A study of Online Discussions in an Open-Source Software Community: Reconstructing Thematic Coherence and Argumentation from Quotation Practices

dc.contributor.authorBarcellini, Flore
dc.contributor.authorDétienne, Françoise
dc.contributor.authorBurkhardt, Jean-Marie
dc.contributor.authorSack, Warren
dc.date.accessioned2017-04-15T12:06:12Z
dc.date.available2017-04-15T12:06:12Z
dc.date.issued2005
dc.description.abstractThis paper presents an analysis of online discussions in Open Source Software (OSS) design. The objective of our work is twofold. First, our research aims to understand and model the dynamics of OSS design that take place in mailing list exchanges. Second, our more long term objective is to develop tools to assist OSS developers to extract and reconstruct design relevant information from previous discussions. 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, threadbased analysis of the (reply-to) links between messages. The advantages of a quotationbased analysis over a thread-based analysis are outlined. Our approach provides a means to analyze argumentation and design rationales and promises a novel means to discover design relevant information in the archives of online discussions. 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.
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/1-4020-3591-8_16
dc.identifier.isbn978-1-4020-3591-3
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherSpringer London, Dordrecht Amsterdam
dc.relation.ispartofCommunities and Technologies: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Communities and Technologies 2005
dc.relation.ispartofseriesCommunities and Technologies
dc.titleA study of Online Discussions in an Open-Source Software Community: Reconstructing Thematic Coherence and Argumentation from Quotation Practices
dc.typeText
gi.citation.endPage320
gi.citation.startPage301
gi.conference.locationMilano, Italy
gi.conference.sessiontitleFull Papers

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