Mutual assessment in the social programmer ecosystem: an empirical investigation of developer profile aggregators

  • Authors:

  • Leif Singer;Fernando Figueira Filho;Brendan Cleary;Christoph Treude;Margaret-Anne Storey;Kurt Schneider

  • Affiliations:

  • Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany;Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil;University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

The multitude of social media channels that programmers can use to participate in software development has given rise to online developer profiles that aggregate activity across many services. Studying members of such developer profile aggregators, we found an ecosystem that revolves around the social programmer. Developers are assessing each other to evaluate whether other developers are interesting, worth following, or worth collaborating with. They are self-conscious about being assessed, and thus manage their public images. They value passion for software development, new technologies, and learning. Some recruiters participate in the ecosystem and use it to find candidates for hiring; other recruiters struggle with the interpretation of signals and issues of trust. This mutual assessment is changing how software engineers collaborate and how they advance their skills.