Utrecht University performed an analysis of the Ruby ecosystem using
data from RubyGems.org. The analysis is quite extensive and worth a read
from all within the Ruby community. The publication can be downloaded
for free through this URL: Jaap Kabbedijk - [email protected]
The abstract of the paper is as follows:
Software products are part of a larger network of products, suppliers
and partners, called a software ecosystem, working together in order to
provide functionality for the users and generate profit for the vendors.
Not much is known about the characteristics and relationships within
such a software ecosystem. This paper presents an overview of the open
source Ruby ecosystem and lists its elements, characteristics,
descriptives, roles, cliques and relationships. Data is gathered using
the Git decentralized source code management system and is analyzed
using social network and statistical analysis techniques. The analysis
shows that the Ruby ecosystem exists out of a couple highly distinctive
roles developers fulfil. It also shows that, within the Ruby ecosystem,
only a small `core’ of approximately 10% of all developers and gems
(Ruby packages) are dominant within the ecosystem. At this point in
time, it appears that the rails community would benefit from motivating
current developers to work together more, instead of supporting new
developers or gems in order to get a healthy ecosystem.