A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE FOSS4G DEVELOPERS’ COMMUNITY
The open and direct collaboration at the creation, improvement, and documentation of source code and software applications – enabled by the web – is recognized as a peculiarity of the Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) projects representing, at the same time, o...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2018-07-01
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| Series: | The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences |
| Online Access: | https://www.int-arch-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/XLII-4-W8/171/2018/isprs-archives-XLII-4-W8-171-2018.pdf |
| _version_ | 1811282616992661504 |
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| author | D. Oxoli H.-K. Kang M. A. Brovelli |
| author_facet | D. Oxoli H.-K. Kang M. A. Brovelli |
| author_sort | D. Oxoli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The open and direct collaboration at the creation, improvement, and documentation of source code and software applications – enabled by the web – is recognized as a peculiarity of the Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) projects representing, at the same time, one of their main strengths. With this in mind, it turns out to be interesting to perform an extensive monitoring of both the evolution and the geographical arrangement of the developers’ communities in order to investigate their actual extension, evolution and degree of activity. In this work, a semi-automatic procedure to perform this particular analysis is described. The procedure is mainly based on the use of the GitHub Search Application Programming Interface by means of JavaScript custom modules to perform a census of the users registered with a collaborator role to the repositories of the most popular FOSS4G projects, hosted on the GitHub platform. The collected data is processed and analysed using Python and QGIS. The results – presented through tables, charts, and thematic maps – allow describing both dimensions as well as the geographical heterogeneity of the contributing community of each individual project, while enabling to identify the most active countries – in terms of the number of contributors – in the development of the most popular FOSS4G. The limits of the analysis, including technical constraints and considerations on the significance of the developers' census, are finally highlighted and discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T01:55:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-26c1094d07cf4accb78add695c6bcfaa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1682-1750 2194-9034 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T01:55:49Z |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-26c1094d07cf4accb78add695c6bcfaa2022-12-22T03:07:46ZengCopernicus PublicationsThe International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences1682-17502194-90342018-07-01XLII-4-W817117410.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-4-W8-171-2018A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE FOSS4G DEVELOPERS’ COMMUNITYD. Oxoli0H.-K. Kang1M. A. Brovelli2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, ItalyGeospatial Information Research Division, Korea Research Institute for Human Settlement, Sejong 30147, KoreaDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, ItalyThe open and direct collaboration at the creation, improvement, and documentation of source code and software applications – enabled by the web – is recognized as a peculiarity of the Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) projects representing, at the same time, one of their main strengths. With this in mind, it turns out to be interesting to perform an extensive monitoring of both the evolution and the geographical arrangement of the developers’ communities in order to investigate their actual extension, evolution and degree of activity. In this work, a semi-automatic procedure to perform this particular analysis is described. The procedure is mainly based on the use of the GitHub Search Application Programming Interface by means of JavaScript custom modules to perform a census of the users registered with a collaborator role to the repositories of the most popular FOSS4G projects, hosted on the GitHub platform. The collected data is processed and analysed using Python and QGIS. The results – presented through tables, charts, and thematic maps – allow describing both dimensions as well as the geographical heterogeneity of the contributing community of each individual project, while enabling to identify the most active countries – in terms of the number of contributors – in the development of the most popular FOSS4G. The limits of the analysis, including technical constraints and considerations on the significance of the developers' census, are finally highlighted and discussed.https://www.int-arch-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/XLII-4-W8/171/2018/isprs-archives-XLII-4-W8-171-2018.pdf |
| spellingShingle | D. Oxoli H.-K. Kang M. A. Brovelli A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE FOSS4G DEVELOPERS’ COMMUNITY The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences |
| title | A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE FOSS4G DEVELOPERS’ COMMUNITY |
| title_full | A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE FOSS4G DEVELOPERS’ COMMUNITY |
| title_fullStr | A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE FOSS4G DEVELOPERS’ COMMUNITY |
| title_full_unstemmed | A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE FOSS4G DEVELOPERS’ COMMUNITY |
| title_short | A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE FOSS4G DEVELOPERS’ COMMUNITY |
| title_sort | semi automatic procedure for a demographic analysis of the foss4g developers community |
| url | https://www.int-arch-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/XLII-4-W8/171/2018/isprs-archives-XLII-4-W8-171-2018.pdf |
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