Intrinsic motivation in open source software development

This papers sheds light on the puzzling evidence that even though open source software (OSS) is a public good, it is developed for free by highly qualified, young and motivated individuals, and evolves at a rapid pace. We show that once OSS development is understood as the private provision of a public good, these features emerge quite naturally. We adapt a dynamic private-provision- of-public-goods model to reflect key aspects of the OSS phenomenon. In particular, instead of relying on extrinsic motives for programmers (e.g. signaling) the present model is driven by intrinsic motives of OSS programmers, such as user-programmers, play value or homo ludens payoff, and gift culture benefits. Such intrinsic motives feature extensively in the wider OSS literature and contribute new insights to the economic analysis

Abstracts of Papers Presented at the Seventy-Eight Annual Meeting, Virginia Academy of Science, May 23-26, 2000, Radford University, Radford, VA

This document is a list of the abstracts of papers presented at the seventy-eighth meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science that took place at Radford University on May 23 through the 26th, 2000

Dynamic capabilities and project characteristics contributing to the success of open source software projects

Nowadays, numerous organisations from different industries and sectors have adopted Open Source Software (OSS) applications, because OSS development has come to be known as a reliable alternative to proprietary software that has the ability to produce cheap software of high quality. However, despite the increasing adoption of OSS applications, most OSS projects are abandoned after a while and experience failure. The objective of this research, therefore, is to extract the factors that drive success in OSS projects by developing and testing a research model that examines the influences of project characteristics and capabilities on the success of OSS projects. To test the relationships hypothesised, I collected data from 1409 OSS projects in a longitudinal fashion (over a period of 16 months). Results derived from my analysis show the following: (1) the number of operating systems with which an OSS project is compatible, the number of spoken languages into which a project is translated, using the OSS community’s preferred programming languages and project age positively impact OSS project success; (2) OSS projects’ capabilities of defect-removal, functionality-enhancement and release management are positively associated with their success; (3) the three measures of OSS project success – namely, user interest, developer interest and development sustainability – are interrelated; (4) overall, project characteristics and project capabilities have more or less equal predictive value to explain user interest, whereas project capabilities have relatively stronger predictive value to explain developer interest than project characteristics; and (5) although few of the relationships proposed are found to change over time, the longitudinal part of this research explores a temporal persistence in the relationship between OSS project success and its determinants in this study (that is, project characteristics and capabilities). In addition to having significant implications for research and theory, this study has several implications for managers of OSS projects, corporations that are interested in adopting OSS products, potential OSS sponsors, the OSS developer community and OSS hosting portals

The 2004 NASA Faculty Fellowship Program Research Reports

This is the administrative report for the 2004 NASA Faculty Fellowship Program (NFFP) held at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for the 40th consecutive year. The NFFP offers science and engineering faculty at U.S. colleges and universities hands-on exposure to NASA s research challenges through summer research residencies and extended research opportunities at participating NASA research Centers. During this program, fellows work closely with NASA colleagues on research challenges important to NASA's strategic enterprises that are of mutual interest to the fellow and the Center. The nominal starting and .nishing dates for the 10-week program were June 1 through August 6, 2004. The program was sponsored by NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, and operated under contract by The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Alabama A&M University. In addition, promotion and applications are managed by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and assessment is completed by Universities Space Research Association (USRA). The primary objectives of the NFFP are to: Increase the quality and quantity of research collaborations between NASA and the academic community that contribute to the Agency s space aeronautics and space science mission. Engage faculty from colleges, universities, and community colleges in current NASA research and development. Foster a greater public awareness of NASA science and technology, and therefore facilitate academic and workforce literacy in these areas. Strengthen faculty capabilities to enhance the STEM workforce, advance competition, and infuse mission-related research and technology content into classroom teaching. Increase participation of underrepresented and underserved faculty and institutions in NASA science and technology

Open Collaborative Mechanical / Product Design - User as Developer A New Design Methodology for Internet Era Business Innovations and Entrepreneurship

