Enriching Software Engineering Gamification Environments with Social Information

Motivation: There has been a recent focus on the potential benefits of using gamification techniques to increase motivation and improve performance in Software Engineering environments. Problem: While many gamification proposals in Software Engineering utilize techniques such as points, levels, and rankings, there is some skepticism about the effectiveness of these basic techniques and some authors explored other complementary alternatives. Approach: This paper presents ongoing research on using social information analysis techniques as a complementary alternative to enhance gamified Software Engineering environments. Result: the inclusion of social information into gamified environments was proposed. To accomplish this, the relevant information to be delivered to users and the data sources for this information were identified. A simple infrastructure for integrating and processing social information was also proposed. Impact: If successful, this approach could potentially have a significant impact on the motivation and performance of people in Software Engineering environments.