Motivation Of Contributors In Open Source Software Development Projects Meija Lohiniva, Pertti Rautio & Mikko Saavinen Abstract 1. Introduction 2. What is Motivation? 3. Motivational Factors in OSSD Projects 3.1 Intrinsic Motivation in OSS Projects 3.2 Extrinsic Motivation in OSS Projects 3.3 Learning as an Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Factor 3.4 Financial Rewards in OSS Projects 3.5 Motivation Described With Social Psychological Functions 4. Conclusions 5. References Abstract This article is a seminar article written for Open Source Software Development course in University of Oulu. The article studies motivational factors of contributors in Open source software development projects. Open Source Software (OSS) community is a loosely coupled group of people who do not necessarily know each other, but are willing to develop software together. Idea of the open source code is that it is free and publicly available for everybody. In the early days of the open source software development people did not usually get paid for their work and it was mostly based on voluntary work. Nowadays things have changed and open source is booming. Today there are huge companies who develop open source software, like Apple (www.apple.com) and Oracle (www.oracle.com), who are employing thousands of developers and other workers all around the world. OSS origins from the early days of the software development, when the researchers shared their source code for free, because there were no commercial software available. Later on General Public License (GPL) was generated to assure that end users are allowed to use and modify the software which is published under this license. Well known Linux kernel is an example of the software published under GPL license.
Our group members had years of working experience in the software development in commercial software projects, so it was interesting to research the motivation of open source developers. It was interesting to find some studies that show that contributors seem to participate in projects by higher use value for their own purpose and career concerns. On the other hand, what this means for the software companies could be interesting to study too, but is left outside the focus of this article. We are focusing on the question what motivates the contributors in open source software development projects. That way we leave the company aspect out of this article. By reading several studies on the subject, we tried to see the big picture of the motivation in open source software development focusing on the contributors aspect. There were, surprisingly, a lot of studies in this area of investigation and that indicates the importance of the subject and that this subject interests researchers. Purpose of this paper is to find out why people are willing to participate in open source projects, what motivates them to contribute in these projects, do they get something from the projects, what do they contribute in the project and how do they perceive the participation in OSS projects. First the article discusses the concept of motivation, what is motivation and what does it mean. Article also studies motivational factors in open source development projects in general. After that we take a look at intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors and financial rewards as a motivational factor in OSSD projects. In the end is the final conclusive chapter about findings and contributions on our review with possible limitations of our study and our suggestion about future research in OSSD area. Keywords Open source software, motivation 1. Introduction Open Source Software (OSS) has traditionally been developed by a group of developer enthusiasts, who do not necessarily know each other before the starting of the Open Source Software Development (OSSD) project (Hertel, Niedner, & Herrmann, 2003). Today OSSD is a big and rapidly growing global business. In 1998 there were only 10% of organizations who were using open source software, by 2011 over 50% of the companies were reported using open source software. Big global companies, like Facebook and Google are also using open source software (Guingard, 2013.). First mention about motivational factors in OSSD projects can be found in Raymond (1999) publications. Motivational factors can be as simple as that it is fun to participate in an open source software development project (Torvalds & Diamond, 2001) or that a developer feels good about participating in this kind of project and gets recognition from team members on OSS society (Bezroukov, 1999). This points to the direction that OSSD community can be also seen as a social movement so that it can be studied from the social sciences point of view. When social movements have been studied, scientists have found motivational factors like collective motives where people are more willing to make an effort in social movement if they value the goals of the movement and more likely the person perceives the attainment of these goals (Hertel et al., 2003.) People are also more willing to contribute to a specific movement when they are identified as a person belonging to that particular group (Simon, Loewy, Stürmer, Weber, Freytag, Habig, & Spahlinger, 1998).
