Global OpenRank Influence

Definition

Global OpenRank Influence is an open-source metric proposed by Dr. Frank Zhao from X-lab. For detailed information on the Global OpenRank Influence algorithm, you can refer to this blog post.

Global OpenRank Influence is a downstream metric of the activity metric, which is used to build a collaboration network between global open source repositories and developers. Its network model is:

Value Proposition

Global OpenRank Influence constructs a collaboration network using the relationships between all global developers and repositories and evaluates them using the OpenRank algorithm. Its core value propositions are:

• Projects with greater influence are more likely to attract more influential developers to deeply participate.
• More deep participation in highly influential projects will make developers more influential.
• The calculation of Global OpenRank partially inherits historical data, reflecting an emphasis on long-termism.

Metric Features

• Since OpenRank is a network metric built based on collaboration relationships, it is more robust compared to statistical metrics. Even without additional processing, OpenRank remains smooth and reliable even in the case of significant data loss.
• Through network relationships, it effectively identifies and filters out highly active nodes caused by automated behavior, preventing them from achieving high rankings due to high activity (e.g., pddemo).
• Due to its emphasis on long-term value, repositories that serve as learning platforms for many junior developers do not receive very high rankings, as the developers participating in these projects are mostly new to the open source world, while senior developers typically do not engage deeply (e.g., first-contributions).

Code

Here is the implementation code.

The underlying Neo4j plugin project used for calculating general OpenRank has been open-sourced. Feel free to use it.

Parameters

The parameters included in the calculation of Global OpenRank are as follows:

Parameter Name	Value	Description	Notes
Repository OpenRank Default Value	$0$	Default value for new repository nodes in the collaboration network	The algorithm assumes that the value in the collaboration network should come from developer activity, so repository nodes do not provide initial value by default.
Developer OpenRank Default Value	$0$	Default value for new developer nodes in the collaboration network	The algorithm assumes that the value in the collaboration network comes from developer activity, so developers do not provide initial value by default.
Developer OpenRank Increment	$\frac{1}{1+e^{0.1*(-x+44.08)}}$	Developer node OpenRank increment in each calculation	All value in the network comes from the OpenRank increment generated by developer activity during the month. 44.08 is the 75th percentile of global developer monthly activity distribution; Using Sigmod here to reduce the influence of low activity developers.
Developer Inheritance Ratio	$0.5$	Developer node dependency ratio on the previous month's OpenRank	The algorithm assumes that, compared to repositories, the value of developers should better reflect long-term value in open source, so developers have a higher dependency on historical value.
Repository Inheritance Ratio	$0.3$	Repository node dependency ratio on the previous month's OpenRank
OpenRank Decay Coefficient	$0.85$	OpenRank decay ratio for inactive developers and repository nodes	All nodes, whether active or not, will experience some decay each month, requiring additional developer activity to maintain the network's value.
OpenRank Minimum Value	$1$	When a node's OpenRank decays below this value, its OpenRank is cleared