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Community-Based Production of Open Source Software: What Do We Know About the Developers Who Participate?

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  • Paul David

    (Stanford University)

  • Joseph Shapiro

    (The University of Toledo)

Abstract

This paper seeks to close an empirical gap regarding the motivations, personal attributes and behavioral patterns among free/libre and open source (FLOSS) developers, especially those involved in community-based production, and its findings on the existing literature and the future directions for research. Respondents to an extensive web-survey’s (FLOSS-US 2003) questions about their reasons for work on FLOSS are classified according to their distinct “motivational profiles” by hierarchical cluster analysis. Over half of them also are matched to projects of known membership sizes, revealing that although some members from each of the clusters are present in the small, medium and large ranges of the distribution of project sizes, the mixing fractions for the large and the very small project ranges are statistically different. Among developers who changed projects, there is a discernable flow from the bottom toward the very small towards to large projects, some of which is motivated by individuals seeking to improve their programming skills. It is found that the profile of early motivation, along with other individual attributes, significantly affects individual developers’ selections of projects from different regions of the size range. Creation Date: 2008-09 Revision Date:

Suggested Citation

  • Paul David & Joseph Shapiro, "undated". "Community-Based Production of Open Source Software: What Do We Know About the Developers Who Participate?," Discussion Papers 08-003, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:sip:dpaper:08-003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Feuerstein Patrick & Hanekop Heidemarie, 2017. "Koordination überbetrieblicher Wissensproduktion: Zum Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Unternehmen und Communities in Open-Source-Projekten mit Unternehmensbeteiligung," Arbeit, De Gruyter, vol. 26(1), pages 111-136, April.
    2. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.
    3. Bottai, Carlo, 2015. "Open Innovation in a Model à la Hotelling," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201526, University of Turin.
    4. Tom Dedeurwaerdere & Paolo Melindi-Ghidi & Willem Sas, 2015. "Voluntary Provision of Public Knowledge Goods: Group-Based Social Preferences and Coalition Formation," Working Papers halshs-01224007, HAL.
    5. Mollick, Ethan, 2014. "The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16.
    6. F. Rullani & L. Zirulia, 2011. "A supply side story for a threshold model: Endogenous growth of the free and open source community," Working Papers wp781, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    7. Hinnosaar, Marit, 2019. "Gender inequality in new media: Evidence from Wikipedia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 262-276.
    8. Antonelli, Cristiano & David, Paul, 2015. "Knowledge, Institutions and Economic Policy: An Introduction," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201541, University of Turin.
    9. Tom DEDEURWAERDERE & Paolo MELINDI GHIDI, 2013. "Voluntary Pooled Public Knowledge Goods and Coalition Formation," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2013020, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    10. Il-Horn Hann & Jeffrey A. Roberts & Sandra A. Slaughter, 2013. "All Are Not Equal: An Examination of the Economic Returns to Different Forms of Participation in Open Source Software Communities," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 520-538, September.
    11. Yang, Wei & Zhou, Qing & Yu, Xianyun & Wang, Dongpeng & Li, Hui, 2019. "How to facilitate knowledge collaboration in OCs: An integrated perspective of technological and institutional measures," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 21-28.
    12. Mohammadi, Mohammad Ali, 2020. "Contribution to Open-Source Product Development," MPRA Paper 111795, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Maha Shaikh & Emmanuelle Vaast, 2016. "Folding and Unfolding: Balancing Openness and Transparency in Open Source Communities," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 813-833, December.
    14. Sebastian Spaeth & Georg von Krogh & Fang He, 2015. "Research Note —Perceived Firm Attributes and Intrinsic Motivation in Sponsored Open Source Software Projects," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 224-237, March.
    15. Sebastian von Engelhardt, 2010. "Quality Competition or Quality Cooperation? License-Type and the Strategic Nature of Open Source vs. Closed Source Business Models," Jena Economics Research Papers 2010-034, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    16. Francesco Rullani & Francesco Zirpoli, 2013. "Coordination of joint search in distributed innovation processes: Lessons from the effects of initial code release in Open Source Software development," Working Papers 20, Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    17. Landini, Fabio, 2012. "Technology, property rights and organizational diversity in the software industry," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 137-150.
    18. Dorota Celińska, 2016. "Who is forked on GitHub? Collaboration among Open Source developers," Working Papers 2016-15, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    19. Smirnova, Inna & Reitzig, Markus & Alexy, Oliver, 2022. "What makes the right OSS contributor tick? Treatments to motivate high-skilled developers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    20. Nicolai j. Foss & Lars Frederiksen & Francesco Rullani, 2016. "Problem‐formulation and problem‐solving in self‐organized communities: How modes of communication shape project behaviors in the free open‐source software community," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 2589-2610, December.
    21. Darr, Asaf, 2014. "Note from the editor. Introduction: Online markets," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 16(1), pages 2-3.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Open source software; FLOSS project; community-based peer production; population heterogeneity; micro-motives; motivational profiles; web-cast surveys; hierarchical cluster analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • L17 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Open Source Products and Markets
    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L39 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Other
    • P13 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Cooperative Enterprises

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