7,364 research outputs found
The State of Diversity and Inclusion in Apache: A Pulse Check
Diversity and inclusion in open source software (OSS) is a multifaceted
concept that arises from differences in contributors' gender, seniority,
language, region, and other characteristics. D&I has received growing attention
in OSS ecosystems and projects, and various programs have been implemented to
foster contributor diversity. However, we do not yet know how the state of D&I
is evolving. By understanding the state of D&I in OSS projects, the community
can develop new and adjust current strategies to foster diversity among
contributors and gain insights into the mechanisms and processes that
facilitate the development of inclusive communities. In this paper, we report
and compare the results of two surveys of Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
contributors conducted over two years (n=624 & n=432), considering a variety of
D&I aspects. We see improvements in engagement among those traditionally
underrepresented in OSS, particularly those who are in gender minority or not
confident in English. Yet, the gender gap in the number of contributors
remains. We expect this study to help communities tailor their efforts in
promoting D&I in OSS.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
Understanding Sustainable Growth in Online Communities of Open-Source Software : Case: Open Core Business
Online communities are crucial for the survival and success of companies using the open core model, as they rely on attracting developers to use their open-source software (OSS) and con-verting some of those free users into paying customers. Current research focuses on the success factors of OSS projects, motivations to contribute, and the sustained participation from the community perspective. This thesis provides the company’s point of view and adds the concept of sustainability to the growth of online communities, which makes this topic very relevant. The main objective of thesis is to uncover the characteristics of successful communities that propitiate sustainable growth, and what are the main challenges that stand in the way by finding answers to following questions, in the context of OSS.
a) What is the nature and relevance of online communities of OSS?
b) What are the main factors that drive sustainable growth in online communities of OSS?
c) What are the barriers for sustainable growth in online communities of OSS?
To achieve this understanding, the literature review widely covers the phenomenon of open-source software communities from what they are to why are they relevant, and how can the success of these online communities be measured. Finally, the current research on sustain-able growth in online communities and its success factors and barriers are covered. To expand the current knowledge on the sustainable growth of OSS communities, a case study is con-ducted by interviewing six key members that work with the community in an open core company by using the standardized open-ended interview approach and a six-phased thematic analysis.
The findings of the study identify four areas to look after when planning for sustainable growth: member’s activities, communication platforms, company involvement, and product & marketing. Among the success factors, support, engagement, and recognition are brought up as some of the key drivers. On the other hand, the data suggests the main challenges are found in the form of communication barriers, inadequate resources, brand misconceptions, social issues, and challenges in product development
The Emergence of New Successful Export Activities in Argentina: Self-Discovery, Knowledge Niches, or Barriers to Riches?
This paper examines the emergence of three new successful export activities in Argentina: biotechnology applied to human health, blueberries and chocolate confections. The main interest lies in ascertaining why these sectors/products were targeted, on which previously accumulated capabilities they were built upon, and what type of hurdles they faced and how they were overcome. In the absence of government support for discovery, these new exports emerged because the pioneers could introduce permanent or dynamic barriers to entry to compensate for the knowledge externalities they generated. When they could only introduce temporary barriers to entry, laissez faire investment in experimentation was suboptimally small. These new exports emerged in sectors where there were entrepreneurs with superior planning and networking skills and/or there were larger firms that could self-provide the required public goods and solve coordination failures by themselves.
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Newcomers’ Barriers. . . Is That All? An Analysis of Mentors’ and Newcomers’ Barriers in OSS Projects
Newcomers’ seamless onboarding is important for open collaboration communi- ties, particularly those that leverage outsiders’ contributions to remain sustainable. Nevertheless, previous work shows that OSS newcomers often face several barriers to contribute, which lead them to lose motivation and even give up on contributing. A well-known way to help newcomers overcome initial contribution barriers is men- toring. This strategy has proven effective in offline and online communities, and to some extent has been employed in OSS projects. Studying mentors’ perspectives on the barriers that newcomers face play a vital role in improving onboarding pro- cesses; yet, OSS mentors face their own barriers, which hinder the effectiveness of the strategy. Since little is known about the barriers mentors face, in this thesis, we investigate the barriers that affect mentors and their newcomer mentees. We interviewed mentors from OSS projects and qualitatively analyzed their answers.
We found 44 barriers: 19 that affect mentors; and 34 that affect newcomers (9 af- fect both newcomers and mentors). Interestingly, most of the barriers we identified (66%) have a social nature. Additionally, we identified 10 strategies that mentors indicated to potentially alleviate some of the barriers. Since gender-related chal- lenges emerged in our analysis, we conducted nine follow-up structured interviews to further explore this perspective. The contributions of this thesis include: iden- tifying the barriers mentors face; bringing the unique perspective of mentors on barriers faced by newcomers; unveiling strategies that can be used by mentors to support newcomers; and investigating gender-specific challenges in OSS mentor- ship. Mentors, newcomers, online communities, and educators can leverage this knowledge to foster new contributors to OSS projects
On Wasted Contributions: Understanding the Dynamics of Contributor-Abandoned Pull Requests
Pull-based development has enabled numerous volunteers to contribute to
open-source projects with fewer barriers. Nevertheless, a considerable amount
of pull requests (PRs) with valid contributions are abandoned by their
contributors, wasting the effort and time put in by both the contributors and
maintainers. To better understand the underlying dynamics of
contributor-abandoned PRs, we conduct a mixed-methods study using both
quantitative and qualitative methods. We curate a dataset consisting of 265,325
PRs including 4,450 abandoned ones from ten popular and mature GitHub projects
and measure 16 features characterizing PRs, contributors, review processes, and
projects. Using statistical and machine learning techniques, we find that
complex PRs, novice contributors, and lengthy reviews have a higher probability
of abandonment and the rate of PR abandonment fluctuates alongside the
projects' maturity or workload. To identify why contributors abandon their PRs,
we also manually examine a random sample of 354 abandoned PRs. We observe that
the most frequent abandonment reasons are related to the obstacles faced by
contributors, followed by the hurdles imposed by maintainers during the review
process. Finally, we survey the top core maintainers of the studied projects to
understand their perspectives on dealing with PR abandonment and on our
findings.Comment: Manuscript accepted for publication in ACM Transactions on Software
Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM
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