Learning in OSSD project offers the developer both extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction. Learning is seen as one of the most important motivational factors for people to participate in OSSD projects. OSS developers are known for a desire to do things differently and this has been a starting point for many OSS projects. One of the motivational factors in OSSD projects is that developers or hackers want to develop their programming skills by doing things in practice without prior knowledge or learning by theorizing. Learning seen as such a big motivational factor, it can be hard to find developers in OSSD projects if there is no learning factor involved. (Ye & Kishida, 2003, May.). Dvorak (2001) also suggests that OSSD projects should be a part of teaching programming in schools because it is a major motivational factor. Even though financial rewards may have positive impact on people s extrinsic motivation it may also have a negative impact in intrinsic motivation in OSS project (Frey, 1994). Studies also show that monetary rewards might even have negative impact on individuals creativity (Ederer & Manso, 2008). Because of the nature of the OSS society, financial rewards might be seen as a negative thing (Ghosh, 2006; Hars & Ou, 2002; Hertel et al., 2003; Wichmann, 2002). Alexy & Leitner (2010) noticed that financial rewards are usually bigger motivational factor amongst inexperienced developers. Linux kernel is well known example of the open source software project. OSS projects like Linux are lacking organized structure, they still have characteristics that are needed in successful OSS development (Moon & Sproull, 2002). Linux kernel development is mainly organized via mailing list where the main communication about kernel development happens. Everyone is free to join or leave the mailing list whenever they want to. Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux, has the final decision about the project (Hertel, Niedner, & Herrmann, 2003). Open source projects differ from closed source projects in many ways. One significant difference is a phenomenon called role transformation. Due to this, the developers and users are not clearly distinct but rather all users are potential developers.the roles in OSS projects are assumed by the people themselves, not assigned by somebody else. All this helps learning which is one of the main motivational factors of OSS contributors. (Ye & Kishida, 2003.) This article is a literature review about motivational factors that motivate the contributors to contribute in the open source software development projects. What are the motivational factors why people are willing to contribute in OSSD projects, what do they contribute in these projects and how do they experience the participating in these kind of projects. We take a look in the current literature studies in this area of scientific field. Finally we make a conclusion of the review and its limitations and make suggestions for future study in this field in science. 2. What is Motivation? As a general term, motivation can be described as the needs of an individual and direction of behaviour that relate to those needs. Motivation can be divided in three main types, those being intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within an individual, for example the desire to do something, whereas extrinsic motivation comes from outside, for example from an obligation or a need. Amotivation on the other hand results from the dislike of accomplishing an activity. (Deci & Ryan, 1985.) Amotivation is out of scope of this paper. Intrinsic motivation can also be called cognitive motivation and extrinsic social motivation (Ye & Kishida, 2003, May). Of these main types of motivation, intrinsic
motivation is the strongest (Lakhani & Wolf, 2005). Alexy & Leitner (2010) use a term total motivation for the sum of a person s intrinsic motivation compensated with their extrinsic motivation on a given subject and this is what determines how likely a person is, in the end, to participate in a given OSS project. 3. Motivational Factors in OSSD Projects First mentions about motivational factors in OSSD projects can be found in Raymond (1999) publications, where he mentions that one of the motivational factors of OSS developer is that contributing to these projects is scratching a developer s personal itch (Raymond, 1999, p.32). This can mean that even if the developer gets no money from the project, this developer gets a good feeling about contributing to the project when he gets recognized and appreciated by other developers in the development team. Bezroukov (1999) also suggests that contributors of OSS projects are not motivated by money but instead are driven by competitive motivators by gaining personal status and reputation when contributing to this kind of projects. Another one of Bezroukov s (1999) suggestions is that one source of motivation could be the competition between commercial software development and open source software development. Famous contributor to OSS community, Linus Torvalds, said in his interview that he published the source code of the Linux kernel because it was natural within the community (Torvalds, 1998). Torvalds continues that one of the main reasons why he wants to