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Cited by 25Open Source Software InnovationsKnowledge Management and SharingSoftware Engineering Techniques and Practices

Do I Belong? Modeling Sense of Virtual Community Among Linux Kernel Contributors

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Trinkenreich, Bianca, Stol, Klaas-Jan, Sarma, Anita, German, Daniel M., Gerosa, Marco A., Steinmacher, Igor·2023·2023 IEEE/ACM 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)
DOI 10.1109/icse48619.2023.00038
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Abstract

The sense of belonging to a community is a basic human need that impacts an individual's behavior, long-term engagement, and job satisfaction, as revealed by research in disciplines such as psychology, healthcare, and education. Despite much research on how to retain developers in Open Source Software (OSS) projects and other virtual, peer-production communities, there is a paucity of research investigating what might contribute to a sense of belonging in these communities. To that end, we develop a theoretical model that seeks to understand the link between OSS developer motives and a Sense of Virtual Community (SVC). We test the model with a dataset collected in the Linux Kernel developer community (N=225), using structural equation modeling techniques. Our results for this case study show that intrinsic motivations (social or hedonic motives) are positively associated with a sense of virtual community, but living in an authoritative country and being paid to contribute can reduce the sense of virtual community. Based on these results, we offer suggestions for open source projects to foster a sense of virtual community, with a view to retaining contributors and Improving projects' sustainability.

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  • Governance structures influence contributor retention, diversity, and resilience.

    “The governance structures influence contributor retention, diversity, and resilience [20, 50, 54].”

    From Governance in Practice: How Open Source Projects Define and Document Roles (2026) · cites this paper as [54]

    The Implications for Research section suggests that different governance models might affect sense of virtual community, while the Discussion links community practices to retaining contributors. The paper also reports lower belonging among gender-minority contributors, but it does not establish that governance structures influence retention or diversity, and it does not assess resilience. No page numbers are provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Contributors' sense of belonging and identification with the community is a stronger predictor of retention than technical proficiency alone.

    “Contributors' sense of belonging and identification with the community was evidenced as a stronger predictor of retention than technical proficiency alone [54].”

    From Governance in Practice: How Open Source Projects Define and Document Roles (2026) · cites this paper as [54]

    The Introduction and the ‘Sense of Virtual Community’ section link belonging and community identification to contributors’ commitment and potential retention. But the paper models factors associated with sense of virtual community, not retention; it does not show that belonging predicts retention more strongly than technical proficiency does (page numbers unavailable in our copy). (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Trinkenreich, B., Stol, K.-J., Sarma, A., German, D. M., Gerosa, M. A., & Steinmacher, I.
Affiliations
  • Northern Arizona University (US)
  • University College Cork (IE)
  • Oregon State University (US)
  • University of Victoria,Victoria,Canada
ORCID
Venue
2023 IEEE/ACM 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)
Publisher
IEEE
Published
2023-05
Pages
319-331
ISSN
0270-5257 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1109/icse48619.2023.00038
OpenAlex
W4384302884
Cited by
25
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5
FWCI
6.73
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings (ICSE-Companion) (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
Funders
National Science Foundation (1900903,1901031,2236198,2235601)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Open Source Software Innovations
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Knowledge Management and Sharing
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
Keywords
sense of virtual community, open source software, Linux kernel, developer motivation, intrinsic motivation, contributor retention, developer engagement, peer production, project sustainability

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