Influence of social and technical factors for evaluating contribution in GitHub
Influence of social and technical factors for evaluating contribution in GitHub
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DOI：
10.1145/2568225.2568315
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发表时间：
2014-05
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Jason Tsay;Laura A. Dabbish;J. Herbsleb
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Jason Tsay;Laura A. Dabbish;J. Herbsleb
开源软件通常被描述为一种精英管理体制，其中决策完全基于技术优势。然而，关于开源的文献表明，在这种精英管理体制之下存在着复杂的社会结构。像GitHub这样的社交工作环境使得用户之间以及用户和工作成果之间的关系变得透明。这种透明度使开发者在做出工作决策时能够更好地利用诸如技术价值和社会关系等信息。我们对GitHub中的开源软件贡献进行了一项研究，重点关注评估拉取请求（pull requests）这一任务，拉取请求是在GitHub中贡献代码的主要方法之一。我们分析了各种技术和社会指标与贡献被接受的可能性之间的关联。我们发现，项目经理在评估拉取请求时，会利用既表明拉取请求具有良好技术贡献实践，又表明提交者和项目经理之间社会联系强度的信息。有很多评论的拉取请求被接受的可能性要小得多，这受到提交者在项目中先前互动情况的调节。成熟的项目在接受拉取请求时更为保守。这些发现提供了证据，表明开发者在评估对开源软件项目的潜在贡献时会同时使用技术和社会信息。
Open source software is commonly portrayed as a meritocracy, where decisions are based solely on their technical merit. However, literature on open source suggests a complex social structure underlying the meritocracy. Social work environments such as GitHub make the relationships between users and between users and work artifacts transparent. This transparency enables developers to better use information such as technical value and social connections when making work decisions. We present a study on open source software contribution in GitHub that focuses on the task of evaluating pull requests, which are one of the primary methods for contributing code in GitHub. We analyzed the association of various technical and social measures with the likelihood of contribution acceptance. We found that project managers made use of information signaling both good technical contribution practices for a pull request and the strength of the social connection between the submitter and project manager when evaluating pull requests. Pull requests with many comments were much less likely to be accepted, moderated by the submitter's prior interaction in the project. Well-established projects were more conservative in accepting pull requests. These findings provide evidence that developers use both technical and social information when evaluating potential contributions to open source software projects.