OpenDigger: Data Mining and Information Service System for Open Collaboration Digital Ecosystem

Abstract

The widespread development and adoption of open-source software have built an ecosystem for open development and collaboration. In this ecosystem, individuals and organizations collaborate to create high-quality software that can be used by everyone. Social collaboration platforms like GitHub have further facilitated large-scale, distributed, and fine-grained code collaboration and technical interactions. Countless developers contribute code, review code, report bugs, and propose new features on these platforms every day, generating a massive amount of valuable behavioral data from the open collaboration process. This paper presents the design and implementation of OpenDigger, a comprehensive data mining and information service system for open collaboration in the digital ecosystem. The goal is to build a data infrastructure for the open-source domain and promote the continuous development of the open-source ecosystem. The metrics and analysis models in the OpenDigger system can mine various knowledge from the macro to micro levels in the open-source digital ecosystem. Through a unified information service interface, OpenDigger provides various open-source information services to different user groups, including governments, enterprises, foundations, and individuals. As a novel information service system in the open-source ecosystem, this paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the metrics and models in OpenDigger through several real-world scenarios, including products, tools, applications, and courses. It showcases the significant and diverse practical applications of the metrics and models in both algorithmic and business aspects.