Github中开发人员的行为特征分析

开源环境下开发人员的行为特征分析是促进开源社区协作开发的重要问题之一。文中以Github开源社区的数据为研究对象,结合可视化分析的技术,分析了Github上开发者贡献度的影响因素,探索了开发者之间的协作关系,进一步分析了开发者所属地域与开发者协作之间的关系。通过研究结果发现了一些具有重要理论和时间价值的现象与结论,从一个新的视角揭示了开发人员的部分行为特征。     

基于贡献分配的开源软件核心开发者评估

开源软件中如何真实评估所有开发者的贡献度并有效区分核心开发者和外围开发者是一个重要的研究问题.通过设计开发文件的贡献度分配算法,以9个Apache项目为基础分析了开发者对项目的贡献度,并以此有效地区分核心开发者和外围开发者.实验结果通过Apache官方主页公布的开发者地位名单进行考证,同时在真实名单的相似度上与传统评估方案进行了比较,验证了算法的实用性和有效性.最后,通过支持向量机建立分类模型,结合不同影响开发者地位的关键因素,提升了开发者分类的精确度.     

考虑开发者兴趣迁移的开源项目推荐方法

社交化编码是当前软件开发生产的一个重要方式,其开发模式的灵活性与开放性吸引了大量的开发者.开发者通过参与开源项目能够提升自己的开发能力并在社区中形成自己的影响力.许多开源社区如GitHub上有大量的开源项目.开发者将花费大量的时间与精力去寻找自己感兴趣的项目.开源项目推荐引起了研究者的兴趣,然而,目前的方法中仅仅基于开发者过去参加过的项目的相似性进行项目推荐,没有对开发者的兴趣迁移进行考虑.针对这一问题,本文提出了一种基于项目主题迁移频繁模式挖掘的推荐算法.该方法结合了概率主题模型与顺序频繁模式挖掘,并考虑项目社交关联和流行度,从而为开发者提供个性化开源项目推荐.本文所提方法的召回率比传统的方法高出了10.9%,推荐效果显著提升.     

OSSData:面向开源社区的分布式数据采集框架

近些年,开源软件发展迅猛,其应用领域和适用范围越来越广泛;与此同时,开源软件的成功也吸引了大量的开发者投入到开源软件的开发。因此,开源软件社区积累了大量的软件应用和开发数据。这些丰富的数据逐步引起了研究人员的关注,已经有相关工作对开源软件的群体开发模式和质量保证机制等展开了一系列研究。为了更好地支持此类研究工作的有效开展,面向开源社区提出了一个用户可定制的数据采集框架,该框架具有较高的灵活性和鲁棒性,能够根据用户的实际需求进行深度定制,并保持稳定持续的工作状态,从而提高数据采集的效率和质量。     

开源社区中的潜在开发者推荐

寻找潜在的开源社区合作者可以提高项目开发效率并缩短开发周期。通过分析开发者特征信息和开发者之间的合作关系，可以确定开发者擅长的项目类型。利用社区中的开发者合作网络和每个开发者的特征，使用图神经网络模型学习每个开发者的特征表示，从而有效地推荐合作者。利用开源社区SourceForge.net公开的数据集进行了多组实验，结果表明：在为1982个开发者推荐的Top10个候选者中，成功率高达52.3%，并且最高的全类别平均正确率（mean Average Precision,mAP）值和平均倒数排名（Mean Reciprocal Ranking,MRR）值分别达到65.7%和23.9%，为开源社区中的开发者寻找合作伙伴提供了一种高效的合作路径。     

Roster:一种开发者潜在同行推荐方法

根据开发者的历史开发信息,推荐潜在合作对象或能够胜任的任务,对于减少开发延时,提高团队开发效率有极大的促进作用.大量已有工作主要研究单个开源项目开发者社区,通过确定开发者的个人技能实施推荐.然而,以整个开源社区为视角,研究使用开发者实践技能做推荐,实现开发者跨项目与组织边界合作的工作相对甚少.为丰富这一工作,文中结合开发者的实践技能相似性与共同开发者数,为Sourceforge.net社区未曾合作的开发者提供一种同行推荐的方法.研究结果表明文中的方法能够有效地实现开发者同行推荐,相比只考虑共同开发者数时成功推荐的开发者数增加了31.1%,且推荐精度提高0.4倍,缓解了社区合作的稀疏性.最后,应用文中提出的方法开发了一个Roster推荐系统,为社区开发者的交流建立了一种新的辅助途径.     

基于开源软件的项目成功度量概念模型及验证

研究了对开源社区软件间进行开发的各项数据,采用挖掘存储库数据的方式获得一种可以客观量化开源软件成功度的简易方法,确保开源软件开发团队能够全面掌握开发软件的成功程度及整个开发团队的情况,找到开源软件取得成功的各项因素.本方法利用开源社区存储库数据,实现了对开源软件质量、团队活性、用户参与度、软件规模各项要素的客观、准确描述,确保开源软件团队可以深入掌握开发软件的成功情况.     

