Review - How Open Source Software Works - ‘Free’ User-to-User Assistance

Lakhani, Karim R. “How Open Source Software Works: ‘Free’ User-to-User Assistance.” Research Policy, 2003, 21.

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.

Main arguments:

OS community organic field support system function effectively as evidenced in Apache community.

Almost all (98%) the effort expended by community information providers in fact return direct learning benefits to those providers themselves. The main motives to provide help are expected reciprocity, identification with the community cause, gain reputation or enhance career prospects, etc. One average, information providers involve quite small costs/time to answer posted questions. This explains why information providers are willing to perform this supportive task “for free”.

Key assumptions:

• Participation in the community brings intrinsic private benefits, such as learning, enjoyment and sense of ownership

• It typically took very limited amount of time/efforts to provide most of the off-the-shelf solution information

Questions:

• Does this organic community support work for all type of OS projects (less to learn), developer systems/tools, consumer products/apps? Can it scale to support greater number of users?

• How about other types of OS community contributions, testing, bug fixes, and new features? Tons of free data from GitHub API and popular forum software analytics.

• Does the quality of community support depend on the type of support system, in this case Usenet help forum, which have evolved into email list, web forum, chatroom, slack/discord, and specialized helpdesk service etc.?

• Are self-reported motivation and time cost estimation reliable (given the flow experience)?

• How does monetary bounty, virtual reward or gamification helps/impact these OS supports work, and customization development request?