scholarly journals Being a Mentor in open source projects

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Steinmacher ◽  
Sogol Balali ◽  
Bianca Trinkenreich ◽  
Mariam Guizani ◽  
Daniel Izquierdo-Cortazar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Task Assignment ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Organizational Skills ◽  
Mentorship Programs ◽  
Automated Support ◽  
Apache Software Foundation

AbstractMentoring is a well-known way to help newcomers to Open Source Software (OSS) projects overcome initial contribution barriers. Through mentoring, newcomers learn to acquire essential technical, social, and organizational skills. Despite the importance of OSS mentors, they are understudied in the literature. Understanding who OSS project mentors are, the challenges they face, and the strategies they use can help OSS projects better support mentors’ work. In this paper, we employ a two-stage study to comprehensively investigate mentors in OSS. First, we identify the characteristics of mentors in the Apache Software Foundation, a large OSS community, using an online survey. We found that less experienced volunteer contributors are less likely to take on the mentorship role. Second, through interviews with OSS mentors (n=18), we identify the challenges that mentors face and how they mitigate them. In total, we identified 25 general mentorship challenges and 7 sub-categories of challenges regarding task recommendation. We also identified 13 strategies to overcome the challenges related to task recommendation. Our results provide insights for OSS communities, formal mentorship programs, and tool builders who design automated support for task assignment and internship.

scholarly journals Being a Mentor in Open Source Projects

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Steinmacher ◽  
Sogol Balali ◽  
Bianca Trinkenreich ◽  
Mariam Guizani ◽  
Daniel Izquierdo-Cortazar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Task Assignment ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Organizational Skills ◽  
Automated Support ◽  
Apache Software Foundation

Abstract A well-known way to help newcomers overcome initial contribution challenges is mentoring. This strategy has proven effective in offline and online communities, and to some extent has been employed in Open Source Software (OSS) projects. Through mentoring, newcomers are trained to acquire the technical, social, and organizational skills they need. Despite the importance of OSS mentors, they are under studied in the literature. Understanding who mentors in OSS projects are, the challenges they face, and the strategies they use can help OSS projects better understand and support mentors' work. In this paper, we investigate the OSS mentors' perspectives by employing a two-stage study. First, we understand the characteristics of the mentors in a large OSS community through a large-scale online survey in the Apache Software Foundation. We found that contributors who are volunteers and less experienced are less likely to take on the role of mentoring. Second, we identify the challenges that mentors face and how they mitigate these challenges through interviews with OSS mentors (n=18). In total, we identified 25 general mentorship challenges and 7 sub-categories of challenges regarding task recommendation. We also identified 13 strategies to overcome these challenges. Our results provide insights for OSS communities, formal mentorship programs like Outreachy, and tool builders who design automated support for task assignment and internship.

The context and state of open source software adoption in US academic libraries

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-659
Author(s):  
Namjoo Choi ◽  
Joseph A. Pruett
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Chief Information Officers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Software Adoption ◽  
Current State ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
Low Levels

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify barriers and drivers to open source software (OSS) adoption, and measures awareness and adoption stages of OSS in US academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach An online survey of chief information officers, chief technology officers or heads for IT in US academic libraries was conducted. A total number of 179 responses were used for data analysis. Findings From the survey, the authors identify significant barriers and drivers that US academic libraries may consider before adopting OSS and found that awareness itself is not a barrier. While about half of respondents confirmed using OSS, the authors found surprisingly low levels of intent to adopt from current non-adopters. Practical implications This research offers insights for promoting OSS adoption. Also, it provides funding agencies and administrators with guidelines to encourage successful deployment of OSS in higher education. Originality/value While extant research is mostly anecdotal, this research draws from an online survey to snap-shot the current state of OSS adoption in US academic libraries and provides a baseline for practice and research.

scholarly journals Atvirųjų programų naudojimas mokymui

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (43) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Daiva Šiškevičiūtė ◽  
Eugenijus Valavičius
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Proprietary Software ◽  
Business College ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Open Standards

Atvirųjų standartų plitimas kelia naujus reikalavimus informacinių technologijų ir kitų kompiuterinių dalykų dėstytojams. Straipsnyje analizuojamos problemos, iškylančios ruošiantis dėstyti informacinių technologijų kursą, kai kompiuterių taikymo veiksmai iliustruojami atvirosiomis programomis. Taip pat pateikiama studentų pasirengimo priimti tokį kursą analizė – dviejų etapų nuomonės pokyčių tyrimo rezultatai, jų palyginimas su kitais tyrimais, vienų mokslo metų dėstymo patirtis.Teaching of information technology and open source programsDaiva Šiškevičiūtė, Eugenijus Valavičius SummaryThe movement towards open standards on all levels of social life/the life of society puts up new challenges for teachers of Information Technologies and other computer-related disciplines. Vilnius Business College prepared a plan of particular switchover from proprietary software in computer laboratories to open source software. This paper analyses the results of a two-stage survey of students’ opinion about open source software and problems that can occur when using such programs.The changes in students opinion are discussed and results of our surveys are compared with the results of an analogous survey in Lithuanian schools.

scholarly journals Online Survey on Open Journal Systems in Germany and the Network OJS-de.net

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Büttner ◽  
Sabine Gehrlein ◽  
Stefanie Clormann
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Digital Systems ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
German Research ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The University ◽  
Open Journal Systems