基于多维特征的开源项目个性化推荐方法

随着软件协同开发技术与社交网络的深度融合,社交化开发范式已成为当前软件创作与生产的重要方式。这一软件开发模型的灵活性与开放性,吸引了大规模的外围贡献者加入到开源社区中,形成了巨大的软件生产力。在开源社区中,这些分布广泛、规模巨大的外围贡献者主要以一种无组织的松散方式进行协同。他们需要花费大量的时间和精力,在海量的开源项目中寻找到自己真正感兴趣的项目并进行长期贡献。为了提高大规模群体协同的效率,本文提出一种基于多维特征的开源项目个性化推荐方法（即RepoLike）。该方法从开源项目自身流行度、关联项目技术相关度以及大众贡献者之间的社交关联度等三个维度度量开发者和开源项目之间的关联关系,并利用线性组合和Learning To Rank方法构建推荐模型,从而为开发者提供个性化的项目推荐服务。通过大规模的实证实验表明,RepoLike在推荐20个候选项目时的推荐命中率超过25%,能够有效地为开发人员提供有价值的推荐服务。     

基于OMM的开源软件质量自动评估的研究*

随着开源软件的广泛应用,开源软件的开发者和使用者迫切需要一个质量评估模型来改善开源软件的开发过程,提高开源软件的质量保证。基于欧盟第六框架重大项目开源软件质量保障平台(QualiPSo)提出的开源软件成熟度模型(opensource maturity model,OMM),设计开发了一个软件过程自动评估原型系统,实验结果证明了该系统的可行性和有效性。     

开源软件，路在何方？——访Apache之父布莱恩·贝伦多夫

自2000年以来，中国有越来越多的软件开发者或开发团队加入到开源社区中来，但人们对开源的认识似乎仅仅只限于将它理解为免费的“拿来主义”。实际上，很多业界巨头都纷纷投入资本来支持一些著名的开源项目，如IBM投入数百万美元开发Eclipse项目，Sun和HP资助Gnome项目开发，Netscape公司将Firefox浏览器代码捐赠给Mozilla基金会。开源为何能够引起如此多厂商的兴趣？开源与商业之间是否存在统一的一面？各大开源厂商所采取的商业模式又是如何的？中国的开源软件发展应该从中获得什么启示？带着这些问题，本刊记者特邀采访了著名开源运动领袖、Apache之父——布莱恩·贝伦多夫（Brian Behlendorf）先生。     

开源软件开发者的演化研究

开源软件的开发主要依靠开发人员的自我管理和志愿贡献。在软件开发过程中,开发人员的组成、分工、能力等会发生经常性的改变,这些改变都会通过交互行为的变化反映出来。已有研究成果表明开源软件存在核心团队,他们主导项目的开发与实施,但对开发团队随时间而发生的结构变化的研究较少。通过观测软件项目生命周期中开发者总体的变化情况,研究了开发者网络与软件的协同演化机理,以GNU/Linux公共数据集为例,讨论了开源软件开发者数量、自愿度、开发者经验与项目的协同演化现象,并给出了演化的合理解释。     

On the challenges of open-sourcing proprietary software projects

The open source software (OSS) movement has become widely recognized as an effective way to deliver software. Even big software companies, well-known for being restrictive when it comes to publishing their source code artifacts, have recently adopted open source initiatives and released for general use the source code of some of their most notable products. We conducted an exploratory study on merits of the widespread belief that open-sourcing a proprietary software project will attract external developers, like casual contributors, and therefore improve software quality (e.g., “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”). By examining the pre- and post-migration software history of eight active, popular, non-trivial proprietary projects that became open source, we characterize the phenomenon and identify some challenges. Contrary to what many believe, we found that only a few projects experienced a growth in newcomers, contributions, and popularity; furthermore, this growth does not last long. The results from the study can be useful for helping software companies to better understand the hidden challenges of open-sourcing their software projects to attract external developers.     

基于特征提取的开源社区Fork摘要自动生成方法

当前,基于P/R的分布式协同开发已经成为开源社区中的主导软件开发方式。开发者通过Fork复制软件项目的版本库,创建自身分支,并在新建分支中进行独立开发。由于P/R协同开发模型具有开放性、透明性和并行化等特征,开发人员在Fork项目时难以掌握项目的Fork概况,不知道其他开发人员是否已通过Fork开展相同或类似的开发工作,从而容易产生重复性的贡献和冗余性开发。针对这个问题,提出一种Fork摘要的自动生成方法以帮助项目管理者加强项目管控,避免冗余贡献,增强合作交流。该方法首先爬取开源社区中具有Feature和Bug标签信息的Issue数据,采用随机森林方法训练一个分类器模型,以对Fork特征进行分类;随后收集Fork分支的软件开发活动数据,采用TextRank算法生成Fork详细信息以解释Fork的主要目的;最后设计了一组组合规则及相应的算法来整合Fork的类别、特征和其他信息,以形成完整的Fork摘要。为了检验所提方法在指导分布式协同开发方面的有效性,在Github上进行了30组人工测试和60组实际案例测试。结果表明,所提方法生成的Fork摘要的准确率达到67.2%,实验中76%的项目管理者认为Fork摘要有助于更好地管理项目,加强沟通与合作。     

