Article

The hard life of open source software project newcomers

Authors:

Igor Steinmacher,

Igor Scaliante Wiese,

Marco Aurélio Gerosa,

David RedmilesAuthors Info & Claims

CHASE 2014: Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering

Pages 72 - 78

https://doi.org/10.1145/2593702.2593704

Published: 02 June 2014 Publication History

Abstract

While onboarding an open source software (OSS) project, contributors face many different barriers that hinder their contribution, leading in many cases to dropouts. Many projects leverage the contribution of outsiders and the sustainability of the project relies on retaining some of these newcomers. In this paper, we discuss some barriers faced by newcomers to OSS. The barriers were identified using a qualitative analysis on data obtained from newcomers and members of OSS projects. We organize the results in a conceptual model composed of 38 barriers, grouped into seven different categories. These barriers may motivate new studies and the development of appropriate tooling to better support the onboarding of new contributors.

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Tan XGong YHuang GWu HZhang L(2024)How to Gain Commit Rights in Modern Top Open Source Communities?Proceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering10.1145/36607841:FSE(1727-1749)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2024
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Qiu HLieb AChou JCarneal MMok JAmspoker EVasilescu BDabbish L(2023)Climate Coach: A Dashboard for Open-Source Maintainers to Overview Community DynamicsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581317(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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Index Terms

The hard life of open source software project newcomers
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing and business
    2. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development process management
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. Software configuration management and version control systems

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHASE 2014: Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering

June 2014

132 pages

ISBN:9781450328609

DOI:10.1145/2593702

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Published: 02 June 2014

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ICSE '14: 36th International Conference on Software Engineering

June 2 - 3, 2014

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Overall Acceptance Rate 47 of 70 submissions, 67%

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Tan XGong YHuang GWu HZhang L(2024)How to Gain Commit Rights in Modern Top Open Source Communities?Proceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering10.1145/36607841:FSE(1727-1749)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660784
Nyakundi HDe Souza C(2023)Fostering FOSS CommunitiesBusiness Models and Strategies for Open Source Projects10.4018/978-1-6684-4785-7.ch007(200-238)Online publication date: 9-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-4785-7.ch007
Qiu HLieb AChou JCarneal MMok JAmspoker EVasilescu BDabbish L(2023)Climate Coach: A Dashboard for Open-Source Maintainers to Overview Community DynamicsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581317(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581317
Yue YWang YRedmiles D(2023)Off to a Good Start: Dynamic Contribution Patterns and Technical Success in an OSS Newcomer’s Early CareerIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2022.315607149:2(529-548)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2023
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Paxton AVaroquaux NHoldgraf CGeiger R(2022)Community, Time, and (Con)text: A Dynamical Systems Analysis of Online Communication and Community Health among Open‐Source Software CommunitiesCognitive Science10.1111/cogs.1313446:5Online publication date: 17-May-2022
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Rehman IWang DKula RIshio TMatsumoto K(2022)Newcomer OSS-Candidates: Characterizing Contributions of Novice Developers to GitHubEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-022-10163-027:5Online publication date: 1-Sep-2022
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