Activity Dates and Times
Question: What are the dates and timestamps of when contributor activities occur?
Overview
This metric focuses on identifying the dates and times when individuals contribute to open-source projects. Analyzing timestamps of contributions can help infer activity patterns and even estimate contributors' geographic regions, especially when direct time zone data is unavailable (e.g., contributions in non-UTC). This information can offer transparency for employers about employee contributions and provide open-source project managers with insights into global engagement and when contributors are most active.
Want to Know More?
Data Collection Strategies
- Timestamps from activities such as commits, issues, pull requests, and mailing list messages should be captured.
- Aggregation of data by UTC or contributors' local time can reveal activity patterns globally.
- Collaboration tools like GitHub, GitLab, and email platforms can provide timestamped activity data.
Filters
- By Organization: Contributions can be filtered to focus on specific individuals affiliated with organizations.
- Aggregation by UTC Time: Shows global contributions and identifies project active periods.
- Aggregation by Local Time: Helps track when contributors contribute during their working hours or off-hours.
- Repository ID: Filters data by specific repositories or subprojects.
- Community Segmentation: Contributions can be segmented by regions or time zones, such as EU or US activities, to visualize community participation.
Visualizations
Figure 1: Heatmap showing contribution activity by UTC time across the globe ()
Figure 2: Chart displaying when contributors are active based on local times ()
Figure 3: Global distribution of contributor activities by time zone ()
Figure 4: Breakdown of contribution activity by repository segments ()
References
- Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): Used to standardize timestamps for analyzing contributions across different regions and tools.
Contributors
- None Specified
Additional Information
- To edit this metric please submit a Change Request here.
- To reference this metric in software or publications, please use this stable URL: https://chaoss.community/?p=3444.
The usage and dissemination of health metrics may lead to privacy violations. Organizations may be exposed to risks. These risks may flow from compliance with the GDPR in the EU, with state law in the US, or with other laws. There may also be contractual risks flowing from terms of service for data providers such as GitHub and GitLab. The usage of metrics must be examined for risk and potential data ethics problems. Please see CHAOSS Data Ethics document for additional guidance.