This research group from the University of California at Irvine conducts "empirically-based studies of the processes, practices, and communities that develop open source software." The group's homepage includes many recent publications, including one that outlines several potential advantages of implementing major academic, commercial, or governmental software systems with open source practices as opposed to traditional software engineering methods. Another interesting paper from May 2003 presents a unique study of the ways social and cultural backgrounds can influence the development of open source projects.