Motivation and Coordination in Libre Software Development A Stygmergic Simulation Perspective on Large Community-Mode Projects

This paper presents a stochastic simulation modeling tool used to study the implications of the mechanisms by which individual software developers’ efforts are allocated within large and complex open source software projects. It thus illuminates the role of different forms of “motivations-at-the-margin” in the micro-level resource allocation process of distributed and decentralized multi-agent engineering undertakings of this kind. The modeling approach is informed by micro-level empirical evidence regarding the distribution of motivational profiles of developers that participate in large, community mode libre (free and open source) software projects, and the model is parameterized by isolating the parameter ranges in which it generates structures of code that share certain macro-level empirical regularities that are found to characterize the dynamics of actual projects. It is found that in this empirically relevant range parameter a variety of different motivations are necessarily represented within the community of developers. There is, further, a correspondence between the indicated mixture of motivations and the distribution of avowed motivations for engaging in FLOSS development, found in the survey responses of developers who were participants in large projects. Some implications for the “management” of large volunteer peer-production organizations are discussed in the conclusion.