The network of participants in open source projects can be mapped and visualized using social network analysis. This visualization can identify the key participants involved in various clusters that make up the project, providing a map of how individuals are collaborating to fulfill tasks. The information can be used to identify key members such as knowledge brokers, help better integrate peripheral members, and facilitate locating experts or possessors of relevant tacit knowledge. I will discuss a case study of the TikiWiki open source community comparing (1) the traditional approach of analyzing mailing list exchanges, and (2) a more interesting analysis of the wiki used by the community.
2. Wiki Network Characteristics
Wiki – pages Wiki – topics
Avg. no. of connections 6.1 10.6
Average path length 2.0 1.8
Network density 0.13 0.22
Network centralization 0.56 0.68
Clustering coefficient 0.68 0.81
Clustering coef. of random N. 0.14 0.22
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