The Introduction of README and CONTRIBUTING Files in Open Source Software Development
Documentation, such as README and CONTRIBUTING files, can serve as the first point of contact for potential contributors to free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) projects. Prominent open source software organizations such as Mozilla, GitHub, and the Linux Foundation advocate that projects provide community-focused and process-oriented documentation early on in order to foster recruitment and activity. In this paper we investigate the introduction of documentation into FLOSS projects, as well as whether early documentation conforms to these recommendations or explains subsequent activity in communities. We use a novel dataset of FLOSS projects packaged by the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and conduct a quantitative analysis of examine README (n=2280) and CONTRIBUTING (n=452) files when they are first published into projects repositories. We find that projects create minimal READMEs proactively, but often publish CONTRIBUTING files following an influx of contributions. The initial versions of these files rarely focus on community development, and instead describe processes and offer technical summaries. The findings suggest that FLOSS projects do not create documentation with community building in mind, but rather brevity, usage, technical features and processes.
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 NAU RESHAPE LAB, 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 of 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 NAU RESHAPE LAB, Marco Gerosa Northern Arizona University, Tyler Menezes CodeDay, Alexander Serebrenik Eindhoven University of Technology, Reed Milewicz Sandia National Laboratories, Anita Sarma Oregon State University Pre-print | ||
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 | ||