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The motives of 141 contributors to a large Open Source Software project (the Linux kernel) was explored with an internet-based questionnaire study. Measured factors were both derived from discussions within the Linux community as well as from models from social sciences. Participants' engagement was particularly determined by their identification as a Linux developer, by pragmatic motives to improve own software, and by their tolerance of time investments. Moreover, some of the software development was accomplished by teams. Activities in these teams were particularly determined by participants' evaluation of the team goals as well as by their perceived indispensability and self-efficacy. Running Head: MOTIVATION IN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE PROJECTS Key Words: Open Source Software, Linux, Virtual Teams, Motivation, VIST Model Author notes * Correspondence should be addressed to Guido Hertel, University of Kiel, Institut fuer Psychologie, Olshausenstr. 40, D-24 098 Kiel, Germany. Phone: +49 431 880 2980. Fax: +49 431 880 1559. E-mail: hertel@psychologie.uni-kiel.de. * We thank SuSe Germany for sponsoring a number of lottery prizes for the participants in this study.

numerous seminars, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. This project would not have been possible without the assistance of several individuals and organizations. MixMasterFlame and the FlameNap network shared P2P data with us, and BigChampagne LLC, the CMJ Network, Nathaniel Leibowitz, and Nevil Brownlee generously provided auxiliary data. We thank Keith Ross and David Weekly for assistance in understanding the KaZaA, OpenNap, and WinMX search protocols and database indices. Sarah Woolverton and Christina Hsiung Chen

The term Open Source is widely applied to describe some software development methodologies. This paper does not provide a judgment on the open source approach, but exposes the fact that simply stating that a project is open source does not provide a precise description of the approach used to support the project. By taking a multidisciplinary point of view, we propose a collection of characteristics that are common, as well as some that vary among open source projects. The set of open source characteristics we found can be used as a tick-list both for analysing and for setting up open source projects. Our tick-list also provides a starting point for understanding the many meanings of the term open source.

This paper provides a framework for such a test collection and describes the Open Video Project that has begun to develop a test collection based on this framework. The proposed test collection is meant to be used to study a wide range of problems, such as tests of algorithms for creating surrogates for video content or interfaces that display result sets from queries. An important challenge in developing such a collection is storing and distributing video objects. This paper is meant to layout video management issues that may influence distributed storage solutions. More specifically, this paper describes the first phase for creating the test collection, sets guidelines for building the collection, and serves as a basis for discussion to inform subsequent phases and invite research community involvement. 2000 Academic Press 1. Introduction It is inevitable that the technical limitations that impede widespread usage of video libraries will dimi

The growth of a global infrastructure has enabled the spatial dispersion of work activities. The software industry permits the study of the potential and limits of new ways of organizing work over borders to exploit globally the opportunities opened by the digitalization of production and products. Based on field observations of companies in four countries, we identified two distinctive models of organizing global software development. "The global project model" currently dominates the organization of global outsourcing activities in software development. In this model, multinational corporations seek to utilize cost differentials between locations and to bring products to the market more speedily by exploiting time-zone differences and the dispersed global capabilities. "The open development model" is destined to allow talented professionals around the globe to use their competences to the maximum. While not necessarily organized by multinational corporations, the open development model nonetheless affects their activities.

The term “open source ” is widely applied to describe some software development methodologies. This paper does not provide a judgment on the open source approach, but exposes the fact that simply stating that a project is open source does not provide a precise description of the approach used to support the project. By taking a multidisciplinary point of view, we propose a collection of characteristics that are common, as well as some that vary among open source projects. The set of open source characteristics we found can be used as a tick-list both for analysing and for setting up open source projects. Our tick-list also provides a starting point for understanding the many meanings of the term open source. 1

The assistance of the Harvard Business School’s California Research Center, and Chris Darwall in particular, was instrumental in the development of the case studies and is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank a number of practitioners—especially Eric Allman, Mike Balma, Brian Behlendorf, Keith Bostic, Tim O’Reilly, and Ben Passarelli—for their willingness to generously spend time discussing the open source movement. Jacques Crémer, Bernard Salanié, and Rob Merges provided helpful comments. Harvard

This paper presents first results from research into open source projects from a software engineering perspective. The research methodology employed relies on public data retrieved from the CVS-repository of the GNOME project and relevant discussion groups. This methodology is described in detail and some of the results concerning the special characteristics of open source software development are given. I.

In recent years, the development of software in open source communities has attracted immense attention from research and practice. The idea of commercial quality, free software, and open source code accelerated the development of well-designed open source software such as Linux, Apache tools, or Perl. Intrinsic motivation, group identification processes, learning, and career concerns are the key drivers for a successful cooperation among the participants. These factors and most mechanisms of control, coordination, and monitoring forms of open source communities can hardly be explained by traditional organizational theories. In particular, the micro and macro structures of open source communities and their mode of operation are hardly compatible with the central assumption of the New Institutional Theory, like opportunistic behavior. The aim of this contribution is to identify factors that sustain the motivation of the community members over the entire life cycle of an open source project. Adequate coordination and controlling mechanisms for the governance in open source communities may be extracted. 1