The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies (한국전자거래학회지)

Society for e-Business Studies (한국전자거래학회)
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Identifying the Network Characteristics of Contributors That Affect Performance in Open Collaboration : Focusing on the GitHub Open Source

개방형협업 참여자 기여도와 네트워크 특성과의 관계에 대한 연구 : 깃허브 오픈소스 프로젝트를 중심으로

  • Baek, Hyunmi (Department of Information Sociology, Hanyang University) ;
  • Oh, Sehwan (Korea International Trade Association)
  • Received : 2014.07.15
  • Accepted : 2015.02.14
  • Published : 2015.02.28
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Abstract

Information and communications technology facilitates collaboration among individuals by functioning as an open platform for open collaboration projects. In this regard, this study aims to understand the network characteristics of participants who contribute greatly to open collaboration by investigating the mutual cooperation network in an open source project, which represents a form of open collaboration based on social network theory. To achieve this objective, this study analyzes the network centrality of developers with a high number of commits, particularly 8,101 developers in 782 repositories in GitHub, a representative open source platform. This study also determines how the relationship between network centrality and number of commits depends on the size of a repository network and the presence of a hub. Consequently, the number of commits by developers with high degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality is increasing. Among which, betweenness centrality has the highest explanatory power. Furthermore, when a hub is present and as network size increases, the relationship between the betweenness centrality of a developer and his/her number of commits continues to grow. This study is expected to provide suggestions for the successful performance of open collaboration projects in the future.

발전된 정보통신기술은 개방형협업을 위한 오픈 플랫폼 역할을 수행함으로써 개인간 상호협력을 용이하게 한다. 본 연구에서는 사회연결망이론을 바탕으로 개방형협업의 대표적 형태로 주목받고 있는 오픈소스 프로젝트의 상호협력 네트워크를 살펴보고자 한다. 특히 상호협력 네트워크 내에서의 개방형협업 기여도가 높은 참여자의 네트워크 중심구조를 분석해보고자 한다. 이를 위해 대표적인 오픈소스 프로젝트 플랫폼인 깃허브(GitHub)의 782개 리파지토리의 8,101명의 개발자를 대상으로 782개의 협업 네트워크를 도출함으로써, 협업에 있어 기여도가 높은 개발자의 연결 근접 매개 중심성 특성을 분석하였다. 분석 결과, 연결 매개 근접 중심성이 높은 개발자의 커밋수가 많아지는 것으로 나타났으며, 이중에서도 매개중심성에 의해 그 관계를 가장 잘 설명할 수 있는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 네트워크 사이즈가 클수록, 허브가 존재할수록 개발자의 매개중심성과 커밋수 간의 관련성이 더욱 커지는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 향후 개방형협업의 성공적인 운영을 위한 시사점을 제시해줄 것으로 기대된다.

Keywords

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