|
||||
|
||||
Why Hackers Do What They Do: Understanding Motivation and Effort in Free/Open Source Software Projects
Karim Lakhani Harvard Business School Robert G. Wolf The Boston Consulting Group September 2003 MIT Sloan Working Paper No. 4425-03 Abstract: In this paper we report on the results of a study of the effort and motivations of individuals to contributing to the creation of Free/Open Source software. We used a Web-based survey, administered to 684 software developers in 287 F/OSS projects, to learn what lies behind the effort put into such projects. Academic theorizing on individual motivations for participating in F/OSS projects has posited that external motivational factors in the form of extrinsic benefits (e.g.: better jobs, career advancement) are the main drivers of effort. We find in contrast, that enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project, is the strongest and most pervasive driver. We also find that user need, intellectual stimulation derived from writing code, and improving programming skills are top motivators for project participation. A majority of our respondents are skilled and experienced professionals working in IT-related jobs, with approximately 40 percent being paid to participate in the F/OSS project.
Keywords: open source, software development Working Paper SeriesDate posted: September 15, 2003 ; Last revised: October 02, 2007Suggested Citation |
|
||||||||||||||||||
© 2009 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
FAQ
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Copyright
This page was served by apollo6 in 0.406 seconds.