contribute to the open source society, is that it is fun to program and Torvalds thinks that this also applies to the rest of the open source community contributors (Torvalds & Diamond, 2001). Contributing to OSS communities can also build a reputation that can be useful when people are seeking for occupational career. Motivation factors can be found also if we compare open source community to social movements which are studied in social sciences. Open source community can be seen as a social movement, even though it is not a typical one. Klandermans (1997) says that motivation of participants in social movements depends on three different models. Collective motives mean that people are more willing to contribute to social movement if they value the goals of the movement and the more likely the person perceives the attainment of these goals. Social motives mean that people are more willing to contribute in social movements if their significant others react positively to their contribution. Reaction also depends on how important this significant other is to the contributor. Reward motives mean that people are more willing to contribute to social movements the higher and more likely the expected gains are perceived (Hertel et al., 2003.) Also identification in specific group could be the motivational factor for people participating in social movement. People are more willing to contribute to specific social movement when they are identified as a person belonging to that specific group. (Simon, Loewy, Stürmer, Weber, Freytag, Habig, & Spahlinger, 1998.) Hertel (2002) has developed a VIST model that gathers the main components which affect the motivation to work in virtual teams. Valence means that the motivation to work in virtual teams is higher if the person appreciates the goals of the team high. Instrumentality means that if the contributor feels that his work matters in the virtual team, the more motivated he is. Self efficacy means that if the team member feels that he can not accomplish his task in the team, his motivation will be lowered even if he values
the goals of the team. Trust means that virtual team contributor s work is not reciprocated and exploited by other members in the team, and that equipment needed in the work works reliably. 3.1 Intrinsic Motivation in OSS Projects A lot of contributors in OSS Projects are driven by the pure enjoyment of coding; they simply enjoy coding and that is enough of a motivator for contributing (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). The passion for the trade is the motivational factor that is the easiest to recognise as an intrinsic motivator, whereas some of the other factors are not so clear but rather have features of both categories. Another important intrinsic motivator for OSS contributors is the desire to help other people by sharing their expertise and professional competence (Hars & Ou, 2002). This kind of altruism is not something to be relied on purely, however (Ye & Kishida, 2003, May). Also OSS ideology plays a big role for some of the contributors. The contributors may be contributing due to the wish to keep the software free (Hertel et al., 2003; Stewart & Gosain, 2006). Some of the contributors might also feel obliged to contribute because they themselves are using OSS (Wu, Gerlach & Young, 2007). Even though intrinsic motivation comes from within a person, it can be reinforced by recognizing and rewarding person s contributions (Ye & Kishida, 2003, May). 3.2 Extrinsic Motivation in OSS Projects The intrinsic motivation being the most common and the strongest reason driving contributors in OSS projects (Hann et al., 2004), they may also be extrinsically ie. socially motivated (Hars & Ou, 2002; Ye & Kishida, 2003, May). The contributor might, for example, feel the need to fix a bug or implement a new feature for their own needs in a software that they themselves use (CED, 2006). Contributing in an OSS project can also help for an inexperienced developer to gain reputation and demonstrate their talent to possible future employers (Lerner & Tirole, 2002; Hars & Ou, 2001). On top of that, contributing is a good way to enhance one s programming expertise, especially because the initiators of OSS projects are often tops of their fields and thus the source code is a good source of knowledge (Lakhani & Wolf, 2005; Hars & Ou, 2001). 3.3 Learning as an Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Factor Ye & Kishida s (2003, May) study states that learning is one of the major motivational factors in OSS projects. Learning provides both intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. Extrinsic satisfaction comes from the role transformation which is enabled by learning. Often OSS projects are initiated from the original developer s motivation to learn. The initiators are usually highly skilled professionals so other developers can learn and improve their own skills by reading their code. The contributors learning opportunities are not limited to passive code reading, but they can also learn by doing, ie. contributing themselves. OSS Initiators may want to explore and find ways to do things differently or solve problems. This is called explorative learning and it has been a starting point for many OSS projects. Learning in OSS projects is not a result from direct teaching but rather learning by doing. That way learner wants to deepen his or her understanding by doing tasks in practise with existing knowledge and that way get better. Ye & Kishida (2003, May) introduce hackers as an
