Characterizing example embedding as a software activity

We use an empirical qualitative software engineering research to characterize Example Embedding (EE) as a software activity- a collection of fine grained techniques which together assemble an abstract key notion in software development. This perspective lays the foundations for building an activity catalogue, forming new software practices, affecting the development process and motivating the development of new software tools. 1

Developers Attentiveness to Example Usage

As part of our research on the use of code examples in professional programming, we focus on the developer's awareness and attentiveness to example usage. We identify three types of lack of attentiveness: lack of awareness that causes professional developers to use examples only in certain contexts but not in others, lack of attentiveness to examples of different scales, and lack of attentiveness to the variety of purposes examples may serve. We present a qualitative research followed by a focus group case study that illustrate our findings

Playing Both Sides of the Market: Success and Reciprocity on Crowdfunding Platforms

Crowdfunding platforms enable the financing of projects by soliciting small investments from a large base of potential backers over the internet. These platforms create a dynamic funding network. We use data collected from Kickstarter, the largest crowdfunding platform, to study some of these network dynamics. We focus on project owners who choose to operate on both sides of the market, backing the projects of others. We study the impact of such out-of-project actions on the successful financing of projects. We find that an owner’s backing-history has a significant effect on financing outcomes. We also show that owners who are backers form a sub-community which is active in backing projects, especially those initiated by its members. We find evidence for both direct and indirect reciprocity. Backing the projects of other is a rewarding strategy. Projects created by active backers have higher success rates, attract more backers and collect more funds

A Potato Salad with a Lemon Twist: Using Supply-Side Shocks to Study the Impact of Low-Quality Actors on Crowdfunding Platforms

Crowdfunding platforms are open peer-to-peer two-sided markets that enable amateur entrepreneurs to raise money for their ventures. However, such markets are at risk of being flooded with low-quality offerings, a situation that might be detrimental to the success of higher-quality products. We empirically investigate the implications of such situations, referred to as “market of lemons”. We analyze a quasi-natural experiment- an exogenous media shock that occurred on Kickstarter.com. The shock was followed by a sharp increase in the number of campaigns, particularly low-quality ones. These unique conditions enable us to estimate how crowdfunding platforms are affected by the presence of an atypically large number of low quality campaigns, while controlling for temporal trends and seasonal effects. We use two novel identification strategies to show that market of lemons decreases the revenue of successful campaigns. However, campaign quality moderates this effect, such that the performance of the highest-quality campaigns is unaffected