Social Networks during Software Ecosystems’ Death

Abstract

Software Ecosystems (SECO) depend on platforms that serve as environments for developers’ interaction. The SECO may die when the organization that owns the platform does not support the synergy between organizational goals and developers’ expectations. The death results in the suspension of vital activities, such as code development and maintenance, impacting developers who lose work, learning, and experience gained. On the other hand, the responsible corporation loses resources invested in SECO. These signs indicate a SECO death is an important event for the community and should be analyzed. This paper reports a GitHub (GH) study focusing on three web SECOs: AngularJS, PhantomJS, and MomentJS. We analyze metrics based on developer community engagement and collaboration to understand what happens in these SECOs before, during, and after the platform’s death. From the search questions, we found some directions: Users’ recruitment and permanence: Without management and engagement, communities get out of SECOS a few years after your entry, so methods to control and organize the community are needed. Community relationships: The community needs engagement to strengthen and maintain your relationships. Some types of programs are useful methods to engage and encourage users to collaborate between them.