The Multifaceted Nature of Mentoring in OSS: Strategies, Qualities, and Ideal Outcomes
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Mentorship in open source software (OSS) is a vital, multifaceted process that includes onboarding newcomers, fostering skill development, and enhancing community building. This study examines task-focused mentoring strategies that help mentees complete their tasks and the ideal personal qualities and outcomes of good mentorship in OSS communities. We conducted two surveys to gather contributor perceptions: the first survey, with 70 mentors, mapped 17 mentoring challenges to 21 strategies that help support mentees. The second survey, with 85 contributors, assessed the importance of personal qualities and ideal mentorship outcomes. Our findings not only provide actionable strategies to help mentees overcome challenges and become successful contributors but also guide current and future mentors and OSS communities in understanding the personal qualities that are the cornerstone of good mentorship and the outcomes that mentor-mentee pairs should aspire to achieve.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Mon 28 AprDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
14:00 - 15:30 | Open-Source Software (OSS)Research Track at 210 Chair(s): Bianca Trinkenreich Colorado State University | ||
14:05 10mTalk | Great power brings great responsibility: Personalizing Conversational AI for Diverse Problem-Solvers Research Track Italo Santos Northern Arizona University, Katia Felizardo Federal Technological University of Paraná, Igor Steinmacher Northern Arizona University, Marco Gerosa Northern Arizona University Pre-print | ||
14:15 15mTalk | Advancing Sustainable Communities in Scientific OSS: A Replication Study with Astropy Research Track Jiayi Sun University of Toronto, Aarya Patil Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Youhai Li Carnegie Mellon University, Jin L.C. Guo McGill University, Shurui Zhou University of Toronto | ||
14:30 15mTalk | More Than Code: Technical and Emotional Dynamics in Solidity's Development Research Track Matteo Vaccargiu University of Cagliari, Rumyana Neykova Brunel University London, Nicole Novielli University of Bari, Marco Ortu University of Cagliari, Giuseppe Destefanis Brunel University London | ||
14:45 15mTalk | The Multifaceted Nature of Mentoring in OSS: Strategies, Qualities, and Ideal Outcomes Research Track Zixuan Feng Oregon State University, USA, Igor Steinmacher Northern Arizona University, Marco Gerosa Northern Arizona University, Tyler Menezes CodeDay, Alexander Serebrenik Eindhoven University of Technology, Reed Milewicz Sandia National Laboratories, Anita Sarma Oregon State University | ||
15:00 15mTalk | The Introduction of README and CONTRIBUTING Files in Open Source Software Development Research Track Matthew Gaughan Northwestern University, Kaylea Champion University of Washington, Sohyeon Hwang Northwestern University, Aaron Shaw Northwestern University | ||