An empirical analysis of open source software developers’ motivations and continuance intentions

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chorng-Guang Wu ◽  
James H. Gerlach ◽  
Clifford E. Young
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Software Developers

Evidence-Based Assurance to Support Process Quality in the F/OSS Community

2007 ◽  
pp. 120-146
Author(s):  
Anas Tawileh ◽  
Omer F. Rana ◽  
Wendy Ivins ◽  
Stephen McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Development Process ◽  
End Users ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
Substantial Growth ◽  
Development Processes

This chapter investigates the quality issues of the free and open source software (F/OSS) development processes. It argues that software developed within the F/OSS paradigm has witnessed substantial growth rates within the software developers’ community. However, end users from outside the community are still sceptical about adopting F/OSS because of the perceived lack of quality assurance mechanisms within the F/OSS development process. The authors aim to promote higher adoption of F/OSS artefacts outside the developers’ community by exploring possibilities to provide appropriate evidence based assurances that F/OSS artefacts will meet the quality levels expected by users.

scholarly journals USABILITY IN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: OPINIONS AND PRACTICE

2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Sieker Andreasen ◽  
Henrik Villemann Nielsen ◽  
Simon Ormholt Schrøder ◽  
Jan Stage
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Usability Evaluation ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
Commercial Software ◽  
Proprietary Software

Open Source Software (OSS) development has gained significant importance in the production of soft-ware products. Open Source Software developers have produced systems with a functionality that is competitive with similar proprietary software developed by commercial software organizations. Yet OSS is usually designed for and by power-users, and OSS products have been criticized for having little or no emphasis on usability. We have conducted an empirical study of the developers’ opinions about usability and the way usability engineering is practiced in a variety of OSS projects. The study included a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews, where we interviewed OSS contributors with both technical and usability backgrounds. Overall we found that OSS developers are interested in usability, but in practice it is not top priority, and OSS projects rarely employs systematic usability evaluation. Most of the efforts are based on common sense. Most developers have a very limited understanding of usability, and there is a lack of resources and evaluation methods fitting into the OSS paradigm.

Motivation of Open Source Developers

2011 ◽  
pp. 233-249
Author(s):  
Mark R. Allyn ◽  
Ram B. Misra
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Organizational Design ◽  
Source Code ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
Open Source Code ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Many ◽  
And Control ◽  
Work Done

The motivational drivers of open source software developers have been researched by various investigators since about 2000. This work shows that developers are motivated by different extrinsic and intrinsic drivers, among them community aspirations, reciprocity and fairness, creative impulses, and monetary and career ambitions. There has been some work done in studying whether the profile of developer motivations is constant across open source projects or is sensitive to project organizational design. Among the many factors that could influence the mix of motives of OS developers is the license under which the work is performed. Licenses range in openness between those such as the GNU GPL that severely restrict the freedom of developers to mingle their OS code with proprietary code to those such as BSD licenses which allow programmers much greater latitude in integrating open source code with proprietary code. In addition to formal rules, meritocracies emerge to reward effort and performance, and also to direct, coordinate, and control other participants. The authors discuss these variables and how they may be related to motivations.

The realities of Free/Libre/Open Source Software developers in Japan and Asia

First Monday ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Shimizu ◽  
Jun Iio ◽  
Kazuo Hiyane
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Web Site ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The West ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
The World ◽  
Asian Languages

A variety of individuals around the world are furthering development of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) through the Internet. Why do they participate in developers’ communities and continue to develop FLOSS? Is their treatment enough to sustain their activities? Surveys, using online questionnaires, were conducted to answer these questions to analyze the FLOSS movement sociologically. However these surveys tend to focus on developers in the West. We decided to see if there are regional differences in FLOSS development. To that end, we conducted two surveys, the FLOSS–JP survey in Japanese and the FLOSS–ASIA survey in other Asian languages. In this paper, we describe regional differences, especially among Asian and Japanese FLOSS developers and compare the results to those from Western FLOSS surveys. Detailed reports of FLOSS–JP/ASIA are available at our Web site (MRI, 2004)

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