  Software developers are turning to vlogs (video blogs) to share what a day is
like to walk in their shoes. Through these vlogs developers share a rich
perspective of their technical work as well their personal lives. However, does
the type of activities portrayed in vlogs differ from activities developers in
the industry perform? Would developers at a software company prefer to show
activities to different extents if they were asked to share about their day
through vlogs? To answer these questions, we analyzed 130 vlogs by software
developers on YouTube and conducted a survey with 335 software developers at a
large software company. We found that although vlogs present traditional
development activities such as coding and code peripheral activities (11%),
they also prominently feature wellness and lifestyle related activities (47.3%)
that have not been reflected in previous software engineering literature. We
also found that developers at the software company were inclined to share more
non-coding tasks (e.g., personal projects, time spent with family and friends,
and health) when asked to create a mock-up vlog to promote diversity. These
findings demonstrate a shift in our understanding of how software developers
are spending their time and find valuable to share publicly. We discuss how
vlogs provide a more complete perspective of software development work and
serve as a valuable source of data for empirical research.
