Community-based production of open-source software: What do we know about the developers who participate?

• Published in: Information economics and policy 2008-12, Vol.20 (4), p.364-398
• Main Authors: David, Paul A., Shapiro, Joseph S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cluster analysis; Community; Community-based peer production; FLOSS projects; Hierarchical cluster analysis; Industrial organization; Micro-motives; Motivation; Motivational profiles; Open source software; Open-source software FLOSS projects Community-based peer production Population heterogeneity Micro-motives Motivational profiles Web-cast surveys Hierarchical cluster analysis; Population heterogeneity; Production; Programmers; Software; Studies; Systems development; Web-cast surveys
• ISSN: 0167-6245; 1873-5975
• DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2008.10.001

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 considers the bearing of 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 beginning to work 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.