There are many developers on Github, following influential developers is highly beneficial because they usually spread promising repositories. You might agree the influential developers have the powers to promote repositories on Github by starring, their followers may star successively. This survey employed the well-known PageRank algorithm, the data of watching events from the GitHub Archive and users' following relationships from the Github API to mine the most influential developers on Github.

The result is based on limited data (2014/1/1 ~ 2014/8/26) and not on behalf of Github. The rank might be changed in case the collected data increased.

• Top 25 Influential Developers in General
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Python
• Top 25 Influential Developers in JavaScript
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Go
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Ruby
• Top 25 Influential Developers in PHP
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Perl
• Top 25 Influential Developers in CSS
• Top 25 Influential Developers in C
• Top 25 Influential Developers in C++
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Java
• Top 25 Influential Developers in C#
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Objective-C
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Swift
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Haskell
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Scala
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Clojure
• Top 25 Influential Developers in Erlang

The watching events data were collected from the GitHub Archive from 2014/1/1 to 2014/8/26, the repository's name, the actor's name and the event issued time were extracted respectively. The users' following relationships were collected from the Github API. To collect the data, issuing python task_grab_watch_events. Please make sure the MongoDB has already started, this task will create a database named github.

Since the task consumes the Github API, please add robots' login names and passwords respectively in the config.py under the same directory.

To build graphs, please make sure the watch events have already collected to MongoDB and issue python task_gen_events_graphs. Every repository's watching event can be represented a 3-tuple vertex likes (event's created time, repository's name, actor's name), each vertex has directed edges with its following users' watching events formed vertices who are also stargazers of the repository but prior to the user, in the other words, a graph represents the cascade of a repository's watching events. The whole Github's repositories' watching events form many graphs. In addition, the owner of the repository also has edges from the followers who starred the repository to capture the influence of open source.

Suppose the actor has less possibility to influence followers by time, to diminish the influence by time, the edges are weighted by a Fibonacci function, 1.0 / fib(interval + 2), the fib is the Fibonacci series from 0 and the unit of interval is a day. Longer the events' interval, lesser the connection is between events.

Issue python task_cal_pagerank then python task_cal_influence. We can score the influence among users by PageRank since the cascade of watching events can be represented as a directed graph, and so forth we can get the influence of a user by combining scores which are the user got from involved graphs. To reduce noise, the score equals the unit 1 were removed before combining.

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm and it assigns a numerical weight to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. In this survey, the elements are of the watching events and the links are of the following relationship among actors.

Since the original PageRank is specific to a single graph, we have to find a way to combine PageRanks from multiple graphs, that is, the PageRank have to be normalized. The PageRank can be normalized by dividing the original PageRank by the least PageRank. There is a gentle introduction to the Normalized PageRank.

Besides of the ranking in general, we can consider ranking by language since Github API can provide the metadata which includes the language of repository, and then we can only display the PageRank algorithm on selected repositories which are of the same language. However, the result might not very make sense due to the naive classification of languages.

To gain better performance, using python task_gen_events_graphs-cal_pagerank-cal_influence.py for integrating the processes from task_gen_events_graphs to task_cal_influence.

Our goal is measuring the total influence of the star, and the maximum of a user's direct influencing stars is (starred + repos) * followers where the repos stands for the user's number of public repository, so the products can help to analyze the performance of our method. To make the histogram more readable, the products are square root of product indeed. To get this histogram, issuing python task_draw_histogram General after calculating the influence. According to the histogram, the gradient of the products is falling, the PageRank method works!

Evolving graph animation captures the time series of watching events and their connections, we can then analyze the compactness of a repository's community by observing the forming clusters from animation. The animation was made of one frame per hour of the timeline, collapsing the gap of no event. To make the animation, issuing python task_draw_graphs {repository's full name}.

The popular repository josephmisiti/awesome-machine-learning was created at 2014-07-15T19:11:19Z, so the animation can cover its growth. The clusters in the graph might be communities, we can find that there is a main cluster in the center, growing up with the passage of time. There are some frames that most parts of the graph grew up simultaneously perhaps from spread outside the Github.

The sebyddd/YouAreAwesome was found because of its strange presentation. It was created at 2014-08-18T18:50:57Z with an accompanying post How to get #1 trending on GitHub or ”GitHub’s security flaws”, according to the post, the stargazers were fabrications and was bursting at the time. We can observe some clues from the animation: the animation is much shorter than josephmisiti/awesome-machine-learning beacuse of the burst, and it lacks scattered clusters due to the stargazers were fabrications without natural connections.

