Visualizing Collaboration and Influence in the Open-Source Software Community
| Citations: | 7 - 2 self |
BibTeX
@MISC{Heller_visualizingcollaboration,
author = {On Heller and Eli Marschner and Evan Rosenfeld and Jeffrey Heer},
title = {Visualizing Collaboration and Influence in the Open-Source Software Community},
year = {}
}
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Abstract
We apply visualization techniques to user profiles and repository metadata from the GitHub source code hosting service. Our motivation is to identify patterns within this development community that might otherwise remain obscured. Such patterns include the effect of geographic distance on developer relationships, social connectivity and influence among cities, and variation in projectspecific contribution styles (e.g., centralized vs. distributed). Our analysis examines directed graphs in which nodes represent users’ geographic locations and edges represent (a) follower relationships, (b) successive commits, or (c) contributions to the same project. We inspect this data using a set of visualization techniques: geo-scatter maps, small multiple displays, and matrix diagrams. Using these representations, and tools based on them, we develop hypotheses about the larger GitHub community that would be difficult to discern using traditional lists, tables, or descriptive statistics. These methods are not intended to provide conclusive answers; instead, they provide a way for researchers to explore the question space and communicate initial insights.
Keyphrases
open-source software community visualization technique represent user geographic location projectspecific contribution style conclusive answer github community geo-scatter map traditional list repository metadata small multiple display geographic distance centralized v development community question space github source code descriptive statistic matrix diagram analysis examines social connectivity developer relationship successive commits initial insight
