  People use the Internet to learn new skills, stay connected with friends, and
find new communities to engage with. Live streaming platforms like Twitch.tv,
YouTube Live, and Facebook Gaming provide a place where all three of these
activities intersect and enable users to live-stream themselves playing a video
game or live-coding software and game development, as well as the ability to
participate in chat while watching someone else engage in an activity. Through
fifteen interviews with software and game development streamers, we investigate
why people choose to stream themselves programming and if they perceive
themselves improving their programming skills by live streaming. We found that
the motivations to stream included accountability, self-education, community,
and visibility of the streamers' work, and streamers perceived a positive
influence on their ability to write source code. Our findings implicate that
alternative learning methods like live streaming programming are a beneficial
tool in the age of the virtual classroom. This work also contributes to and
extends research efforts surrounding educational live streaming and
collaboration in developer communities.