The Venn diagram of top 25 in C++ and Javascript has an order 6 intersection because many repositories for NodeJS were created by C++, one can review the developers in the intersection to realize the fact. The intersection contains mcollina, jeresig, sindresorhus, hughsk, andrew and visionmedia.

• Python 2.7
• MongoDB 2.6
• PyMongo 2.7
• PyGithub 1.25
• graph-tool 2.2
• matplotlib 1.4
• matplotlib-venn
• Gevent
• urlgrabber
• lxml
• underscore.py
• funcy
• more-itertools
• arrow

1. visionmedia
2. sindresorhus
3. mattt
4. steipete
5. daimajia
6. andrew
7. JakeWharton
8. Trinea
9. substack
10. onevcat
11. lexrus
12. stormzhang
13. turingou
14. myell0w
15. youxiachai
16. addyosmani
17. igrigorik
18. jeresig
19. MatthewMueller
20. ManuelPeinado
21. juliangruber
22. mattn
23. azu
24. romaonthego
25. xhzengAIB

1. kennethreitz
2. mitsuhiko
3. rochacbruno
4. avelino
5. jezdez
6. lepture
7. visionmedia
8. pydanny
9. saghul
10. vinta
11. clowwindy
12. dahlia
13. fengmk2
14. tangqiaoboy
15. jd
16. numbbbbb
17. osantana
18. ionelmc
19. jefftriplett
20. tonyseek
21. Zulko
22. reduxionist
23. turingou
24. ellisonleao
25. dcramer

1. visionmedia
2. sindresorhus
3. substack
4. turingou
5. andrew
6. MatthewMueller
7. juliangruber
8. jeresig
9. addyosmani
10. maxogden
11. paulirish
12. studiomohawk
13. azu
14. cheeaun
15. feross
16. mathiasbynens
17. mafintosh
18. TooTallNate
19. yyx990803
20. mcollina
21. fengmk2
22. hughsk
23. ianstormtaylor
24. igrigorik
25. hakimel

1. visionmedia
2. mattn
3. dgryski
4. Unknwon
5. codegangsta
6. rakyll
7. daaku
8. igrigorik
9. bradfitz
10. c4milo
11. mitchellh
12. astaxie
13. lunny
14. spf13
15. mreiferson
16. andrew
17. philips
18. crosbymichael
19. fatih
20. samuel
21. codahale
22. pengwynn
23. michaelhood
24. armon
25. takuan-osho

1. ankane
2. mattt
3. andrew
4. JuanitoFatas
5. igrigorik
6. goshakkk
7. hsbt
8. amatsuda
9. chloerei
10. josh
11. flyerhzm
12. huacnlee
13. fgrehm
14. futoase
15. defunkt
16. rkh
17. parkr
18. joker1007
19. ryanb
20. pengwynn
21. mitchellh
22. kenn
23. r7kamura
24. maccman
25. takkanm

1. GrahamCampbell
2. sebastianbergmann
3. fabpot
4. Ocramius
5. vojtech-dobes
6. msurguy
7. barryvdh
8. JeffreyWay
9. philsturgeon
10. nikic
11. laracasts
12. lsmith77
13. panique
14. phalcon
15. Zauberfisch
16. taylorotwell
17. dg
18. igorw
19. pminnieur
20. harikt
21. cfoellmann
22. Ph3nol
23. pippinsplugins
24. jasonlewis
25. Anahkiasen

1. tokuhirom
2. kraih
3. miyagawa
4. moznion
5. DHowett
6. visionmedia
7. turingou
8. agentzh
9. lulzlabs
10. kazeburo
11. ingydotnet
12. skx
13. brendangregg
14. gugod
15. jberger
16. sjackman
17. oetiker
18. rjbs
19. pjf
20. naoya
21. goccy
22. hirose31
23. mattn
24. wireghoul
25. jonreid

1. mdo
2. sindresorhus
3. addyosmani
4. andrew
5. zenorocha
6. mrmrs
7. visionmedia
8. sahat
9. turingou
10. jxnblk
11. gabrielecirulli
12. jeresig
13. umaar
14. daneden
15. csswizardry
16. mreiferson
17. sofish
18. youxiachai
19. necolas
20. daimajia
21. vitorbritto
22. studiomohawk
23. goshakkk
24. joewalnes
25. cheeaun

1. torvalds
2. cloudwu
3. visionmedia
4. mattn
5. antirez
6. julycoding
7. igrigorik
8. jwerle
9. c9s
10. steipete
11. laruence
12. andrew
13. huangz1990
14. phalcon
15. clowwindy
16. cloudhead
17. mattt
18. saghul
19. r-lyeh
20. winocm
21. tmm1
22. orangeduck
23. Constellation
24. pengwynn
25. Trinea

