Investigating the Effect of Funding and Governance Models on GitHub Development Activities of Open-Source Software Projects

Abstract

Open-Source Software (OSS) projects allow developers to access, modify, and distribute source code freely, allowing cumulative aid in development. Examples of OSS projects are NFTs, Decentralized Finance projects, Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, and other DApps whose code can be accessed in their respective GitHub Repository. Despite the significant role OSS projects hold in the tech industry, the impact of different funding and governance models on GitHub development activities remains majorly underexplored. This study addresses this gap by analyzing 500+ OSS projects to understand how these models influence project success as measured by development activity on GitHub. Using Google Big Query and data cleaning techniques, extensive GitHub data from 2013 to 2024 was processed for each project, including repository information, activity dates, actor IDs, and details on what activities occurred. We collected additional data on governance tokens, associated communities, decentralization details, token reserves, DAOs, and governance model changes by researching through its GitHub, personal websites, and CoinMarketCap page. The three main components researched were project type, the funding model, and the governance mode. All information found is key to determine what correlation exists between funding and governance models on GitHub development activities of Open-Source Software Projects.

This abstract is part of a collection in which the overarching large project under Dr. Jiasun Li was subdivided into discrete critical tasks that were carried out by multiple individuals or smaller teams. Abstracts in this collection read similarly given the shared project goals, but represent distinct tasks completed by the abstract authors towards finalizing the described analysis.