Abstract

This paper presents some of the findings from a 5-year empirical study of FOSS (free/libre and open source software) commons, completed in 2011. FOSS projects are Internet-based common property regimes where the project source code is developed over the Internet. The resulting software is generally distributed with a license that provides users with the freedoms to access, use, read, modify and redistribute the software. In this study we used three different and very large datasets (approximately 107,000; 174,000 and 1400 cases respectively) with information on FOSS projects residing in Sourceforge.net, one of the largest, if not the largest, FOSS repository in the world. We employ various quantitative methods to uncover factors that lead some FOSS projects to ongoing collaborative success, while others become abandoned. After presenting some of our study’s results, we articulate the collaborative “story” of FOSS that emerged. We close the paper by discussing some key findings that can contribute to a general theory of Internet-based collective-action and FOSS-like forms of digital online commons.

Highlights

  • To emphasize the importance of digital information as a commons, let us start with a question for readers’ reflection: What allowed people to construct websites so rapidly and exponentially in the early years (1994–1999)?We agree with publisher Tim O’Reilly (2003) on the answer: the early web browsers like Mosaic, Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer all provided a “View Source” menu item, allowing web surfers to read the HTML logic of the webpage they liked, copy it, and create new derivative works based on it

  • This paper presents some of the findings from a 5-year empirical study of FOSS commons, completed in 2011

  • FOSS projects are Internet-based common property regimes where the project source code is developed over the Internet

Read more

Summary

Introduction

To emphasize the importance of digital information as a commons, let us start with a question for readers’ reflection: What allowed people to construct websites so rapidly and exponentially in the early years (1994–1999)?. In the area of computer software development this kind of co-production has existed since the beginning of the computing era (1950s, 1960s), when the free sharing of readable software code and collaboration on new versions were the norm It was only in the late 1960s and 1970s that software became viewed as a proprietary commodity by software development firms (Drahos and Braithwaite 2002; O’Reilly 2003). As a result of the open-source phenomenon, perhaps more than any other category of Internet user, computer programmers and FOSS programmers in particular have significant experience in online collaboration in the context of digital information commons. We conclude with some theoretical reflections that move toward a general theory of FOSS-like online collective-action

FOSS as common property peer-production
The guiding Institutional Analysis and Development Framework
FOSS development trajectories
Methods
II: Indeterminate in initiation
Selected results: analysis of the 2006 flossmole dataset
Selected results: analysis of our SF developer survey
Discussion: the FOSS story that has emerged
Motivations to contribute – A “Theory of Compound Incentives”
FOSS Project Governance
OSS and Group Size
Face-to-Face meetings and Social Capital
SF and Google as “power-law” intellectual matchmaking hubs
Findings
Literature cited

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.