From: Jaap Kabbedijk Date: 2012-04-06T04:13:07+09:00 Subject: Analysis of the RubyGems community Utrecht University performed an analysis of the Ruby ecosystem using data from RubyGems.org. The analysis is quite extensive and worth a read from all within the Ruby community. The publication can be downloaded for free through this URL: http://jkabbedijk.nl/?q=node/5 The abstract of the paper is as follows: Software products are part of a larger network of products, suppliers and partners, called a software ecosystem, working together in order to provide functionality for the users and generate profit for the vendors. Not much is known about the characteristics and relationships within such a software ecosystem. This paper presents an overview of the open source Ruby ecosystem and lists its elements, characteristics, descriptives, roles, cliques and relationships. Data is gathered using the Git decentralized source code management system and is analyzed using social network and statistical analysis techniques. The analysis shows that the Ruby ecosystem exists out of a couple highly distinctive roles developers fulfil. It also shows that, within the Ruby ecosystem, only a small `core' of approximately 10% of all developers and gems (Ruby packages) are dominant within the ecosystem. At this point in time, it appears that the rails community would benefit from motivating current developers to work together more, instead of supporting new developers or gems in order to get a healthy ecosystem. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.