.
Health and Security Management for Open Source Software
  • 2021-08 to 2023-08 | SEK 3,890,000
  • VINNOVA (Stockholm, SE)
  • Develop a support for Swedish industry to analyze the health of critical Open Source Software projects, and guidelines for how to improve the health and mitigate risks of vulnerabilites being introduced.
JobTech Dev Research Project – Collaboration and Governance in Open Government Data Ecosystems
  • 2019-10 to 2021-12 | SEK 3,419,350
  • Funded by Swedish Public Employment Service (Stockholm, SE)
  • A two-year research project focused on supporting of SPES and the realization of their JobTech Dev Open (Government) Data ecosystem and thereby SPES's move from the role of being a service provider to becoming a service enabler. The JobTech Dev ecosystem consists of third-party organizations and private citizens with the common vision to enable new and improved digital match-making and guidance services based on the data, as well as boundary resources (e.g., OSS, API:s and standards), shared and co-created within the ecosystem. Beyond contributing to a successful realization of the JobTech Dev ecosystem, the research project aimed to create a blueprint for how software organizations similar to SPES within the public sector can undergo a similar transformation by opening up using the data ecosystem model.