1. jeresig
2. rogerwang
3. r-lyeh
4. osteele
5. zcbenz
6. jwerle
7. sindresorhus
8. fabpot
9. satoruhiga
10. andrew
11. ideawu
12. BYVoid
13. hughsk
14. vczh
15. hij1nx
16. chenshuo
17. visionmedia
18. kylemcdonald
19. patriciogonzalezvivo
20. youxiachai
21. mcollina
22. creationix
23. eugeneware
24. JacksonTian
25. indutny

1. daimajia
2. JakeWharton
3. Trinea
4. stormzhang
5. ManuelPeinado
6. jgilfelt
7. dodola
8. jpardogo
9. youxiachai
10. kyze8439690
11. chrisbanes
12. mcxiaoke
13. soarcn
14. flavienlaurent
15. baoyongzhang
16. sd6352051
17. snowdream
18. castorflex
19. hotchemi
20. romannurik
21. pedrovgs
22. vbauer
23. nostra13
24. RomainPiel
25. johnkil

1. shanselman
2. tugberkugurlu
3. jamesmontemagno
4. paulcbetts
5. prime31
6. madskristensen
7. robconery
8. filipw
9. keijiro
10. leekelleher
11. Haacked
12. pierceboggan
13. Cheesebaron
14. migueldeicaza
15. ayende
16. davidfowl
17. mythz
18. yreynhout
19. Rohansi
20. Chandu
21. adamralph
22. neuecc
23. punker76
24. UnityPatterns
25. daimajia

1. steipete
2. mattt
3. myell0w
4. onevcat
5. lexrus
6. xhzengAIB
7. romaonthego
8. jessesquires
9. iiiyu
10. krzysztofzablocki
11. jamztang
12. supermarin
13. nicklockwood
14. soffes
15. neonichu
16. cyndibaby905
17. 0xced
18. indragiek
19. EvgenyKarkan
20. chroman
21. mps
22. nst
23. tangqiaoboy
24. andreamazz
25. jpsim

1. mattt
2. lexrus
3. onevcat
4. iiiyu
5. soffes
6. robb
7. romaonthego
8. krzysztofzablocki
9. jspahrsummers
10. indragiek
11. AshFurrow
12. neonichu
13. tangqiaoboy
14. hollance
15. chroman
16. qiaoxueshi
17. myell0w
18. rnystrom
19. JacksonTian
20. fastred
21. jessesquires
22. jakemarsh
23. andreamazz
24. jpsim
25. youxiachai

1. sdiehl
2. ekmett
3. puffnfresh
4. bos
5. bitemyapp
6. jfischoff
7. cartazio
8. cloudhead
9. darinmorrison
10. CodeBlock
11. rehno-lindeque
12. chrisdone
13. jgm
14. egonSchiele
15. ocharles
16. TimothyKlim
17. rockymadden
18. Gabriel439
19. feuerbach
20. vincenthz
21. copumpkin
22. adinapoli
23. maxpow4h
24. jonsterling
25. Heather

1. ryanlecompte
2. xuwei-k
3. jboner
4. lihaoyi
5. softprops
6. paulp
7. non
8. ktoso
9. krasserm
10. puffnfresh
11. takezoe
12. milessabin
13. mateiz
14. rockymadden
15. dlwh
16. TimothyKlim
17. mandubian
18. tototoshi
19. mrdoob
20. ornicar
21. hexx
22. rxin
23. jamieowen
24. jsuereth
25. pathikrit

1. swannodette
2. yogthos
3. ztellman
4. ptaoussanis
5. weavejester
6. mikera
7. michalmarczyk
8. aphyr
9. nathanmarz
10. sritchie
11. noprompt
12. cgrand
13. brandonbloom
14. mkhoeini
15. technomancy
16. mpenet
17. stuartsierra
18. cemerick
19. magnars
20. niwibe
21. zcaudate
22. sgrove
23. fogus
24. mkremins
25. michaelklishin

1. ferd
2. 5HT
3. DavidAlphaFox
4. msantos
5. benoitc
6. jj1bdx
7. saa
8. eproxus
9. jlouis
10. RJ
11. kocolosk
12. nslater
13. rvirding
14. knutin
15. proger
16. mokevnin
17. voluntas
18. yrashk
19. Licenser
20. s1n4
21. artemeff
22. uwiger
23. choptastic
24. lpgauth
25. cmeiklejohn