Blogs (1) >>
ICSE 2019
Sat 25 - Fri 31 May 2019 Montreal, QC, Canada
Fri 31 May 2019 15:00 - 15:10 at Centre-Ville - Human Factors Chair(s): Christoph Treude

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) communities are composed, in part, of volunteers, many of whom contribute infrequently. However, these infrequent volunteers contribute to the sustainability of FLOSS projects, and should ideally be encouraged to continue participating, even if they cannot be persuaded to contribute regularly. Infrequent contributions are part of a trend which has been widely observed in other sectors of volunteering, where it has been termed “episodic volunteering” (EV). Previous FLOSS research has focused on the Onion model, differentiating core and peripheral developers, with the latter considered as a homogeneous group. We argue this is too simplistic, given the size of the periphery group and the myriad of valuable activities they perform beyond coding. Our exploratory qualitative survey of 13 FLOSS communities investigated what episodic volunteering looks like in a FLOSS context. EV is widespread in FLOSS communities, although not specifically managed. We suggest several recommendations for managing EV based on a framework drawn from the volunteering literature. Also, episodic volunteers make a wide range of value-added contributions other than code, and they should neither be expected nor coerced into becoming habitual volunteers.

Fri 31 May

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14:00 - 15:30
Human FactorsJournal-First Papers / Technical Track / Papers at Centre-Ville
Chair(s): Christoph Treude The University of Adelaide
14:00
20m
Talk
How Practitioners Perceive Coding ProficiencyTechnical TrackIndustry Program
Technical Track
Xin Xia Monash University, Zhiyuan Wan Zhejiang University, Pavneet Singh Kochhar Microsoft, David Lo Singapore Management University
14:20
20m
Talk
Socio-Technical Work-Rate Increase Associates With Changes in Work Patterns in Online ProjectsTechnical TrackIndustry Program
Technical Track
Farhana Sarker , Bogdan Vasilescu Carnegie Mellon University, Kelly Blincoe University of Auckland, Vladimir Filkov University of California at Davis, USA
Pre-print
14:40
20m
Talk
Why Do Episodic Volunteers Stay in FLOSS Communities?Technical Track
Technical Track
Ann Barcomb Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nurnberg and Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre and University of Limerick, Klaas-Jan Stol University College Cork and Lero, Ireland, Dirk Riehle , Brian Fitzgerald Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre and University of Limerick
Pre-print
15:00
10m
Talk
Uncovering the Periphery: A Qualitative Survey of Episodic Volunteering in Free/Libre and Open Source Software CommunitiesJournal-First
Journal-First Papers
Ann Barcomb Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nurnberg and Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre and University of Limerick, Andreas Kaufmann Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Dirk Riehle , Klaas-Jan Stol University College Cork and Lero, Ireland, Brian Fitzgerald Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre and University of Limerick
DOI Pre-print
15:10
10m
Talk
Discovering Community Patterns in Open-Source: A Systematic Approach and Its EvaluationJournal-First
Journal-First Papers
Damian Andrew Tamburri TU/e, Fabio Palomba University of Zurich, Alexander Serebrenik Eindhoven University of Technology, Andy Zaidman TU Delft
Pre-print
15:20
10m
Talk
Discussion Period
Papers