The Economic Motivation of Open Source Software: Stakeholder Perspectives

Open source software has enabled large system integrators to increase their profits through cost savings and reach more customers due to flexible pricing. This has upset existing ecosystems and shuffled structural relationships, resulting in the emergence of firms providing consulting services to open source projects. This new breed of service firm in turn lives or dies by its ability to recruit and retain appropriate talent. For such talent, in particular for software developers, life has become more difficult and exciting at once. Developers face new career prospects and paths, since their formal position in an open source project, in addition to their experience and capabilities, determines their value to an employer. Economically rational developers strive to become commiters to high-profile open source projects to further their careers, which in turn generates more recognition, independence, and job security     

开源许可证的选择:挑战和影响因素

开发者通常会为其开源代码选择不同的开源许可证来约束其使用条件,以期能有效地保护知识产权和维持软件的长远发展.然而,现有的开源许可证种类繁杂,开发者难以了解不同开源许可证间的差异,并且难以通过现有的开源许可证选择工具做出合适的选择——其使用要求开发者了解开源许可证相关条款并明确自己的业务需求.学术界虽然对开源许可证已有研...     

The attraction of contributors in free and open source software projects

As firms increasingly sanction an open sourcing strategy, the question of which open source project to undertake remains tentative. The lack of established metrics makes it difficult to formulate such strategy. While many projects have been formed and created, only a few managed to remain active. With the majority of these projects failing, firms need a reliable set of criteria to assess what makes a project appealing not only to developers but also to visitors, users and commercial sponsors. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model to explore the contextual and causal factors of project attractiveness in inducing activities such as source code contribution, software maintenance, and usage. We test our model with data derived from more than 4000 projects spanning 4 years. Our main findings include that projects’ set of conditions such as license restrictiveness and their available resources provide the context that directly influence the amount of work activities observed in the projects. It was also found that indirect and unintended contributions such as recommending software, despite of being non-technical, cannot be ignored for project activeness, diffusion and sustainability. Finally, our analysis provide evidence that higher attractiveness leads to more code-related activities with the downside of slowing down responsiveness to address projects’ tasks, such as the implementation of new features and bug fixes. Our model underscores the significance of the reinforcing effects of attractiveness and work activities in open source projects, giving us the opportunity to discuss strategies to manage common traps such as the liability of newness. We conclude by discussing the applicability of the research model to other user-led initiatives.     

A systematic literature review on the barriers faced by newcomers to open source software projects

ContextNumerous open source software projects are based on volunteers collaboration and require a continuous influx of newcomers for their continuity. Newcomers face barriers that can lead them to give up. These barriers hinder both developers willing to make a single contribution and those willing to become a project member.ObjectiveThis study aims to identify and classify the barriers that newcomers face when contributing to open source software projects.MethodWe conducted a systematic literature review of papers reporting empirical evidence regarding the barriers that newcomers face when contributing to open source software (OSS) projects. We retrieved 291 studies by querying 4 digital libraries. Twenty studies were identified as primary. We performed a backward snowballing approach, and searched for other papers published by the authors of the selected papers to identify potential studies. Then, we used a coding approach inspired by open coding and axial coding procedures from Grounded Theory to categorize the barriers reported by the selected studies.ResultsWe identified 20 studies providing empirical evidence of barriers faced by newcomers to OSS projects while making a contribution. From the analysis, we identified 15 different barriers, which we grouped into five categories: social interaction, newcomers’ previous knowledge, finding a way to start, documentation, and technical hurdles. We also classified the problems with regard to their origin: newcomers, community, or product.ConclusionThe results are useful to researchers and OSS practitioners willing to investigate or to implement tools to support newcomers. We mapped technical and non-technical barriers that hinder newcomers’ first contributions. The most evidenced barriers are related to socialization, appearing in 75% (15 out of 20) of the studies analyzed, with a high focus on interactions in mailing lists (receiving answers and socialization with other members). There is a lack of in-depth studies on technical issues, such as code issues. We also noticed that the majority of the studies relied on historical data gathered from software repositories and that there was a lack of experiments and qualitative studies in this area.     

An open source usability maturity model (OS-UMM)

User satisfaction has always been a major factor in the success of software, regardless of whether it is closed proprietary or open source software (OSS). In open source projects, usability aspects cannot be improved unless there are ways to test and measure them. Hence, the increasing popularity of open source projects among novice and non-technical users necessitates a usability evaluation methodology. Consequently, this paper presents a usability maturity model specifically aimed at usability-related issues for open source projects. In particular, the model examines the degree of coordination between open source projects and their usability aspects. The measuring instrument of the model contains factors that have been selected from four of our empirical studies, which examine the perspectives of OSS users, developers, contributors and the industry. In addition to presenting the usability maturity model, this paper discusses assessment questionnaires, a rating methodology and two case studies.