4.2.5 Outreach

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Repository Mining Approach for Outreach

This issue tracks the implementation of repository mining approaches for this metric.

Tasks

• New Contributor Tracking: Measurement of the number of new contributors making their first contribution to a project across key community interactions, including code commits, issue creation, pull requests, and code reviews. Analysis tracks new contributors by time period to identify trends and changes in project engagement, providing leading indicators of community growth or decline
• Contributor Retention Analysis: Comprehensive tracking of contributor progression from first-time to casual to repeat contributors. First-time contributors are those making their initial contribution; casual contributors may be defined as those with a low number of commits (one commit, fewer than five commits, or project-specific thresholds); repeat contributors demonstrate sustained engagement over multiple contribution cycles. Analysis includes cohort analysis to understand what percentage of new contributors return for second, third, and subsequent contributions, and identifies critical drop-off points in the contributor journey
• Contributor Lifecycle Mapping: Longitudinal analysis tracking individual contributor trajectories from initial discovery through sustained participation, identifying factors that predict successful transition from one-time to regular contributors. Measurement of the time intervals between contributions and patterns that precede contributor departure or increased engagement
• Contribution Type Diversity: Assessment of the variety of contribution types beyond code, including documentation, community management, event participation, mentorship, translation, design work, and other non-code contributions. A variety of contribution types demonstrates project maturity and provides multiple pathways for community participation, reducing barriers to entry and increasing accessibility for diverse skill sets
• Good First Issue Effectiveness: Analysis of issues labeled for newcomers (e.g., "good first issue," "newcomer," "help wanted") and their impact on new contributor attraction. Monitoring includes the frequency of issue creation, resolution rates, time-to-claim metrics, and correlation between good first issue availability and new contributor onboarding success. Assessment of whether these issues lead to subsequent contributions beyond the initial engagement
• External Event Participation: Tracking of project representation at conferences, workshops, meetups, and training events. Evidence includes speaker participation at domain-specific and general software engineering conferences, booth presence at community events, workshop facilitation, conference sponsorship, and organization of project-specific gatherings. Correlation analysis between event participation and spikes in new contributor activity
• Training Material Integration: Detection of project inclusion in educational content across platforms, including Coursera, edX, institutional repositories, GitHub Classroom materials, university curricula, professional training programs, and bootcamp curricula. Assessment includes tracking mentions in course syllabi, tutorial creation by community members, and integration into established training pathways for the project's domain
• Onboarding Infrastructure Assessment: Evaluation of onboarding resources, including getting-started guides, contribution pathways for different skill levels and interests, mentorship program structure and activity, and documentation specifically targeting new contributors. Analysis of onboarding issue template usage and effectiveness of automated onboarding workflows

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