Research of communications between computer programmers by Professor of Computer Science Megan Squire was featured in an article about programmer Linus Torvalds.
A recent article in The New Yorker about the abusive language used by celebrated computer programmer Linus Torvalds included research by Megan Squire, professor of computer science.
The article, “After Years of Abusive E-mails, the Creator of Linux Steps Aside,” by reporter Noam Cohen focused on complaints that Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system, verbally abused other programmers working on Linux.
For the article, Cohen spoke with Professor of Computer Science Megan Squire, who has conducted extensive research and compiled vast databases of how computer programmers interact with each other online. “Everyone in tech knows about it, but Linus gets a pass,” Squire told Cohen about Torvalds’s abusive behavior. “He’s built up this cult of personality, this cult of importance.”
Squire has conducted research to train a computer to recognize insults, and found that in his communications, Torvalds was “an equal-opportunity abuser.”
Read the entire article here.
Squire recently delivered the Distinguished Scholar Lecture at Elon in which she explained her research into toxic online communities and shared some of her findings from her research into Torvalds’s communications.