Crowdsourcing and open source software participation

Crowdsourcing is a phenomenon involving the use of volunteers to accomplish a goal or objective (often work). Individuals, businesses, and government agencies find it possible to harness the participation of volunteers to design products and complete project work. Simply stated, Open Source Software (OSS) is crowdsourcing applied to software development. OSS-based systems have become an important source of computing products, through operating systems such as Linux, Web services through Apache, or desktop environments such as Gnome. This study affords a through literature review developed within a discussion of the common motivations and relationships between crowdsourcing and OSS. It contributes to the literature by providing useful insights which researchers and organizations can utilize to leverage crowdsourcing and OSS concepts in addressing their efforts.

[1]  Michael J. Gallivan,et al.  Striking a balance between trust and control in a virtual organization: a content analysis of open source software case studies , 2001, Inf. Syst. J..

[2]  Jürgen Bitzer,et al.  Who contributes voluntarily to OSS? An investigation among German IT employees , 2010 .

[3]  L. Jeppesen,et al.  Getting Unusual Suspects to Solve R&D Puzzles , 2007 .

[4]  S. Cook.  THE CONTRIBUTION REVOLUTION : Letting Volunteers Build Your Business , 2008 .

[5]  R. Chun,et al.  To Thine Own Staff Be Agreeable , 2007 .

[6]  D. Ariely,et al.  The 'IKEA Effect': When Labor Leads to Love , 2011 .

[7]  Andrea Bonaccorsi,et al.  Entry Strategies Under Competing Standards: Hybrid Business Models in the Open Source Software Industry , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[8]  Bo Xu,et al.  Volunteers' involvement in online community based software development , 2009, Inf. Manag..

[9]  Don Tapscott,et al.  Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything , 2006 .

[10]  Hsiangchu Lai,et al.  Knowledge Management: A Review of Industrial Cases , 2002, J. Comput. Inf. Syst..

[11]  J. Zittrain.  The Future of the Internet , 2008 .

[12]  P. W. Singer,et al.  Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century , 2009 .

[13]  Eric S. Raymond,et al.  The cathedral and the bazaar - musings on Linux and Open Source by an accidental revolutionary , 2001 .

[14]  Bern Shen,et al.  Toward cross-sectoral team science. , 2008, American journal of preventive medicine.

[15]  Jonathan L. Zittrain,et al.  The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It , 2008 .

[16]  Brian A Vander Schee.  Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business , 2009 .

[17]  Amy Maxmen,et al.  Driving Innovation: Ready, Set, Go! , 2010, Cell.

[18]  Frank Kleemann,et al.  Un(der)paid innovators: the commercial utilization of consumer work through crowdsourcing , 2008 .

[19]  Giampaolo Garzarelli,et al.  Open source software and economic growth: A classical division of labor perspective , 2008 .

[20]  Xiaogang Chen,et al.  Virtual organizational learning in open source software development projects , 2009, Inf. Manag..

[21]  Jeff Howe,et al.  Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business , 2008, Human Resource Management International Digest.

[22]  Sonali K. Shah.  Motivation, Governance, and the Viability of Hybrid Forms in Open Source Software Development , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[23]  Christian Wagner,et al.  The Role of Wiki Technology and Altruism in Collaborative Knowledge Creation , 2009, J. Comput. Inf. Syst..

[24]  Alexander Hars,et al.  Working for Free? Motivations for Participating in Open-Source Projects , 2002, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[25]  R. Florida.  The Rise of the Creative Class : And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life , 2003 .

[26]  M. Ewing,et al.  The rejection of brand hegemony , 2009 .

[27]  Yulin Fang,et al.  Understanding Sustained Participation in Open Source Software Projects , 2009, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[28]  Pär J. Ågerfalk,et al.  Outsourcing to an Unknown Workforce: Exploring Opensourcing as a Global Sourcing Strategy , 2008, MIS Q..