EAGER: Measuring the Impact and Diffusion of Open Source Software Innovation on Contributor and Project Networks

开源软件(OSS)是通过独立开发人员以及来自大学、政府研究机构、企业和非营利组织的个人和团体的贡献来开发、维护和扩展的。许多OSS项目都是在免费存储库中开发的，这些存储库中嵌入的信息--包括代码、贡献者和开发活动--是公开可用的。然而，开放源码软件对经济和创新的程度和影响目前尚不清楚，开放源码软件的创建和使用突出了科学和技术指标中没有反映的技术扩散和流动的一个方面。该项目的目标是发现、收集和使用开放源码软件上可公开获得的非调查数据源，并测试开发方法来衡量开放源码软件创新的影响和扩散的可行性。该项目将通过开发严格、可重复和可扩展的方法和指标来评估OSS。这项工作的成果--独特的数据集、代码，以及由此产生的对贡献者和项目之间互动的分析--促进了我们对开放源码软件的初步了解，包括合作的模式和动态、有影响力的参与者、流行的主题和传播。制定的措施将补充现有的同行评议出版物和专利指标。我们的框架可以应用于开放科学的其他方面，例如公共资源库中的共享数据。为了解决我们的核心问题，我们建议(I)通过分析关于开放源码软件项目(创建和使用)以及开发者(机构、部门和国家)的现有信息来表征开放源码软件生态系统；(Ii)使用贡献者网络(通过开发者之间的合作)和开放源码软件项目的网络(通过跨项目和共享贡献者的重用)来表示交互，并分析其结构特征；(Iii)开发使用基于网络和基于开放源码软件的措施(例如下载)来衡量项目和开发者的影响的方法；(Iv)研究开放源码软件创新在机构、部门和国家内部和之间的传播；以及(V)提出一个独特和新颖的数据产品，结合开放源码软件上的各种数据源。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Open-Source Software (OSS) is developed, maintained, and extended through the contribution of independent developers as well as individuals and groups from universities, government research institutions, businesses, and nonprofits. Many OSS projects are developed in free repositories, and the information embedded in these repositories - including the code, contributors, and development activity - is publicly available. However, the extent and impacts of OSS on the economy and innovation are currently unknown, and the creation and use of OSS highlight an aspect of technology diffusion and flow not captured in science and technology indicators. The goals of this project are to discover, collect, and use publicly available non-survey data sources on OSS and to test the feasibility of developing methods to measure the impact and diffusion of OSS innovation. The project will evaluate OSS through development of rigorous, repeatable, and scalable methods and metrics. The outputs of this effort — unique data sets, code, and the resulting analyses of the interactions among contributors and projects — advance our nascent knowledge about OSS, including the patterns and dynamics of collaborations, influential actors, prevailing topics, and diffusion. Developed measures will complement existing indicators on peer-reviewed publications and patents. Our framework could apply to other aspects of open science, such as shared data available in public repositories.To address our core questions, we propose (i) to characterize the OSS ecosystem by analyzing available information on OSS projects (creation and use), and developers (institutions, sectors, and countries); (ii) to represent the interactions using networks of contributors (through collaborations between developers) and networks of OSS projects (through reuses across projects and shared contributors) and to analyze their structural features; (iii) to develop methods to measure the impact of projects and developers using network-based and OSS-based measures (e.g., downloads); (iv) to study the diffusion of OSS innovation within and across institutions, sectors and countries; and (v) to bring forward a unique and novel data product combining various data sources on OSS.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.