Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID ViewSource: Reflective Open-Source Software Corinna Bath Jelena Karanovic Morgan Ames Stéphane Couture

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Implementation Reflection Code sandbox Annotation engine Timeline visualization Integration of coding and discussion

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Inspiration

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Interface: first screen Version 0.1: first version Version 0.2: first version: adding core engine Version 1: first version Version 2: big UI improvement View: Name/alias Location Gender Ethnicity Affiliation Other projects Reputation View: Communication Hours worked Source code Bug reports Documentation Help forum Design contributions Promotion Testing Use Get involved! Code Sandbox | Discussion Forum | Calls for Action Key Decisions Annotate … Translate … [description of this open-source project]

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Interface: visualization options Name/alias morganya jelenak cbath coutures coreycatt saraish l33tcodr Location Gender Ethnicity Affiliation Other projects Reputation Communication All s Chat Wiki Forums Help forum Design contributions Promotion Use Hours worked Overall Current phase Last week Source code Bug reports Documentation Testing Key Decisions Annotate … Translate … Get involved! Code Sandbox | Discussion Forum | Calls for Action

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Interface: visualization options Name/alias Location Gender women men other Ethnicity Affiliation Other projects Reputation Communication All s Chat Wiki Forums Help forum Design contributions Promotion Use Hours worked Overall Current phase Last week Source code Bug reports Documentation Testing Get involved! Code Sandbox | Discussion Forum | Calls for Action Key Decisions Annotate … Translate …

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Leveraging other tools Many timeline-based code visualization tools Many communication visualization tools Natural language processing techniques, code sandbox algorithms, etc. Our contribution: promoting a “virtuous cycle” between reflection and development

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID History Flow OpenSources Th Augur Related Visualizations

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID History Flow OpenSources Th Augur Related Visualizations

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID History Flow OpenSources Th Augur Related Visualizations

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID History Flow OpenSources Th Augur Related Visualizations

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID “Embedded” Values Software as a social, organizational, technical artifact Expose decisions and controversies Located accountabilities (Suchman 2002) Open-source software as a process – appropriable Expose forms of contribution other than lines of code Design, support, training, usability … Show how diverse contributions help drive the project Promote technological literacy Provide scaffolding for learning about technical systems Encourage both action and reflection Lower the barriers for entry into open-source Encourage more diversity in open-source projects

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Tradeoffs and Emergent Values visibility Reifying categories quantitatively Assigning credit and accountability Who controls reputation? Becomes a tool for surveillance? Could this codify and enforce norms? Rich get richer?

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Stakeholders Project contributors: Overview of project’s key moments and trajectory (linking coding with discussion and decision-making) Easy transition between viewing key decisions and weighing in Software users: Easily accessible recourse for problems, comments, suggestions that come up during use by a diverse audience Explore coding in a “safe” way, consider contributing New volunteers to open-source: Break down the “clubhouse” barrier and make it easier to get involved in myriad ways Benefit to all stakeholders: View software as a dynamic social process, with many aspects of contribution

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Scenario: Anita, a Developer One of the few female developers for Firefox – her team of 9 programs the renderer part of the browser Inundated with project s – filters for ones from close colleagues, focused on low-level details Has ideas for other parts of Firefox, but doesn’t know who to talk to about them Logs hours for project, discovers it’s more than she thought Interface gives her a sense of the trajectory of the project Easily makes suggestions on other teams’ project code, following up on her ideas Sees what the key debates and design decisions are and weighs in without having to read all s A user comments that her team’s part of the project isn’t accessible for the blind, and they change their design

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Scenario: Jérôme, a User High-school history teacher in Bordeaux Loves Firefox and has used it for a long time Has a few frustrations and has thought of some specific suggestions, but doesn’t know who to talk to or how Learns about the Reflective Open Source tool from a student “Lurks” on the forums and learns about the kinds of issues discussed and how they are presented Has a dialogue with designers on the frustrations he’s had Asked to translate some menus into French, accepts Discovers the code sandbox and reads others’ annotations on the source code, tries coding himself

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Feasibility Existing resources: Data: Record of code and revision history (e.g. CVS) Record of written internal communications: , IM, wikis (with revisions), forums Bug reports filed and resolved (e.g. Bugzilla) Personal identifiers (e.g. wiki logins) Tools: Analysis and viz tools for code, communications Natural language processing algorithms Code sandboxing and collaborative coding tools Open-source contributors and users!

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Feasibility Resources to develop: Logistic: Accurately identifying “key” communications Measuring hours worked Metric for contributions in design, training, testing, promotion, impact Programming: Annotation engine Code sandbox interface Social: Willingness to form a joint community

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Future Work Spring graphs or other non-timeline visualizations Making the visualization more evocative?

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Thank you! Questions? Corinna Bath Jelena Karanovic Morgan Ames Stéphane Couture

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID

Open-Source and Cyberculture | VID Interface Aspects of contribution (over time) Empowerment Characteristics of contributors Code sandbox for easy tinkering Forum for comments, annotation, suggestions Contributions needed: translation, design, etc.