Analysis of activity in open-source communities using social network analysis techniques

The success of an open-source software project is closely linked to the successful organization and development of the underlying virtual community. In particular, participation is the most important mechanism by which the development of the project is supported. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the online participation in virtual communities using social network analysis techniques in order to obtain the main patterns of behaviour of users within communities. Several open-source communities related to Linux ports to embedded processors have been studied, obtaining a set of indicators by modelling them as a social network. Exploratory factor analysis has been used to extract the main dimensions related to the participation process. Participation inequality, hierarchy and the cohesion of the community constitute the main dimensions characterizing the participation mechanism within communities. Obtained results highlight the necessity of guiding the organization and development of the community to achieve successful target software.