Joining and Socialization in Open Source Women's Groups: An Exploratory Study of KDE-Women

This research investigates how women’s groups facilitate people’s participation in the open source community by examining the joining activities in KDE Women. Leveraging literatures on group membership roles and socialization, and adopting a qualitative research method, a joining script of different kinds of participants was identified. It is found that members developed organizational and leadership skills and were engaged in defining group norms and values upon joining KDE Women. This study extends prior literature on socialization and provides better understanding of women’s groups in open source.

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