Contributors
Question: Who are the contributors to a project?
Overview
A contributor is defined as anyone who contributes to the project in any way. This metric ensures that all types of contributions are fully recognized within the project. Identifying contributors helps the community recognize and celebrate various contributions, from code development to event planning and marketing efforts.
Recognizing the contributors is vital to understanding who is driving different activities and informs project health by showing diversity and breadth in project involvement.
Want to Know More?
Data Collection Strategies
As indicated below, some contributor information is available via software such as GrimoireLab and Augur.
Surveys and Interviews: Some contributor insights are less easily obtained from trace data and may require additional surveys or interviews with community members or event registrations. Sample questions include:
- Which contributors do not typically appear in lists of contributors?
- Which contributors are often overlooked because their contributions are more “behind the scenes”?
- Who are the community members you work with regularly?
Surveys with Likert scale or matrix formats can also provide insights into contributor activity levels.
Sample questions for community members:
- Likert scale [1-x]: I am contributing to the project.
-
Matrix survey item: How often do you engage in the following activities in the project?
- Column headings: Never, Rarely(less than once a month), Sometimes (more than once a month), Often(once a week or more)
- Rows include: a) Contributing/reviewing code, b) Creating or maintaining documentation, c) Translating documentation, d) Participating in decision making about the project’s development, e) Serving as a community organizer, f) Mentoring other contributors, g) Attending events in person, h) Participating through school or university computing programs, i) Participating through a program like Outreachy, Google Summer of Code, etc., j) Helping with the ASF operations (e.g., board meetings or fundraising)
- Aggregators: Collect contributor names from collaboration tools, such as source code repositories, issue trackers, event registrations, mailing lists or any other tools a project uses.
- Count: Total number of contributors during a given time period.
- Parameters:
- Period of time: Start and end dates for the period in which contributions are counted (default: forever).
- Data Sources: Contributor data can be collected from collaboration platforms like GitHub, GitLab, IRC, blogs, and forums, or from tools like GrimoireLab and Augur.
Filters
By location of engagement. For example:
- Commit authors
- Issue authors
- Review participants, e.g., in pull requests
- Mailing list authors
- Event participants
- IRC authors
- Blog authors
- By release cycle
- Timeframe of activity in the project, e.g, find new contributors
- Programming languages of the project
- Role or function in project
Visualizations
- List of contributor names (often with information about their level of engagement)
Figure 1: List of contributors and engagement
- Summary number of contributors
Figure 2: Summary number of contributors
- Change in the number of active contributors over time
Figure 3: Change in the number of active contributors over time
- New contributors (sort list of contributors by date of first contribution)
Figure 4: List of new contributors
References
None specified.
Contributors
- Kevin Lumbard
- Vinod Ahuja
- Elizabeth Barron
- Dawn Foster
- Sean Goggins
- Matt Germonprez
- Yigakpoa L. Samuel (Ikpae)
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=3630
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