&amp;#x0022;Should We Move to Stack Overflow?&amp;#x0022; Measuring the Utility of Social Media for Developer Support

Squire, Megan

doi:10.1109/icse.2015.150

Cited by 38 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The outcome is a shift in work processes, and the wish to communicate face-to-face is challenged by many-to-many communication . However, whereas some perceives social media to provide a larger user community than accessible by traditional communication tools (Squire 2015), concerns are also raised regarding information overload and quality assessment (Squire 2015. Thus, social media is creating novel preconditions and expectations for software developers to adhere to.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge sharing via social media in software development: a systematic literature review

Sarka

Ipsen

2017

Knowledge Management Research & Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge sharing via social media in software development: a systematic literature review

Sarka

Ipsen

2017

Knowledge Management Research & Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Squire [28] measured the impact of switching developer support channels from mailing lists and self-hosted forums to Stack Overflow, and compared it with the expectations of projects having decided on such a move, whereas Vasilescu et al [29] compared the behavior of the same users during the same period on the R mailing list and on Stack Overflow.…”

Section: Switching Developer Tools or Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Switching Bug Trackers: A Case Study on a Medium-Sized Open Source Project

Zimmermann

Artis

2019

2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For most software projects, the bug tracker is an essential tool. In open source development, this tool plays an even more central role as it is generally open to all users, who are encouraged to test the software and report bugs. Previous studies have highlighted the act of reporting a bug as a first step leading a user to become an active contributor. The impact of the bug reporting environment on the bug tracking activity is difficult to assess because of the lack of comparison points. In this paper, we take advantage of the switch, from Bugzilla to GitHub, of the bug tracker of Coq, a mediumsized open source project, to evaluate and interpret the impact that such a change can have. We first report on the switch itself, including the migration of preexisting issues. Then we analyze data from before and after the switch using a regression discontinuity design, an econometric methodology imported from quantitative policy analysis. We complete this quantitative analysis with qualitative data from interviews with developers. We show that the switch induces an increase in bug reporting, particularly from principal developers themselves, and more generally an increased engagement with the bug tracking platform, with more comments by developers and also more external commentators.

show abstract

“…Email protocols and software are not owned or controlled by any one entity, corporate or otherwise. Generic email or mailing list systems can be contrasted with proprietary, but still asynchronous, systems such as the Google Groups web-based Usenet interface [12], or Stack Overflow, a web-based Question and Answer site increasingly used by many FLOSS projects to handle many kinds of technical support [13]. Colloquially, these closed, corporate-controlled systems are called walled gardens.…”

Section: Asynchronous Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tables below show examples of FLOSS projects that have announced that they are using walled gardens as a primary communication channel. These tables focus on Slack as a walled garden since prior work already addressed the use of Stack Overflow for developer support [13], and because -as Sect. 4 will show -Stack Overflow's "garden walls" are substantially lower and more porous than the walls surrounding Slack.…”

Section: Data On Walled Garden Usage In Floss Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Considering the Use of Walled Gardens for FLOSS Project Communication

Squire

2017

Open Source Systems: Towards Robust Practices

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At its core, free, libre, and open source software (FLOSS) is defined by its adherence to a set of licenses that give various freedoms to the users of the software, for example the ability to use the software, to read or modify its source code, and to distribute the software to others. In addition, many FLOSS projects and developers also champion other values related to "freedom" and "openness", such as transparency, for example in communication and decision-making, or community-orientedness, for example in broadening access, collaboration, and participation. This paper explores how one increasingly common software development practice-communicating inside non-archived, third-party "walled gardens"-puts these FLOSS values into conflict. If communities choose to use non-archived walled gardens for communication, they may be prioritizing one type of openness (broad participation) over another (transparency). We use 18 FLOSS projects as a sample to describe how walled gardens are currently being used for intra-project communication, as well as to determine whether or not these projects provide archives of these communications. Findings will be useful to the FLOSS community as a whole as it seeks to understand the evolution and impact of its communication choices.

show abstract

"Should We Move to Stack Overflow?" Measuring the Utility of Social Media for Developer Support

Cited by 38 publications

References 7 publications

Knowledge sharing via social media in software development: a systematic literature review

Knowledge sharing via social media in software development: a systematic literature review

Impact of Switching Bug Trackers: A Case Study on a Medium-Sized Open Source Project

Considering the Use of Walled Gardens for FLOSS Project Communication

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About