Lessons from Volunteering and Free/Libre Open Source Software Development for the Future of Work

In this paper, we review research on voluntary organizations to identify key features of and problems in volunteer work and organizations. We then use the example of free/libre open source software (FLOSS) development teams to examine how those features and problems apply in this situation and how they might be affected by the use of information and communications technologies (ICT). We suggest that understanding volunteer organizations can illuminate the changing nature of all knowledge work, paid as well as unpaid.

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

[2]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Coordination without discussion? Socio-technical congruence and Stigmergy in Free and Open Source So , 2009 .

[3]  Christopher Podmore.  Information economics and policy: In the United States edited by Michael Rubin Libraries Unlimited, Littleton, CO 1983, 340 pp , 1984 .

[4]  Kouichi Kishida,et al.  Toward an understanding of the motivation of open source software developers , 2003, 25th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings..

[5]  Olivier Caya,et al.  Virtual Teams: What We Know, What We Don't Know , 2005, Int. J. e Collab..

[6]  Eric S. Raymond,et al.  Homesteading the Noosphere , 1998, First Monday.

[7]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  A Structurational Perspective on Leadership in Virtual Teams , 2007, Virtuality and Virtualization.

[8]  Eric A. von Hippel,et al.  How Open Source Software Works: 'Free' User-to-User Assistance? , 2000 .

[9]  Joseph F. Kavanagh,et al.  Resistance as Motivation for Innovation: Open Source Software , 2004, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[10]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  Computer-Mediated Inter-Organizational Knowledge-Sharing: Insights from a Virtual Team Innovating Using a Collaborative Tool , 2000, Inf. Resour. Manag. J..

[11]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Hierarchy and centralization in free and open source software team communications , 2006 .

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

[13]  J. Herbsleb,et al.  Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla , 2002, TSEM.

[14]  Rishab Aiyer Ghosh,et al.  Interview with Linus Torvalds: What motivates free software developers? , 1998, First Monday.

[15]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences , 2005 .

[16]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Discontinuities and continuities: a new way to understand virtual work , 2002, Inf. Technol. People.

[17]  J-P.A. Hobbs.  Free for all , 1994, Nature.

[18]  Nicolas Ducheneaut,et al.  Socialization in an Open Source Software Community: A Socio-Technical Analysis , 2005, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[19]  E. Wynn,et al.  Virtuality and Team Performance: Understanding the Impact of Variety of Practices , 2006 .

[20]  Audris Mockus,et al.  A case study of open source software development: the Apache server , 2000, Proceedings of the 2000 International Conference on Software Engineering. ICSE 2000 the New Millennium.

[21]  B. Butler.  When is a Group not a Group: An Empirical Examination of Metaphors for Online Social Structure , 2003 .

[22]  R. Ghosh.  Interview with Linus Torvalds: What motivates free software developers? , 1998, First Monday.

[23]  P. Dorfman,et al.  Leadership and Substitutes for Leadership Among Professional and Nonprofessional Workers , 1986, The Journal of applied behavioral science.

[24]  Stacey Kuznetsov,et al.  Motivations of contributors to Wikipedia , 2006, CSOC.

[25]  Budi Arief,et al.  focus developing with open source software The Many Meanings of Open Source , 2022 .

[26]  John M. Jermier,et al.  Substitutes for leadership: Their meaning and measurement , 1978 .

[27]  Karim R. Lakhani,et al.  Community, Joining, and Specialization in Open Source Software Innovation: A Case Study , 2003 .

[28]  H. Ernst,et al.  How Teamwork Matters More as Team Member Dispersion Increases , 2007 .

[29]  Ann Majchrzak,et al.  Radical Innovation Without Collocation: A Case Study at Boeing-Rocketdyne , 2001, MIS Q..

[30]  Ram A. Cnaan,et al.  Volunteers: The Organizational Behavior of Unpaid Workers , 1995 .

[31]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Bug Fixing Practices within Free/Libre Open Source Software Development Teams , 2008, J. Database Manag..

[32]  Francesco Rullani,et al.  Explaining leadership in virtual teams: The case of open source software , 2008, Inf. Econ. Policy.

[33]  Lee Sproull,et al.  Essence of Distributed Work: The Case of the Linux Kernel , 2000, First Monday.

[34]  Stacey Kuznetsov,et al.  Wikipedia: an informal survey of NYU students , 2006, Computer Science On-line Conference.

[35]  Roy T. Fielding,et al.  Shared leadership in the Apache project , 1999, CACM.

[36]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Shared Mental Models among Open Source Software Developers , 2008, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008).

[37]  Bert M. Sadowski,et al.  Transition of governance in a mature open software source community: Evidence from the Debian case , 2008, Inf. Econ. Policy.

[38]  J. Tirole,et al.  Some Simple Economics of Open Source , 2002 .

[39]  Sandra Slaughter,et al.  Why Developers Participate in Open Source Software Projects: An Empirical Investigation , 2004, ICIS.

[40]  Linus Dahlander,et al.  Relationships Between Open Source Software Companies and Communities: Observations from Nordic Firms , 2005 .

[41]  Mei Lu,et al.  How virtual are we? Measuring virtuality and understanding its impact in a global organization , 2005, Inf. Syst. J..

[42]  Roy T. Fielding,et al.  Economic Incentives for Participating in Open Source Software Projects , 2002, ICIS.

[43]  Udo Konradt,et al.  A Work Roles and Leadership Functions of Managers in Virtual Teams , 2007, Int. J. e Collab..

[44]  Georg von Krogh,et al.  Open Source Software and the "Private-Collective" Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[45]  Arthur A. Stukas,et al.  PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Understanding and Assessing the Motivations of Volunteers: A Functional Approach , 2004 .

[46]  W. Orman.  Giving it Away for Free? The Nature of Job-Market Signaling by Open-Source Software Developers , 2008 .