an empirical study on the risks of using off-the-shelf techniques for processing mailing list data

An Empirical Study on the Risks of Using Off-the-Shelf Techniques for Processing Mailing List Data

Nicolas Bettenburg, Emad Shihab, Ahmed E. HassanQueen’s University, Canada

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Development Repositories

SOURCE CODE

COMMUNICATION ARCHIVES

BUG DATABASES

2

Development Repositories

SOURCE CODE

COMMUNICATION ARCHIVES

BUG DATABASES

3

The Importance of Mailing List Archives

• Email popular form of communication

• Mailing lists to distribute messages

• Messages contain valuable information

• Discussions of source code

• Development decisions

• Error reports

• User support requests

4

Mining the Mailing Lists of23 Open-Source Projects

• Summarizing developer mailing lists

• Using off-the-shelf tools

• Data from around 500,000 emails

• Unexpected results from experiments

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scatter !! things !! info !! mlw !! bool !! palloc(bufsize); !! symlinks !! configuration !! - !! looks !! -C !! } !! getopt(argc, !! specifies

!! Nov !! --- !! && !! NULL, !! reasonable. !! -r !! argv, !! Added !! reasons !! A1 !! http://www.gnupg.org !! postmaster !! * !! == !! live !! wrote

!! > !! break; !! get !! SIGNATURE !! -----END !! != !! symlinks. !! command !! + while !! wrote: !! different !! EOF) !! ___ !! allows

!! char !! 1F !! file !! postgres !! Dec !! 43 !! DataDir, !! pg_hba.conf !! 69 !! + SetDataDir(potential_DataDir); !! convenient !! + } !! put !! GnuPG

!! -- !! 093E !! stuff !! -D !! switch !! NULL !! +extern !! recursion !! admin !! setting !! 5B !! Version: !! @@ !! system !! issues !! -u !! /

path/default.conf !! see !! overides !! http://xyzzy.dhs.org/~drew/ !! + /* !! (char !! -p !! sizeof(char); !! 19 !! if !! /etc/postgresql !! directory !! note !!

\"datadir\" !! running !! PGP !! (GNU/Linux) !! \"hbaconfig\" !! file. !! ((opt !! 2001 !! 72 !! Apache !! way !! NULL; !! options !! CONF_FILE);

!! bits !! simple !! databases !! */ !! servers !! multiple !! /* !! share !! \"A:a:B:b:c:D:d:Fh:ik:lm:MN:no:p:Ss-:\")) !! blow !! + !! DataDir); !! \"To !! method !!

#include !! *) !! vendors !! E3 !! people !! + { !! 08:27:06 !! 3B !! 16 !! +# !! explicit !! debian !! data !! = !! +char !!

malloc(strlen(DataDir) !! +++ !! !! v1.0.6 !! having !! 56 !! /etc. !! 613-389-5481 !! extern !! case !! error !! strlen(CONFIG_FILENAME) !! Comment: !! line !!

diff !! easier !! certs !! given !! { !!

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scatter !! things !! info !! mlw !! bool !! palloc(bufsize); !! symlinks !! configuration !! - !! looks !! -C !! } !! getopt(argc, !! specifies

!! Nov !! --- !! && !! NULL, !! reasonable. !! -r !! argv, !! Added !! reasons !! A1 !! http://www.gnupg.org !! postmaster !! * !! == !! live !! wrote

!! > !! break; !! get !! SIGNATURE !! -----END !! != !! symlinks. !! command !! + while !! wrote: !! different !! EOF) !! ___ !! allows

!! char !! 1F !! file !! postgres !! Dec !! 43 !! DataDir, !! pg_hba.conf !! 69 !! + SetDataDir(potential_DataDir); !! convenient !! + } !! put !! GnuPG

!! -- !! 093E !! stuff !! -D !! switch !! NULL !! +extern !! recursion !! admin !! setting !! 5B !! Version: !! @@ !! system !! issues !! -u !! /

path/default.conf !! see !! overides !! http://xyzzy.dhs.org/~drew/ !! + /* !! (char !! -p !! sizeof(char); !! 19 !! if !! /etc/postgresql !! directory !! note !!

\"datadir\" !! running !! PGP !! (GNU/Linux) !! \"hbaconfig\" !! file. !! ((opt !! 2001 !! 72 !! Apache !! way !! NULL; !! options !! CONF_FILE);

!! bits !! simple !! databases !! */ !! servers !! multiple !! /* !! share !! \"A:a:B:b:c:D:d:Fh:ik:lm:MN:no:p:Ss-:\")) !! blow !! + !! DataDir); !! \"To !! method !!

#include !! *) !! vendors !! E3 !! people !! + { !! 08:27:06 !! 3B !! 16 !! +# !! explicit !! debian !! data !! = !! +char !!

malloc(strlen(DataDir) !! +++ !! !! v1.0.6 !! having !! 56 !! /etc. !! 613-389-5481 !! extern !! case !! error !! strlen(CONFIG_FILENAME) !! Comment: !! line !!

diff !! easier !! certs !! given !! { !!

