Supporting research on OSS security, AI-powered developer tools, and activity on GitHub

[pcihon]

Earlier this year, we announced our interest in supporting research that measures the economic value of OSS. We’ve enjoyed connecting with many researchers doing or planning interesting research in this area. We look forward to many collaborations in this space.

We’re interested in supporting research in additional topic areas, with some illustrative questions:

1. Open Source Software and Cybersecurity. Policymakers around the world are taking note, and there’s a clear need for research to inform policymaking. How do we value the security of software dependencies? How do we measure the impact of cybersecurity interventions in the OSS ecosystem?
2. AI-Powered Developer Tools. The advent of AI-for-software-development tools like GitHub Copilot raises many questions about their impact. What will their effects be in the labor market? How may skills or tasks associated with software development change? To what extent will this impact who becomes a developer and how they learn computer science? What might we learn from previous waves of software innovation that brought changes in productivity and demand, e.g., the emergence of compilers, advent of high-level programming languages, and the rise of data scientists?
3. GitHub Activity. GitHub is the home of global software development: how might we understand its global impact? Topics of interest include measuring international collaboration, assessing the impact of GitHub for educational use, and understanding the impact of copyright regulation and other mandated content take-downs on the software ecosystem.

If you’re interested in possibly pursuing research in these areas and would like to discuss data or funding opportunities, please get in touch in this issue or by emailing [email protected]. If you’re interested in understanding what types of data GitHub may be able to share, please review our new data dictionary.

[natashawatkins]

Hi @pcihon, I emailed but received "Message bounced due to organizational settings."