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Newcomer Experience

Question: How well does an open source community attend to welcoming newcomers?

Overview

This metric evaluates how effectively an open source community creates a welcoming environment for new members. It encompasses aspects of onboarding, orientation, and ongoing support, allowing projects to measure and understand their approach to newcomer experience.

By analyzing the newcomer experience, projects can:

  • Identify strengths and weaknesses in their welcoming processes
  • Foster a more inclusive and engaging community for all members.
  • Assess how community design enhances the newcomer experience.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of documentation in aiding new contributors.
  • Recognize and support new community members.
  • Identify available resources for newcomers.
  • Highlight areas for improvement in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues affecting newcomers.

Want to Know More?

Click to read more about this metric.

Data Collection Strategies

Quantitative

  • Track subsequent contributions from first-time contributors to assess engagement.
  • Monitor New Contributors Closing Issues to evaluate new contributor activity.

Qualitative

  • Conduct surveys that include newcomer experience questions, such as:
    • Likert scale items (1-x):
      • I feel welcome in the community.
      • I feel like I am making a contribution to the community.
      • I am satisfied with the current community structure.
      • I would like to help more in the community.
      • I have the ability to have an impact in the community.
      • The community treats new members well.
    • Open-ended questions, such as:
      • What does the community lack that you wish it didn’t (e.g., more in-person events, DEI research)?
      • What obstacles did you encounter when starting with the community (e.g., difficulty finding information, meeting times)?
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of:

Filters

The newcomer experience can be filtered by:

Visualizations

None Provided


References

  • Blincoe, K., Sheoran, J., Goggins, S., Petakovic, E., & Damian, D. (2016). Understanding the popular users: Following, affiliation influence and leadership on GitHub. Information and Software Technology, 70, 30–39.
  • Canfora, G., Di Penta, M., Oliveto, R., & Panichella, S. (2012). Who is Going to Mentor Newcomers in Open Source Projects? Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT 20th International Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, 44:1-44:11. https://doi.org/10.1145/2393596.2393647
  • Padala, H. S., Mendez, C., Fronchetti, F., Steinmacher, I., Steine-Hanson, Z., Hilderbrand, C., Horvath, A., Hill, C., Simpson, L., Burnett, M., Gerosa, M., & Sarma, A. (2022). How Gender-Biased Tools Shape Newcomer Experiences in OSS Projects. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 48(1), 241–259. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2020.2984173
  • Steinmacher, I., Graciotto Silva, M. A., Gerosa, M. A., & Redmiles, D. F. (2015). A systematic literature review on the barriers faced by newcomers to open source software projects. Information and Software Technology, 59, 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2014.11.001
  • Steinmacher, I., Wiese, I. S., Conte, T., Gerosa, M. A., & Redmiles, D. (2014). The Hard Life of Open Source Software Project Newcomers. Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, 72–78. https://doi.org/10.1145/2593702.2593704

Contributors

  • Anita Ihuman
  • Matt Germonprez
  • Sean Goggins
  • Ruth Ikegah
  • Katie Schueths
  • Amy Marrich
  • Kristi Progri
  • Elizabeth Barron
  • Dawn Foster
  • Kevin Lumbard
  • Yigakpoa L. Samuel

Additional Information

To edit this metric, please submit a Change Request here.
To reference this metric in software or publications, please use this stable URL: https://chaoss.community/?p=4891