Stack Overflow – Informal learning and the global expansion of professional development and opportunities in programming?

The purpose of this study is to examine if, and to what extent, online Community Question Answering platforms expand the opportunities for professional development in programming. Longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses of Stack Overflow Developer Surveys were used to examine users’ geographical distribution, gender, experience, professional status, platform usage and education. In order to study differences between the countries with the largest number of respondents, the developer survey data was combined with indicators of human development, gender equality and educational attainment. The results show that the Stack Overflow community has expanded to some extent, both in terms of wider geographical distribution and the programming expertise of users. However, the community reflects and fails to mitigate the apparent gender disparity in the field of programming. Furthermore, participation seems to be conditioned by formal education, especially in developing countries. In general, participation patterns in Stack Overflow seem to be heavily influenced by local conditions in different countries.