Aspects of the Social Organization and Trajectory of the R Project

Based partly on interviews with members of the R Core team, this paper considers the development of the R Project in the context of open-source software development and, more generally, voluntary activities. The paper describes aspects of the social organization of the R Project, including the organization of the R Core team; describes the trajectory of the R Project; seeks to identify factors crucial to the success of R; and speculates about the prospects for R.