Applying Social Network Analysis to the Information in CVS Repositories
Abstract
The huge quantities of data available in the CVS repositories
of large, long-lived libre (free, open source) software
projects, and the many interrelationships among those data
offer opportunities for extracting large amounts of valuable
information about their structure, evolution and internal
processes. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of that information
renders it almost unusable without applying methodologies
which highlight the relevant information for a given
aspect of the project. In this paper, we propose the use of
a well known set of methodologies (social network analysis)
for characterizing libre software projects, their evolution
over time and their internal structure. In addition,
we show how we have applied such methodologies to real
cases, and extract some preliminary conclusions from that
experience.
Keywords: source code repositories, visualization techniques,
complex networks, libre software engineering
1 Introduction
The study and characterization of complex systems is an
active research area, with many interesting open problems.
Special attention has been paid recently to techniques based
on network analysis, thanks to their power to capture some
important characteristics and relationships. Network characterization
is widely used in many scientific and technological
disciplines, ranging from neurobiology [14] to computer
networks [1] [3] or linguistics [9] (to mention just
some examples). In this paper we apply this kind of analysis
to software projects, using as a base the data available in
their source code versioning repository (usually CVS). Fortunately,
most large (both in code size and number of developers)
libre (free, open source) software projects maintain
such repositories, and grant public access to them.
The information in the CVS repositories of libre software
projects has been gathered and analyzed using several... [continues]
Abstract
The huge quantities of data available in the CVS repositories
of large, long-lived libre (free, open source) software
projects, and the many interrelationships among those data
offer opportunities for extracting large amounts of valuable
information about their structure, evolution and internal
processes. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of that information
renders it almost unusable without applying methodologies
which highlight the relevant information for a given
aspect of the project. In this paper, we propose the use of
a well known set of methodologies (social network analysis)
for characterizing libre software projects, their evolution
over time and their internal structure. In addition,
we show how we have applied such methodologies to real
cases, and extract some preliminary conclusions from that
experience.
Keywords: source code repositories, visualization techniques,
complex networks, libre software engineering
1 Introduction
The study and characterization of complex systems is an
active research area, with many interesting open problems.
Special attention has been paid recently to techniques based
on network analysis, thanks to their power to capture some
important characteristics and relationships. Network characterization
is widely used in many scientific and technological
disciplines, ranging from neurobiology [14] to computer
networks [1] [3] or linguistics [9] (to mention just
some examples). In this paper we apply this kind of analysis
to software projects, using as a base the data available in
their source code versioning repository (usually CVS). Fortunately,
most large (both in code size and number of developers)
libre (free, open source) software projects maintain
such repositories, and grant public access to them.
The information in the CVS repositories of libre software
projects has been gathered and analyzed using several... [continues]
Cite This Essay
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(2005, 03). Applying Social Network Analysis to the Information in Cvs Repositories. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 03, 2005, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Applying-Social-Network-Analysis-Information-Cvs-48877.html
- MLA
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"Applying Social Network Analysis to the Information in Cvs Repositories" StudyMode.com. 03 2005. 03 2005 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Applying-Social-Network-Analysis-Information-Cvs-48877.html>.
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"Applying Social Network Analysis to the Information in Cvs Repositories." StudyMode.com. 03, 2005. Accessed 03, 2005. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Applying-Social-Network-Analysis-Information-Cvs-48877.html.
