Search and the Crowd: Next-Generation Software Tools

Department of Informatics, UC IrvineSDCL Collaboration LaboratorySoftware Design and

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Search and the Crowd:Next-Generation Software Tools

André van der Hoekandre@ics.uci.edu

Department of Informatics, UC IrvineSDCL Collaboration LaboratorySoftware Design and

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Long, long ago…

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…and then…

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…and then…

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…and now…

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…and now…

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…but what about tomorrow?

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Two projects

• Social-technical code search

• Crowdsourcing

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Google ‘secure key generation Java’

• A sub-page of a longer tutorial that only shows a small portion of the overall code of how to generate a digital signature;

• A sub-page in a longer tutorial for keytool, which is entirely unrelated;• The JavaDoc page for class KeyGenerator (listing methods and their signatures only);• A WikiJava page with code encrypting and decrypting a message, together with some user

comments, most of which are “thank you’s”, though one, interestingly, links to another WikiJava page containing an adaptation of the sample code;

• A java2s.com page that provides an index into seventeen code snippets, each using a different encryption algorithm but otherwise exactly the same;

• The code snippet from the first link of the java2s.com page; • A StackOverflow page asking for help with an exception in using the Java crypto libraries;• A StackOverflow page asking for help with an adaptation to some sample code so the same

key is generated each time;• A StackOverflow page asking for help with a license key (completely unrelated to

programming); and• A StackOverflow page asking how to move a key from one machine to another

Department of Informatics, UC IrvineSDCL Collaboration LaboratorySoftware Design and

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Requirements

• Search for real code, in real use

• Be able to understand the context surrounding the results of the search

• Know the history of the code in terms of how it has been adopted and adapted

• Work with search results directly in the development environment

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Context

Information type Specific data elementStatic information - which project

- which authors- source language- OS

Derived information - code churn- past buggyness- number of authors- test coverage

Code history - projects that adopted the code- how the code was adapted

Adaptation effort - number of edits- number of build/test failures- time estimate

Social environment - network of colleagues- network of friends- recommendations

Social feedback - reputation- tags

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Interface design #1

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Interface design #2

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CodeExchange prototype

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CodeExchange prototype

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Three projects

• Social-technical code search

• Crowdsourcing

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Crowdsourcing: motivation 1

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Crowdsourcing: motivation 2

• Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Lockheed Martin, Department of Homeland Security, Los Alamos National Lab, …

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Crowdsourcing: motivation 2

• Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Lockheed Martin, Department of Homeland Security, Los Alamos National Lab, …

• What if, in a time of crisis, …– …our defenses are not strong enough, and critical software is stolen?– …our adversaries act in ways we did not anticipate, or succeed in

developing new capabilities that eclipse ours?

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Crowdprogramming

• Mobilize unprecedented numbers of people to develop new, complex software capabilities, ultrafast

• Break the traditional notion of a development task and think of work in microtasks

• Fundamentally rethink current development tools, environments, and processes

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Crowdcode

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Crowdcode

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Crowdcode

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Crowdcode

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Crowdcode

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Crowdcode

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Crowdcode

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Key research questions

• What is the software equivalent of a microtask?

• How to coordinate at massive scale?

• How to deal with failure?

• What tool infrastructure is needed?

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Research areas

environment

collaboration design

education

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Research philosophy

• Practical…

• …with a theoretical basis…

• …and (ideally) educational benefits

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Other projects

• Topic location & software ecosystems

• Studying professional software designers

• Software design sketching

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