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[2121.82 --> 2126.56] So Kara was telling me that your PhD had something to do with the Linux kernel.
[2127.38 --> 2129.46] And I was like, tell me more.
[2129.60 --> 2130.64] And that's all I got so far.
[2130.72 --> 2131.60] So can you tell me more?
[2132.16 --> 2132.76] Yeah, absolutely.
[2133.02 --> 2136.92] So a few years ago, I decided for my midlife crisis, I was going to move to London on a
[2136.92 --> 2139.02] student visa and get a PhD.
[2139.02 --> 2144.00] And so I found a university I liked, the University of Greenwich in London.
[2144.00 --> 2146.68] And they had a center for business network analysis.
[2147.50 --> 2151.96] And I pitched them an idea to do network analysis and study the people networks within the Linux
[2151.96 --> 2152.24] kernel.
[2152.72 --> 2153.66] They said yes.
[2153.86 --> 2154.70] They let me do it.
[2155.20 --> 2159.36] And so I spent three and a half years studying the Linux kernel.
[2159.58 --> 2161.22] And so I gathered a bunch of data.
[2161.24 --> 2161.98] Three and a half years.
[2162.06 --> 2162.42] Yeah, yeah.
[2162.46 --> 2163.58] Because that's what a PhD takes.
[2163.78 --> 2164.36] Okay, wow.
[2164.64 --> 2165.56] Or it can take more.
[2165.66 --> 2166.52] But I did it in three and a half.
[2166.52 --> 2170.16] But yeah, so I looked at collaboration within the Linux kernel.
[2170.54 --> 2173.36] I looked mostly at mailing lists because that's how the Linux kernel works.
[2173.54 --> 2174.86] Like they don't use GitHub.
[2175.06 --> 2175.86] It's not pull requests.
[2176.04 --> 2178.88] It's patch diffs mailed back and forth on the mailing list.
[2179.64 --> 2181.48] So yeah, so I looked at mailing list data.
[2181.78 --> 2184.16] I looked at some source code data as well.
[2184.24 --> 2185.80] But I just did a whole bunch of analysis.
[2186.16 --> 2186.74] What'd you learn?
[2187.62 --> 2188.76] So it's interesting.
[2188.90 --> 2189.22] You talked.
[2189.32 --> 2191.32] I also did interviews with some of the kernel developers.
[2192.26 --> 2196.34] And one of the things that they'll tell you is that time zones don't matter.
[2196.34 --> 2198.12] It doesn't matter where you're located or on the world.
[2199.70 --> 2200.92] It just doesn't matter.
[2201.42 --> 2202.30] And it turns out that's true.
[2202.46 --> 2205.18] Like that's what the data showed was that it didn't, I didn't collaborate.
[2205.30 --> 2207.52] I wouldn't collaborate more with you because we were in the same time zone.
[2208.70 --> 2211.30] You, it just, for whatever reason, it wasn't significant.
[2212.70 --> 2213.62] And it was interesting.
[2213.74 --> 2217.98] Also, one of the things I found interesting is that two people who work at the same organization
[2217.98 --> 2222.04] were also more likely to interact with each other on the mailing lists.
[2222.04 --> 2226.46] Which, which I found, I was surprised by that.
[2226.70 --> 2228.66] But, but I really like it.
[2228.72 --> 2233.42] So I like that companies are interacting in public on the mailing list instead of just,
[2233.52 --> 2236.66] you know, sending each other Slack messages, walking over to somebody's desk and talking
[2236.66 --> 2237.20] about something.
[2237.48 --> 2237.60] Yeah.
[2237.60 --> 2239.74] So I found that, I found that kind of interesting.
[2240.06 --> 2243.40] I wonder if there's something about public mailing lists.
[2243.50 --> 2248.98] I guess maybe they, they allow this research to even take place because a lot of other forms
[2248.98 --> 2253.84] of communication potentially may have not been reachable by you as an outside analyst, right?
[2254.16 --> 2254.74] Yeah, exactly.
[2254.98 --> 2257.84] So, so that's one of the beauties of open source, right?
[2257.86 --> 2260.90] Is that you, you've got all of the data because it's all, it's all in the public.
[2260.90 --> 2265.64] I mean, now, so I do some work within the chaos project and, and outside of the chaos
[2265.64 --> 2266.32] project as well.
[2266.40 --> 2271.32] But I spent a lot of time in the GitHub API and just, you know, pulling, pulling out data
[2271.32 --> 2275.44] on open source projects and looking at, looking at what's what and just trying to get a feel
[2275.44 --> 2277.84] for, for different aspects of the project.
[2279.06 --> 2280.30] Poking and prodding.
[2280.64 --> 2281.14] That's so cool.
[2281.18 --> 2281.48] Poking and prodding.
[2281.68 --> 2281.94] Yes.
[2282.88 --> 2286.12] So chaos, this is community health.
[2286.22 --> 2287.02] Help me out with the rest.
[2287.16 --> 2289.54] Community health analytics for open source software.
[2289.54 --> 2291.82] So chaos with two S's.
[2291.92 --> 2292.64] Two S's.
[2294.08 --> 2294.44] Chaos.
[2294.78 --> 2295.18] Chaos.
[2296.24 --> 2296.64] Yeah.
[2296.74 --> 2299.30] So we basically, I'll give you an overview of what chaos is.
[2299.46 --> 2302.90] We, we are a project and we're focused on kind of, kind of two things.
[2302.90 --> 2304.02] We're focused on metrics.
[2304.02 --> 2308.78] So defining metrics so that we can be, when we talk about a certain, a certain metric
[2308.78 --> 2311.88] that we can be consistent about what it is and have a definition that we can point people
[2311.88 --> 2312.10] to.
[2312.18 --> 2315.88] And we say, when we're talking about, you know, numbers of lines of code, that's, that's what
[2315.88 --> 2316.34] this means.
[2316.34 --> 2321.48] If we're talking about, you know, the bus factor, which is, you know, how many people
[2321.48 --> 2325.46] you have contributing to a project that we measure that kind of the same, same way.
[2325.70 --> 2328.36] So we do metrics definitions and then we do software.
[2328.60 --> 2331.48] So we have two pieces of software within the chaos projects.
[2331.62 --> 2332.84] We have Augur and Grimoire lab.
[2332.84 --> 2337.76] And those are both, they're basically software projects that go out and they gather a bunch
[2337.76 --> 2339.74] of data from various sources.
[2340.06 --> 2346.22] So GitHub, obviously Slack, other, other things that you can, basically anything with an API
[2346.22 --> 2351.66] that you can get access to the data from and allow people to analyze that using software.
[2352.20 --> 2352.52] Very cool.
[2352.52 --> 2358.88] So do you have some sort of a score or how does it, how do you quantify health?
[2359.58 --> 2360.98] That is an excellent question.
[2361.28 --> 2361.94] Thank you.
[2363.64 --> 2365.00] No, we don't have a score.
[2365.20 --> 2365.36] Okay.
[2365.48 --> 2368.44] And I am, I am anti, anti health scores.
[2368.66 --> 2368.86] Okay.
[2368.96 --> 2373.46] So what, what I like to look at when I'm looking at project health is I like to look at trends.
[2373.46 --> 2376.80] So, you know, are you closing more of your pull requests?