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Open Source Software for Social Good, or OSS4SG, refers to open-source projects that aim to solve social problems and create positive impact for society. Because these projects depend on people contributing over time, the researchers wanted to understand how contributors participate in them and what helps or hinders long-term involvement. They analyzed more than 2.2 million commits, which are saved changes to code, made by 5,860 contributors to OSS4SG and other open-source projects on GitHub. They found that people who contribute to OSS4SG usually contribute less overall and stay active for shorter periods than contributors to general open-source projects, but when they are active, their work tends to be more regular. The study also found that contributors from developing regions, such as Africa, and women were more likely to begin contributing to and keep contributing to OSS4SG, even though their overall contribution levels were lower than those of others. Based on these findings, the authors suggest ways to better support contributors and grow OSS4SG projects so they can have a greater social impact and help make open source more inclusive and sustainable.
Fig. 1.
Data Collection Process. Starting with 210 seed projects, the process results in a comprehensive dataset containing contributors鈥� complete historical commits and demographic details.