Paper Info
Title
Thematic coherence and quotation practices in OSS design-oriented online discussions
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of online discussions in Open Source Software (OSS) design. The objective of our work is to understand and model the dynamics of OSS design that take place in mailing list exchanges. We show how quotation practices can be used to locate design relevant data in discussion archives. OSS developers use quotation as a mechanism to maintain the discursive context. To retrace thematic coherence in the online discussions of a major OSS project, Python, we follow how messages are linked through quotation practices. We compare our quotation-based analysis with a more conventional analysis: a thread-based of the reply-to links between messages. The advantages of a quotation-based analysis over a thread-based analysis are outlined. Our analysis reveals also the links between the social structure and elements in the discussion space and how it shapes influence in the design process.
Year
DOI
Venue
2005
10.1145/1099203.1099237
GROUP
Keywords
Field
DocType
design relevant data,thread-based analysis,quotation practice,oss developer,design process,quotation-based analysis,thematic coherence,major oss project,conventional analysis,oss design,online discussion,social structure
World Wide Web,Mailing list,Computer science,Thematic coherence,Knowledge management,Thread (computing),Human–computer interaction,Engineering design process,Open source software,Python (programming language)
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
1-59593-223-2
12
1.21
References 
Authors
14
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Flore Barcellini111711.68
Françoise Détienne245959.93
Jean-Marie Burkhardt356652.04
Warren Sack422553.88