%0 Conference Proceedings %B Open Source Systems: Grounding Research (OSS 2011) %D 2011 %T An Analysis of Author Contribution Patterns in Eclipse Foundation Project Source Code %A Taylor, Quinn C. %A Krein, Jonathan L. %A MacLean, Alexander C. %A Knutson, Charles D. %K COLLABORATION %K contribution %K eclipse %K entropy %K java %X Collaborative development is a key tenet of open source software, but if not properly understood and managed, it can become a liability. We examine author contribution data for the newest revision of 251,633 Java source files in 592 Eclipse projects. We use this observational data to analyze collaboration patterns within files, and to explore relationships between file size, author count, and code authorship. We calculate author entropy to characterize the contributions of multiple authors to a given file, with an eye toward understanding the degree of collaboration and the most common interaction patterns. %B Open Source Systems: Grounding Research (OSS 2011) %I Springer %P 269-281 %8 10/2011 %0 Journal Article %J International Journal of Open Source Software and Processes %D 2010 %T Impact of Programming Language Fragmentation on Developer Productivity %A Krein, Jonathan L. %A MacLean, Alexander C. %A Knutson, Charles D. %A Delorey, Daniel P. %A Eggett, Dennis L. %K commits %K entropy %K language entropy %K programming languages %K sourceforge %K srda %X Programmers often develop software in multiple languages. In an effort to study the effects of programming language fragmentation on productivity—and ultimately on a developer’s problem-solving abilities—the authors present a metric, language entropy, for characterizing the distribution of a developer’s programming efforts across multiple programming languages. This paper presents an observational study examining the project contributions of a random sample of 500 SourceForge developers. Using a random coefficients model, the authors find a statistically (alpha level of 0.001) and practically significant correlation between language entropy and the size of monthly project contributions. Results indicate that programming language fragmentation is negatively related to the total amount of code contributed by developers within SourceForge, an open source software (OSS) community. %B International Journal of Open Source Software and Processes %V 2 %P 41 - 61 %8 32/2010 %N 2 %R 10.4018/jossp.2010040104 %0 Conference Paper %B 3rd Workshop on Public Data about Software Development (WoPDaSD 2008) %D 2008 %T Author Entropy: A Metric for Characterization of Software Authorship Patterns %A Taylor, Quinn C. %A Stevenson, James E. %A Delorey, Daniel P. %A Knutson, Charles D. %K developers %K entropy %K flossmole %K sourceforge %X We propose the concept of author entropy and describe how file-level entropy measures may be used to understand and characterize authorship patterns within individual files, as well as across an entire project. As a proof of concept, we compute author entropy for 28,955 files from 33 open-source projects. We explore patterns of author entropy, identify techniques for visualizing author entropy, and propose avenues for further study. %B 3rd Workshop on Public Data about Software Development (WoPDaSD 2008) %P 42-47 %8 2008 %> https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/entropy2008.pdf