Funny, !! fiat !! configuration !! PGDATA !! impose !! them. !! opinion !! keys !! long !! environment !! agrees ! resides. !! start!! variable. !! normal !!

organize !! single !! creating !! exactly !! postgresql !! original !! stuff !! described !! (My !! say !! \"pg\" !! BSD !! fruity !! me, !! real !! little !! want

!! $PGDATA/; !! sort !! specifies !! certs !! data !! Tux !! looks !! policy, !! '/etc/pgsql/pg_hba.conf' !! servers !! maintain !! (This

!! = !! week !! scattered !! patch !! layout !! linux, !! '/u01/postgres' !! give !! path !! all. !! file. !! live !! belongs, !! stuff, !! result !! way !! -p

!! sux. !! Apache !! specified, !! hey, !! reasonable. !! reasons !! it. !! damn !! options: !! utterly !! line, !! files !! consistency !! datadir !!

debian. !! method !! considering !! always. !! options !! symlinks. !! different !! 5434 !! /etc/pgsql/mydb.conf !! delivers !! me. !! /etc/

apache. !! /etc/postgresql !! overides !! things !! using, !! symlinking !! convenient !! able !! hbaconfig !! /path/default.conf !! command !! controllable !! modssl !! undesired !! /path/name3" !! ","I !! Similarly, !! ObFlame: !! And, !!

postmaster !! Config !! directory !! discussion !! packager !! ass. !! really !! machine !! subdirectory !! distros !! bet !!

package. !! devil !! sense !! hbaconfig !! /etc/nessusd. !! logical. !! behavior !! crypto !! Debian !! set, !! 5432 !! as: !! share !! line

!! Ross !! having !! kinda !! see !! forced !! people !! pg_hba.conf ! !! pgdatadir !! /path/name2 !! guess !! get !! own. !! nice !! /path/name1 !! simple !! setting !! rational !!

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While mining Mailing Lists of23 Open-Source Projects

• Don’t treat mail archives as textual data

• Changing technologies

• Up to 98% of messages contain noise

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While mining Mailing Lists of23 Open-Source Projects

• Don’t treat mail archives as textual data

• Changing technologies

• Up to 98% of messages contain noise

Additional processing and cleaning needed!

8

From [email protected] Wed Jan 21 08:11:26 1998Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 12:50:44 -0500 (EST)From: "Brian E. Gallew" <[email protected]>Subject: Re: [HACKERS] configure

- ---559023410-851401618-854387445=:824Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII

> If you can grab a copy and run it on your machine, and send me> the output, that would help alot.

Here is a gzip'ed tar of the results.

=====================================================================| Please do not shoot at the thermonuclear weapons! -- Deacon |=====================================================================| Finger [email protected] for my public key. |=====================================================================

- ---559023410-851401618-854387445=:824Content-Type: APPLICATION/x-gzipContent-Transfer-Encoding: BASE64Content-Description: m88k-dg-dgux5.4R3.10.tar.gz

H4sIAHDq7DICA+xba3vaSLLOV/MrepzsGHiQuNomOJ4MdnDMrC8csB17HQ8WUgM9FpJWFxsmyX8/Vd0tIYGwye5kP+w5fp4EaHW9XV1dXbdu6bY1ZCNV1/QxffWD/sql0k6tRl4RUq6IT1KWn4R/L5UI2ansVirVSrlWhpZqqVZ5RUqv/gN/gedrLiGvHNvzRy71VvUbUYu6mvnqv+zvNbkYM48MmUkJfGrEG1PTJJ7uMscn

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mailto:[email protected]













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Resolving Multiple Sender Identities

• Participants send mail from different addresses

• Up to 21% of addresses are aliases

• Such aliases bias identity-based analyses

• Manual inspection and correction tedious

• No fully automated approach to resolve identities

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A

B

C

D

A

B

C

D

Linear Sequence Thread Hierarchy

Reconstructing Discussion Threads

• Mail stored sequentially in archives

• Logical grouping: discussion topics

• Required information erroneous or missing

• Essential for social network and topic analysis

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Attachments

• MIME standard defines extensions to email

• Binary data encoded as text

• Around 10% of messages have attachments

• Extract attachments and store separately

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Quotes and Signatures

• Duplicate information

• Unrelated to actual message

• Removing signatures is challenging

• Quoted text may or may not be desirable

• Signatures impact text mining approaches

• No perfect method for signature removal

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| Please do

not shoot at

the thermon

uclear weapo

ns! -- Deaco

n |

============

============

============

============

============

=========

| Finger gee

[email protected]

.edu for my

public key.

|

============

============

============

============

============

=========

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More Risks presented in the Paper

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(1) Mailing Lists contain valuable information on a project.

(3) Manual Data Processing is often not feasible or requires much effort.

(4) Off-the-Shelf tools were not designed to prepare data for mining.

(2) Data Needs Pre-Processing before applying traditional tools.

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an empirical study on the risks of using off-the-shelf techniques for processing mailing list data

Education

mining mailing lists

b pathdefault

developer mailing lists

b hod options

textual data

databases simple

opensource projects

shelf tools data