Speaker: Dr. John McLevey
Title: Collaborating On-Line: An Analysis of Communication Networks for Linux Kernel Developers
Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2014 – 2-4pm
Location: M3-2134
A recording of the lecture can be found below.
In conjunction with Dr. John McLevey’s talk, WICI is hosting its first challenge of the 2014-2015 year. We’re looking for short essays (1000-1500 words) about how the structure of communication and collaboration networks might shape the flow of innovative ideas in open source communities. This challenge is open to students–undergraduate or graduate–at any accredited university. Please visit this page for more details.
Abstract
How do geographically-dispersed, Internet-enabled, and cross-sectoral collaborations shape the development of technical systems? In this talk, I analyze a whole communication network of Linux developers from January 1 2013 — June 31 2014. I compare the structure of this real world network with two models grounded in theory and substantive literature: small world, and structurally cohesive. I show that the developer network is structurally-cohesive, with 2-4 densely connected cores consistently occupying the center of the network from month to month. I discuss the substantive and theoretical implications of this research for understanding open source development and the collaborative design of large technical systems.
Presenter Bio
John McLevey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Knowledge Integration, and Sociology and Legal Studies. Dr. McLevey earned his PhD in Sociology from McMaster University. His work has been recently been published by Canadian Review of Sociology, and is forthcoming from Social Studies of Science.
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