At the beginning of 2015 an online survey on the open source software Open Journal Systems (OJS) was launched in Germany to determine how the software is used at German research institutions and what scholars require when working with OJS. The survey was launched by the collaborative project OJS-de.net, a network initiative to support the use of the software in the German publishing landscape. It is a joint effort of the Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) at the Freie Universität Berlin, Heidelberg University Library, and the Kommunikations-, Informations-, Medienzentrum (KIM) at the University of Konstanz. The following article presents an overview of the survey results and shows how these are implemented by OJS-de.net to improve the software adaption for German speaking researchers.Au début de l’année 2015, un sondage en ligne sur le logiciel open source Open Journal System (OJS) a été lancé en Allemagne, afin de savoir comment il est utilisé et mis en œuvre dans les institutions de recherche allemandes, et de déterminer les attentes qu’ont les chercheurs en l’utilisant et ce qui peut au contraire leur manquer. L’enquête a été lancée par le projet collaboratif « OJS-de.net », une nouvelle initiative collective allemande visant à encourager l’utilisation du logiciel OJS dans le paysage éditorial allemand. C’est un effort conjoint du Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) de la Freie Universität Berlin, de la bibliothèque universitaire de Heidelberg, et du Kommunikations-, Informations-, Medienzentrum (KIM) de l’université de Constance. L’article qui suit présente un aperçu des résultats de l’enquête, et montre comment ils sont exploités par « OJS-de.net » pour améliorer l’adaptation du logiciel aux chercheurs germanophones.

scholarly journals Open-source software for mouse-tracking in Qualtrics to measure category competition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya B Mathur ◽  
David Reichling
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Mouse Tracking ◽  
Crowdsourced Data ◽  
Programming Skills ◽  
User Friendly

Mouse-tracking is a sophisticated tool for measuring rapid, dynamic cognitive processes in real time, particularly in experiments investigating competition between perceptual or cognitive categories. We provide user-friendly, open-source software (https://osf.io/st2ef/) for designing and analyzing such experiments online using the Qualtrics survey platform. The software consists of a Qualtrics template with embedded Javascript and CSS along with R code to clean, parse, and analyze the data. No special programming skills are required to use this software. As we discuss, this software could be readily modified for use with other online survey platforms that allow the addition of custom Javascript. We empirically validate the provided software by benchmarking its performance on previously tested stimuli in a standard category-competition experiment with realistic crowdsourced data collection.

The Influence of Open Source Software Volunteer Developers’ Motivations and Attitudes on Intention to Contribute

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chorng-Guang Wu ◽  
James H. Gerlach ◽  
Clifford E. Young
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Work Motivation ◽  
Research Model ◽  
Length Of Service ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Areas Of Interest

This study differs from previous studies on open source software (OSS) developer motivation by drawing upon theories of volunteerism and work motivation to investigate the motives and attitudes of OSS volunteer developers. The role of commitment is specifically interesting, which is well established in the volunteerism and work motivation literature as a predictor of turnover and positively related to work performance, but has been overlooked by OSS researchers. The authors have developed a research model relating motivations, commitment, satisfaction, and length of service to intention to contribute to OSS projects in the future. The research model is evaluated using data from an online survey of 181 OSS volunteer developers. The research results and more discussion of these areas of interest will be evaluated and discussed further in the article.

The Influence of Open Source Software Volunteer Developers’ Motivations and Attitudes on Intention to Contribute

2013 ◽  
pp. 231-256
Author(s):  
Chorng-Guang Wu ◽  
James H. Gerlach ◽  
Clifford E. Young
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Work Motivation ◽  
Research Model ◽  
Length Of Service ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Areas Of Interest

This study differs from previous studies on open source software (OSS) developer motivation by drawing upon theories of volunteerism and work motivation to investigate the motives and attitudes of OSS volunteer developers. The role of commitment is specifically interesting, which is well established in the volunteerism and work motivation literature as a predictor of turnover and positively related to work performance, but has been overlooked by OSS researchers. The authors have developed a research model relating motivations, commitment, satisfaction, and length of service to intention to contribute to OSS projects in the future. The research model is evaluated using data from an online survey of 181 OSS volunteer developers. The research results and more discussion of these areas of interest will be evaluated and discussed further in the chapter.

Moving the crowd at iStockphoto: The composition of the crowd and motivations for participation in a crowdsourcing application

First Monday ◽  
2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daren C. Brabham
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Production Model ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Wisdom Of Crowds ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Software Production ◽  
Distributed Problem Solving

Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem solving and production model already in use by for-profit organizations such as Threadless, iStockphoto, and InnoCentive. Speculation in Weblogs and wisdom of crowds theory assumes a diverse crowd engaged in crowdsourcing labor. Furthermore, and as crowdsourcing is in some ways similar to open source software production, prior research suggests that individuals in the crowd likely participate in crowdsourcing ventures to gain peer recognition and to develop creative skills. The present study tests these assumptions in the crowdsourcing community at iStockphoto. An online survey obtained 651 responses from iStockers to demographic and motivations questions. Results indicate that the desire to make money, develop individual skills, and to have fun were the strongest motivators for participation at iStockphoto, and that the crowd at iStockphoto is quite homogenous and elite. These data have implications for future research into crowdsourcing, particularly regarding notions of professionalism and investment in online communities.

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