Intrinsic Motivation in Open Source Software Development
Abstract
This papers sheds light on the puzzling evidence that even though open source software (OSS) is a public good, it is developed for free by highly qualified, young and motivated individuals, and evolves at a rapid pace. We show that once OSS development is understood as the private provision of a public good, these features emerge quite naturally. We adapt a dynamic private-provision-of-public-goods model to reflect key aspects of the OSS phenomenon. In particular, instead of relying on extrinsic motives (e.g. signaling) the present model is driven by intrinsic motives of OSS programmers, such as user- programmers, play value or 'homo ludens' payoff, and gift culture benefits. Such intrinsic motives feature extensively in the wider OSS literature and contribute new insights to the economic analysis.Download Info
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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Development and Comp Systems with number 0505007.Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: 04 May 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpdc:0505007
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 29
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Web page: http://128.118.178.162
Related research
Keywords: open source software; public goods; homo ludens; war of attrition;Other versions of this item:
- Bitzer, Jurgen & Schrettl, Wolfram & Schroder, Philipp J.H., 2007. "Intrinsic motivation in open source software development," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 160-169, March.
- Bitzer, Jürgen & Schrettl, Wolfram & Schröder, Philipp J. H., 2004. "Intrinsic motivation in open source software development," Discussion Papers 2004/19, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
- L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
- H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
- L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2005-05-07 (All new papers)
- NEP-CBE-2005-05-07 (Cognitive & Behavioural Economics)
- NEP-PBE-2005-05-07 (Public Economics)
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References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Citations
Blog mentions
As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- Free, and yet better than costly goods: open source software
by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2008-03-19 23:06:00
Cited by:
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Information Economics and Policy,
Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 389-406, July.
- Jürgen Bitzer & Philipp J. H. Schröder, 2002. "Bug-Fixing and Code-Writing: The Private Provision of Open Source Software," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 296, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
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