In product design and development projects, the most important part is identifying user needs. Traditional methods such as surveys, focus group studies and interviews are expensive and sometime inaccurate in identifying those needs. Inspired by the open source software development, along with the research that has been done on the lead user method, the method of using collective customer wisdom to modify old products or even develop new products has become an emerging new design method and is starting to get popularity and success. However, the effectiveness of such method comparing to the traditional face to face close development method is a question that keeping established businesses from apply such method. At the same time, failures of early attempts to use such methods also cast doubts about the quality of this method. We set up two experiments to compare this method and the traditional face to face method, and found out that the effectiveness of both methods were about the same. Problems of implementing such method also emerged from the experiment, possible solutions are discussed, and future studies are also identified. Comparing this method to the open source software design, there is one stage of the development that is unique for mechanical products. The prototyping and manufacturing of mechanical products involved cost and quality control issues that don\u27t exist in software development. We conducted an experiment of applying a collaborative open design approach to test the possibility and necessity of applying such design method during prototype fabrication. Our results showed that open collaborative design is necessary to identify true customer needs. A product prototyping and manufacturing method is also proposed for real world practice. The open collaborative design method is new and is not easily adopted by established businesses, as they are often reluctant to implement new approaches. Entrepreneurs can usually take advantage of this situation and establish their share of the market, even possibly driving out the established businesses later on. We argue that the open collaborative design method is one such technology. Future research and practice is proposed and discussed

Benthic community structure and function along salinity and elevation gradients in the Humber Estuary

Biological Traits Analysis (BTA) is increasingly being applied together with taxonomic and structural analysis in marine and estuarine studies of the benthos, to link species characteristics to ecosystem function. An investigation was made of benthic community structure and function along salinity and elevation gradients in the Humber Estuary, UK. The project aim was to establish whether community structure and function changed along either gradient. Samples were taken at three sites from inner to outer estuary and analysed in terms of abundance, biomass, diversity, species richness and taxonomic composition. Biological Traits Analysis (BTA) was applied to the same data, selecting thirteen traits with links to ecosystem functioning. Most aspects of community structure differed with change in abiotic gradient, particularly species richness, biomass and taxonomic composition. BTA results were similar, showing different profiles of trait expression along the salinity gradient, and along elevation gradients at two sites. Traits that showed clear sensitivity to abiotic factors, as well as links to function, were bioturbation, feeding traits, habitat, body size and reproductive traits. Although trait profiles changed, a loss of function was not always apparent as differences were in terms of proportions rather than presence or absence. Potential functional loss was indicated in some cases, particularly where traits with links bioturbatory activities were absent. Overall, BTA did not give a particularly different result to taxonomic analysis but it did show potential, with development, to increase understanding of benthic community links to ecosystem function

Developing biodiversity indicators and economic valuations for created grasslands in the UK

The thesis is an investigation in to a quick and easy means of establishing the ecosystem service provision of a created grassland and applying an economic value to these services. Biodiversity indicators are first explored in a literature review. Common statistical techniques are then employed to identify relevant bio-indicators of created grasslands from first-hand data collected from sourced fieldwork study sites. Economic values of ecosystem service provision in grasslands are then extracted from papers sourced from a systematic review. These values, and their explanatory variables, are modelled to establish variation in economic estimates. Benchmarking figures of goal grassland ecosystem service provision are established based on theory. Crucially, a link between ecological data and economic values is ascertained. This allows an Excel model to be designed allowing users to estimate economic value of grasslands based on on-site recordings of identified bio-indicators

Knowledge and Management Models for Sustainable Growth

In the last years sustainability has become a topic of global concern and a key issue in the strategic agenda of both business organizations and public authorities and organisations. Significant changes in business landscape, the emergence of new technology, including social media, the pressure of new social concerns, have called into question established conceptualizations of competitiveness, wealth creation and growth. New and unaddressed set of issues regarding how private and public organisations manage and invest their resources to create sustainable value have brought to light. In particular the increasing focus on environmental and social themes has suggested new dimensions to be taken into account in the value creation dynamics, both at organisations and communities level. For companies the need of integrating corporate social and environmental responsibility issues into strategy and daily business operations, pose profound challenges, which, in turn, involve numerous processes and complex decisions influenced by many stakeholders. Facing these challenges calls for the creation, use and exploitation of new knowledge as well as the development of proper management models, approaches and tools aimed to contribute to the development and realization of environmentally and socially sustainable business strategies and practices