What motivates FOSS developers

1

• What motivates F/OSS developers?
• A Talk
• By
• Ravi Kumar Jain. B
• Faculty Member
• ICFAI University
• FOSS 2005, Bangalore

2
Some Facts.we all know

• Apache 1 Web server since 1996 (68.43 Netcraft
  2005)
• Linux 2 server OS (only next to windows)
• BIND 1 DNS server (75 market share)
• PHP is 1 server side scripting language
• MySQL is growing faster than other DBs
• Mozilla Firefox is rapidly eating into IEs
  market share
• Surprising!!!!

3
This Question need to be answered

• There is no problem explaining an individual
  inventing the concept of free software and
  proposing it to the programming community, but
  that still leaves unexplained the phenomenon of
  hundreds of individuals continually inventing
  programs which are then made available free of
  charge. What motivates such behavior?
• Bonaccorsi and Rossi (2002)
• Convincing

4
What Motivates OSS developers?

• Motivators for Individual contributors
• Personal Motivators-
• Social Motivators
• Monetary Motivators
• Political Motivators
• Motivators for Organization contributors
• Political Motives
• Competitive motives
• New business Opportunities

5
Personal Motivators

• Scratching personal Itch
• Creative challenge
• Ego Boosting
• Learning

6
Social Motives

• Social interaction with fraternity
• Improve contacts (with experts)
• Improve visibility in the OSS community
• Sense of belongingness
• Contribute back to community

7
Monetary Motives

• Direct financial benefits
• Higher salaries/pay hikes
• Better job opportunities
• Earnings from support activities

8
Anarchistic Motivators

• Against commercialization of software/private
  domination
• Software Freedom

9
Organization Motives

• Political Motives
• Competitive Motives
• New Business opportunities

10
Political Motives

• Disempowering dominant player
• Back stabbing
• Guide standards building in your favor

11
Competitive/strategic motives

• Gain Market share
• Gain instant visibility
• Improve productivity/reduce cost
• New business opportunities/New markets
• Business transformation
• New avenues for marketing
• Get early movers advantage

12
Role of Government

• Standardization
• Govt. Support
• Build support Infrastructure
• Fund Basic research in OSS
• Achieve Legal Compatibilities

13

• Questions please
• ?
• Contact
• Ravi Kumar Jain, Faculty Member
• ICFAI University
• 94405-71846
• Email rkjain_at_icfai.org