Developer Motivations
Main Author: Gail Frederick
Links to Papers Regarding Developer Motivations
http://noframes.linuxjournal.com/article/4915
Not a link but Chapter 5 in Steven Weber's The Success of Open Source does a nice job summarizing various theories for developer contribution.
Interesting Quotes on Developer Motivations
Discussion on Developer Motivations
Richard Michaelson: (11/13/04) Here's a running list of supply-side explanations for individuals' (and firms') contributions to OS:
-as a hobby (“simply for the pleasure of doing so”)
-post-scarcity gift economy (which, at heart, is not based on classical economic theory, and instead, suggests an entirely non-economic explanation for human behavior)
-hacker ethics
-Lerner and Tirole’s: individuals participate only if they expect a net benefit, viewing their contribution as a means (ego-boosting, reputation, etc) to an end, which is fundamentally economic or commercial
-“scratch an itch”
-in opposition to Microsoft
-Natural outgrowth of free speech
-Open source software is more beneficial to society
-Flexibility and configurability
Note: I didn't write down in which article these reasons came up. And some of these came up multiple times in different articles. I think the first 5 are the more popular explanations for why developers drift to OS projects.
-Impact. One of the reasons I contribute to the Mozilla project is that a lot of people use it or will use it. I feel that it is my duty to use my skills to improve the lives of user as much as I can.
-Resume building. I've gotten some nice internship and job offers, and I point that out to friends when I try to convince them to join me in the Mozilla project, but I don't think that's a large part of why I contribute.
-Religion. The writings that inspired me to contribute to Mozilla (http://del.icio.us/jesser/why ?) had a common theme: Mozilla is essential for the future of Linux and open-source in general. Ironically, I still use Windows.
Richard Michaelson: Not to confine Jesse's characterization from those I found in the literature, but his impact explanation might fit nicely in the "OSS is more beneficial to society" and his "resume building" is definitely within the confines of Lerner and Tirole's theory.
