How open source software works: “free” user-to-user assistance

Research into free and open source software development projects has so far largely focused on how the major tasks of software development are organized and motivated. But a complete project requires the execution of “mundane but necessary” tasks as well. In this paper, we explore how the mundane bu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research policy 2003-06, Vol.32 (6), p.923-943
Main Authors: Lakhani, Karim R, von Hippel, Eric
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
End users
Freeware
Intrinsic motivation
Open source software
Public domain
Studies
Systems development
User innovation
User support
Virtual community
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Summary:Research into free and open source software development projects has so far largely focused on how the major tasks of software development are organized and motivated. But a complete project requires the execution of “mundane but necessary” tasks as well. In this paper, we explore how the mundane but necessary task of field support is organized in the case of Apache web server software, and why some project participants are motivated to provide this service gratis to others. We find that the Apache field support system functions effectively. We also find that, when we partition the help system into its component tasks, 98% of the effort expended by information providers in fact returns direct learning benefits to those providers. This finding considerably reduces the puzzle of why information providers are willing to perform this task “for free.” Implications are discussed.
ISSN:0048-7333
1873-7625
DOI:10.1016/S0048-7333(02)00095-1