A study about graphs in the representation of knowledge in discussion forums in Software Engineering.

In the social web paradigm, discussion forums are effective tools to facilitate the knowledge transfer among developers. However, manually finding useful information in discussions on a particular topic is a complex task, making it a major challenge for knowledge management. The objective of this study is to explore the representation of knowledge supported by graphs generated from discussion forums in the context of Software Engineering. Firstly, graphs were built considering the discussion topics of the Stack Overflow forum. Visual analysis as well as analysis of thematic relevance of the graphs were performed. Next, an evaluation of the graphs generated through interviews with software industry professionals was also conducted in order to obtain a practical view of the study conducted. Using graphs generated from discussion forums can help the software industry identify useful information and new trends.