OSS AI Workshop (CSCW 2026)
- Title
- Beyond Productivity: AI, Community, and Sustainability in Open Source Software
- Where
- CSCW 2026 will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- When
- CSCW will be held October 10-14, 2026. The specific day for this workshop is on Saturday, October 10th, 2026.
- What
- This one-day CSCW workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners to examine how generative AI and agentic coding are reshaping open source software communities. We will focus on newcomer participation, maintainer burden, trust, and the sustainability of open source collaboration.
Overview[edit]
Open source software (OSS) development communities have long provided digital infrastructure used all over the world, and have been a mainstay of CSCW research on online communities and peer production. Today, the ongoing emergence of generative AI and agentic coding is disrupting OSS collaboration and project organizations. While recent literature indicates that some productivity gains have been observed by OSS developers, these benefits are not evenly distributed across OSS projects and communities. Moreover, generative AI has also disrupted socialization norms in OSS communities with slop produced by bots, agents, and bad-faith AI-assisted contributions. Finally, the resulting technical debt and invisible labor faced by maintainers in handling the influx of AI-generated code critically threaten the sustainability of OSS projects. In this one-day workshop, we will bring together a community of CSCW researchers and OSS developers to explore the risks these communities face and discuss interventions that may sustain OSS collaboration. We seek to understand what we can draw from this phenomenon to address broader research questions in CSCW, from online communities to human-AI collaboration and its impacts.
Organizers[edit]
- Eli Min, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Hana Frluckaj, University of Texas at Austin
- Matt Gaughan, Northwestern University
- Kaylea Champion, University of Washington
- Kevin Crowston, Syracuse University
- Benjamin Mako Hill, University of Washington
- James Howison, University of Texas at Austin
Topics[edit]
- Newcomer onboarding and participation: AI tools may lower barriers for new contributors, but they may also make it harder to build authentic participation and long-term commitment.
- Maintainer workload and burnout: AI-generated contributions can increase review, debugging, and moderation work for maintainers, adding invisible labor and burnout risks.
- Trust, governance, and community norms: The rise of bots and agentic contributions is changing how OSS communities judge good-faith participation and decide whom to trust.
- Risks and opportunities of AI-assisted contributions: The workshop will explore interventions, policies, and support structures that help OSS projects remain healthy, resilient, and collaborative.
Application and Participation[edit]
We invite a short bio and a brief position paper (up to 2 pages) related to the workshop themes. Participants should share a question, challenge, or perspective that can help shape the discussion and future collaboration.
Applications are due August 8th, 2026.
Workshop format[edit]
The workshop will include short presentations, group brainstorming, breakout discussions, and a final plenary session to identify research questions and possible interventions.
For further questions, contact: Hana Frluckaj, hanafrla@utexas.edu
