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

How open source software works: “free” user-to-user assistance (2003)

by Karim R. Lakhani

Venue:	Research Policy
Citations:	66 - 1 self

Datum	Value	Source
TITLE	How open source software works: “free” user-to-user assistance	INFERENCE
AUTHOR NAME	Karim R. Lakhani	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR AFFIL	MIT Sloan School of Management	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR ADDR	50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
ABSTRACT	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.	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
YEAR	2003	INFERENCE
VENUE	Research Policy	INFERENCE
VENUE TYPE	JOURNAL	INFERENCE
PAGES	923--943	INFERENCE
VOLUME	32	INFERENCE
CITATIONS	23 found	ParsCit 1.0