Abstract
The majority of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developers are mobile and often use different identities in the projects or communities they participate in. These characteristics pose challenges for researchers studying the presence and contributions of developers across multiple repositories. In this paper, we present a methodology, employ various statistical measures, and leverage Bayesian networks to study the patterns of contribution of 502 developers in both Version Control System (VCS) and mailing list repositories in 20 GNOME projects. Our findings shows that only a small percentage of developers are contributing to both repositories and this cohort is making more commits than they are posting messages to mailing lists. The implications of these findings for understanding the patterns of contribution in FOSS projects and on the quality of the final product are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 249-265 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Science of Computer Programming |
| Volume | 91 |
| Issue number | PART B |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 1 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Concurrent Versions System
- Mailing lists
- Open Source Software developers
- Open Source Software projects
- Software repositories
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
- Information Systems
- Modelling and Simulation
- Computational Theory and Mathematics
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