example of a group that enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems by doing, not theorizing. Learning being such an important motivational factor in OSS projects, it is important for the core members of the project to try and create an environment that supports its participants learning possibilities; the more experienced developers should remember that they are a learning resource for the less experienced. Even when starting an OSS projects it should be considered whether the project offers enough learning opportunities to attract sufficient number of contributors. (Ye & Kishida, 2003, May.) There is also a lesson to learn for educators; since learning is good for motivation, they should be encouraged to use OSS projects as means of teaching programming in schools (Dvorak, 2001). OSS project source code should also be used in schools for teaching reading and understanding of code and stressing the importance of understanding code (Aoki, Hayashi, Kishida, Nakakoji, Nishinaka, Reeves, Takashima & Yamamoto, 2001). 3.4 Financial Rewards in OSS Projects Contrary to a common belief, financial rewards may, on top of the obvious positive impact on a person s extrinsic motivation, also have negative impact on contributors intrinsic motivation in OSS projects (Frey, 1994). This phenomenon is called motivation crowding (Alexy & Leitner, 2010). Sometimes financial rewards may be seen as controlling instead of informational indicators of competence and contributors might feel that they are losing the freedom to choose how much time and effort they want to give for the project (Deci & Ryan, 1999). Also some studies have given indication that pay for performance type rewards might have negative effects of individuals creativity (Ederer & Manso 2008). It seems that financial rewards have negative impact on a person s motivation in projects where financial rewards are seen socially inappropriate (Alexy & Leitner, 2010). There are different ways to reward contributors financially, and also different ways in which financial rewards may affect contributors motivation. Organizational sponsorship has proven to increase interest in OSS projects (Stewart, Ammeter, and Maruping, 2006). The effect on contributors intrinsic motivation seems to be affected by financial rewards both positively and negatively, depending on payment norm (Alexy & Leitner, 2010). On OSS projects, the common motivator being voluntary, a norm against payment might exist (Ghosh, 2006; Hars & Ou, 2002; Hertel et al. 2003; Wichmann, 2002). In 2006 two thirds of all OSS development work was done without getting financial rewards (Ghosh, 2006). There are, however, some specific fields in OSS world where financial rewards are expected, namely the field of embedded Linux (Henkel, 2006). While financial rewards may have negative impact on a person s intrinsic motivation, at the same time it might increase their extrinsic motivation (Frey, 1994). In these cases, the overall effect on total motivation seems to be positive (Alexy & Leitner, 2010). Often financial rewards have positive effect on motivation short term, but lose it in the long run (Bénabou & Tirole, 2003). Studies indicate that financial rewards have more effect on developers that have no previous OSS experience (Alexy & Leitner, 2010). There are times when financial rewards are especially beneficial. They can be offered for mundane and uninteresting tasks nobody would be interested otherwise. Also infrequent and unexpected
prizes don t suffer from motivation crowding. (Deci & Ryan, 1999.) OSS projects offering financial rewards can be seen to have higher survival rate which may attract people to participate (Alexy & Leitner, 2010). 3.5 Motivation Described With Social Psychological Functions What does a contributor gain when he or she participates in OSS projects? What they get and one s motivation for participating OSS projects as a volunteer can be described with five social psychological functions (Hann et al., 2004). Same kind of divisions can be found in Hars & Ou (2001). First of all, people have needs to be esteemed by other people. That is why motivation to contribute to the OSS projects can be found from gaining the respect of one s peer group such as a college campus or an online community. This is called normative function (Hann et al., 2004) or peer recognition (Hars & Ou, 2001). Open source developers usually have strong will to follow values of the open source community. Values function is participating OSS projects with believing values and beliefs of the organization (Hann et al., 2004). For example a contributor participates because he or she thinks that software should be free in a sense of OSSD. Of course practise makes us better in every way and this is true for software development as well. Some participants want to develop themselves and learn something new in order to utilize that skill later on. This is considered to be an understanding function and of course in wider scale, one might want to have some career