Student Projects:OpenSource Motivation

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Final Paper

Open Source Motivations Final Paper <--- note new link created on 12/08/2004!

Team Members

The "Motivation and Rewards of Open Source Development" team has six members.


Topic Proposal

Motivation and Rewards of Open Source

Two extremes typically characterized Open Source (OS) discourse. One extreme speaks of OS, like a religion, as a revolutionary production model operating under a new, different, set of political, social, and economic rules. The other extreme is entirely pessimistic and posits OS as a passing fad since it is ultimately economically unsustainable. To policymakers and others interested in OS issues, these opposing characterizations, at minimum, makes it confusing and difficult to construct meaningful OS policies.

This policy brief is not an attempt to provide the final answer on which characterization of OS is most truthful. Instead, we will provide policymakers with tools to better think through OS issues by discussing the role of motivation and rewards, a theme underlying most of OS discourse, to which each extreme characterization posits opposing views.

Specifically, we explore the role of motivation from the supply and demand sides. For example, what prompts developers to contribute to OS, given the assumption developers contribute to OS projects using their own time and without compensation? Is this assumption even true? Do the benefits associated with OS software differ from closed source (CS), for-profit software? On the demand side, why do consumers want OS over CS technology? In addition, various world governments as well as state governments in the U.S. have increasingly turned to OS. What are their incentives? Furthermore, for-profits are employing OS both as a tool to help run their businesses and as a basis for their business models. Why? And what are the kinds of business models emerging in these nascent markets?

This policy brief will explore these issues of motivation. Chapter 1 will discuss developers' motivations. Chapter 2 will discuss consumers' motivations for adopting OS. Chapter 3 will dicuss the private sector's incentives to employ OS and OS business models. Chapter 4 discusses the public sector's motivation for increasingly adopting OS. Regardless of the veracity of either extreme OS characterization, our discussion of motivation in relation to OS will provide policy makers with some tools to think through their decisions on both OS policy and OS use.

Sub-topics and Team Assignments

These subpages will provide a place to discuss the sub-topics of the paper and provide ideas, links to papers, etc. The main author of each sub-topic is listed first.

How Project Team Members Communicate

Project Team Members communicate via this Wiki, starting on this page and with linked sub-pages linked from here.

There is also an email list, [1], that reaches all project members. GailFrederick manages the mailing list, please contact her for additions/removals.


Draft Topic Statements

GailFrederick's draft topic statement

Volunteers for non-profit organizations are fascinating people. They provide expertise and labor for free, motivated by the vision and goals of the organization. Both groups benefit. The organization is propelled by the donations of its volunteers. The volunteer feels pride and perhaps also gains experience and reputation.

Volunteers about at every step in the cycle of open source software projects - in design, development, evangelization, (marketing?,) distribution and consumption. Major volunteer constituents in the open-source software movement include software developers, project incubators, private-sector consumers and public institutions.

Our policy brief investigates the motivations of these constituents to participate in an open-source project. We consider the benefits of association for each constitutent. We analyze whether the benefits of association with open-source software differ from association with closed-source, for-profit software systems.


Jeff West's draft topic statement

This paper will address the reasons that people choose open source as a policy for software projects. We will discuss rewards for organizations and individuals including economic impact, software philosophy, and personal satisfaction. We will first address the motivation of the private and public sectors to contribute resources into creating projects which seem to have little or no value at first glance. Later, we will discuss the reasons that individual developers might choose to work on open source projects (both for private and public sector investors and as individuals).


Richard Michaelson's draft topic statement

Two extremes typically characterized Open Source (OS) discourse. One extreme speaks of OS, like a religion, as a revolutionary production model [add more descriptors]. The other extreme is entirely pessimistic and posits OS as a passing fad since it is ultimately economically unsustainable. To policymakers and other interested in OS issues, these opposing characterizations, at minimum, makes it confusing and difficult to construct meaningful OS policies.

This brief/white paper is not an attempt to provide the final answer on which characterization of OS is most truthful. Instead, we will provide policymakers with tools to better think through OS issues by discussing the role of motivation and rewards, a theme underlying most of OS discourse, to which each extreme characterization posits opposing views.

Specifically, we explore the role of motivation from the supply and demand sides. For example, what prompts developers to contribute to OS, given the assumption developers' contributions are on their own time and without compensation? Is this assumption even true? On the demand side, why do consumers want OS over closed source (CS) technology? In addition, various world governments as well as state governments in the U.S. have increasingly turned to OS. What are their incentives? Furthermore, for-profits are employing OS both as a tool to help run their businesses and as a basis for their business models. Why? And what are the kinds of business models emerging in these nascent markets?

This brief will explore these issues of motivation. Chapter 1 will discuss A. Chapter 2 will discuss B. Chapter 3 will dicuss C. Chapter 4 discusses D. Regardless of the veracity of either extreme OS characterization, our discussion of motivation in relatoin to OS will provide policy makers with some tools to think through their decisions on both OS policy and OS use.


Kevin Watt's draft topic statement

Open Source Software (OSS) has been an undeniable driving force behind the evolution and growth of the Internet, among other fame, but its impact does not end with the software itself. OSS has begun to define itself as a culture as well, increasingly visible and increasingly vocal about its presence and identity. Though sometimes in direct opposition to each other, open source and closed source software both have, arguably, something significant to contribute in terms of innovation and accessibility.

The explosive growth of OSS, however, has led some experts to assert that open source operates under a new, different, set of political, social, and economic rules. As the open source “movement” gains momentum, individuals, big business, and even national governments have jumped on the bandwagon to implement open source solutions and fund open source development, though many questions about sustainability, viability, and security have not yet been answered. For policymakers, whether in business or government, these uncertainties represent a significant problem.

This policy brief attempts to explore some of the most important facets of open source with the overall goal of discovering what motivates each of the stakeholders to contribute, fund, or utilize OSS. The discussion, to be effective, explores OSS from several perspectives, including(taken from Gail's post):

Developer Motivations and Rewards (i.e. Why do programmers contribute to open-source projects?) Consumer Motivations and Rewards (i.e. Why do consumers adopt / purchase open-source products?) Incubator Motivations and Rewards (i.e. Why do for-profit entities incubate and otherwise support open-source products? Public Sector Motivations and Rewards (i.e. why do governments and governmental agencies support open-source products through legislation, regulation and economic incentives?

With this information, policymakers can draft effective policy, promoting or discouraging OSS.


Jesse Ruderman's rambling

The motivation for the paper is not clear to me in most of the draft topic statements. What decisions can government make about open-source, and which of those decisions will an understanding of motivations help with?

Ian King's draft topic statement

Governments are a major consumer of computer software. How have public sector entities responded to the debate between open source software and proprietary software, and why? Some countries and municipalities have stated an interest in the use of open source software, sometimes acting to remove existing legal barriers to its potential adoption. Other entities have gone so far as to legally mandate its use for some or all applications. Still other nations have promoted an entire OSS IT economy. This discussion will collect and analyze the arguments employed to justify the various degrees of adoption of (or resistance to) OSS by public entities, adding where relevant a review of counterarguments that have been offered. In particular, the motivational difference between developed and developing nations in this regard will be highlighted. This discussion can be considered by policymakers in the larger context of world socioeconomics and the role of developed nations, and the commercial interests that operate therein, in the development of emerging nations.

Sources

General Sources of Computer Science Papers:

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