related skills too that makes he or she individual motivated by career ralated function. (Hann et al., 2004). Working and participating in open source software projects is an effective way to demonstrate one s capability and skillfulness in for example programming (Hars & Ou, 2001). Learning can be one of the main motivators for developers to participate in OSS projects. For OSS developers, it provides the intrinsic satisfaction. It can also provide the role transformation in OSS communities like learning offers for the extrinsic motivation. (Ye & Kishida, 2003, May). Contributor may want to improve their self esteem or personal growth by participating in OSS projects. This kind of motivation to volunteer is considered as an ego enhancement function. (Hann et al., 2004.) Hann et al. (2004) provide an interesting conclusion that indicates that contributors are mostly motivated contributing by higher use value for their own purpose. Also contributors may participate because of the recreational value of coding, and some, who are interested in their future careers, by considerations for future career concerns. 4. Conclusions It has been an interesting process to study the motivation of contributors in OSS projects. There are many different aspects affecting a person s motivation, some of which are intrinsic ie. come from within a person and other are extrinsic i.e. social. The obvious motivator money does not seem to be playing such a big role in OSS projects as one might think. Instead, it seems, that monetary rewards sometimes even cause motivation crowding and thus decrease a person s motivation. For many contributors it is also important that they can decide how much time and effort they want to spend on a project on any given period of time, and monetary rewards might make them feel obliged to work more than they re hoping for. Instead of money, the main motivators for contributors seem to be the enjoyment of coding
and learning. Hann et al. (2004) concluded also, that contributors may participate by their own purpose and for future career concern. Participating in an OSS project could be a status subject when applying for jobs in the future, but that, in our opinion depends mostly on the company that is going to hire you. Learning is an important motivational factor because it fulfills both, a person s intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. OSS projects in particular are a good source of learning material. Since the source code is open, anyone can learn by reading source code. The learning process is not limited to passive reading only, but anyone can also learn by doing, that is, by implementing their own contributions. On top of those two reasons, OSS projects are a good source for learning because they tend to attract highly skilled professionals. Especially the initiators of OSS projects are often tops of their fields and thus the source code is often innovative and well written. OSS project contributions are a good way for beginner programmers to show their abilities and gain reputation and skills. On open source projects a person can show the source code to a prospective employer, unlike in closed source projects. Open source projects might also be the only way for an inexperienced developer to be able to participate in a real life project development. One of the main attractions in OSS is the freedom and flexibility of the software. The user of the software is free to implement a new feature to the software or fix a bug they need for their own use. This is called scratching a personal itch and is a very common factor driving contributors. There was a relatively large amount of previous studies to be found. Some of them, however, were not quite as recent as we could have hoped for. The OSS world has changed remarkably in the last decade; it has grown and more and more OSS projects now have paid contributors working for them whereas before most of the contributors were working for free. This is quite interesting regarding the results what studies have shown about monetary rewards as a motivational factor. This probably has changed the norm of payment and thus affected the impact of financial rewards on contributors motivation. For future research it would be interesting to study how OSS projects have changed and how the change has affected motivational factors. Another interesting topic to research would be the company aspect of motivational factors in OSS. Future research could study what motivates companies to move to open source and how the companies motivate contributors. In chapter 3.3 we write about learning as a motivational factor and how educators should utilise open source projects as a means of teaching in schools. There is yet another topic needing more research. We found some information about this in the articles we read but it would be interesting to know more and see results and examples of how OSS projects are and can be used. Also a study comparing the motivational factors of open source projects to commercial ones could be something worth considering. 5. References Alexy, O. & Leitner, M. (2010). A Fistful of Dollars: Financial Rewards, Payment Norms, and Motivation Crowding in Open Source Software Development.
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