Motivations in FLOSS communities (aka the Chocolate talk) Sébastien Heymann - Gephi Consortium http://sebastien.pro [email protected]
Motivation in FLOSS communities
Nov 01, 2014
Why contribute? “I did it for teh lulz” R. Stallman
Most of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) developers are not paid to contribute, so why do they work anyway? In this talk, we’ll investigate the motivations of individual contributors. We’ll put them in perspective with recent studies on motivations and communities of practice. In particular, we’ll see that distinguishing internal vs external incentives is a key to understand why FOSS communities are able to attract and keep contributors around the production of a software…
Presented at http://fossa.inria.fr/fr/program/community
Dec 6, 2012
Most of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) developers are not paid to contribute, so why do they work anyway? In this talk, we’ll investigate the motivations of individual contributors. We’ll put them in perspective with recent studies on motivations and communities of practice. In particular, we’ll see that distinguishing internal vs external incentives is a key to understand why FOSS communities are able to attract and keep contributors around the production of a software…
Presented at http://fossa.inria.fr/fr/program/community
Dec 6, 2012
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Motivations in FLOSS communities
(aka the Chocolate talk)Sébastien Heymann - Gephi Consortium
http://sebastien.pro [email protected]
Some words about me...
Community manager of the Gephi project.I democratize network thinking.
PhD candidate in complex networks @LIP6.I love chocolates too :)
Motivations in studying motivations
Who would be likely to contribute to my project?
How to attract skilled developers?
Who is worth the time spent?
What win-win deals can we make?
"In many ways, I actually think the real idea of open source is for it to allow everybody to be 'selfish', not about trying to get everybody to
contribute to some common good.[...]
Now, those selfish reasons by no means need to be about 'financial reward', though."
Interview of L. Torvalds for the BBC, June 2012
"When I started making a living writing add-ons and other Mozilla software, I felt I needed
to give something back [...]. So there were altruistic and selfish reasons mixed together."
Interview of B. King (Mozilla volunteer) by Tristan Nitot, Dec 2012
Plan: beyond altruism vs selfishness
1. Why motivation matters?2. Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation.3. Why care about intrinsic motivation?4. Open questions.
3. Why motivation matters?image: The Big Lebowski
Key issues in FLOSS communities
Fast evolution! need for creativity.
Contributors are not paid most of the time.
Contributions based on free will.
Willingness to cooperate.
Contributors?
People who:
● develop● communicate● manage● use and spread the word● ...
Why contribute for FREE?
What about you?
for glory?
for t3h lulz? :)
for White Russians?
What about them?
R. Stallman L. Torvalds
For personal values
R. Stallman
"I refuse to break solidarity with other users. [...] So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have decided to put together a sufficient body of free software..."
The GNU Manifesto [online], 1985
For social status
L. Torvalds
"I have enough recognition that I feel good about myself, that I know that what I'm doing is actually meaningful to people."
Linux Manifesto [online], 1998
2. Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivationimage: AllTheRageFaces.com
dude, come on
Motivation: what makes [a dude] engaged for something. (Deci & Ryan, 1985)
Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation:Something is "valued for its own sake and appears to be self sustained".(Calder & Straw, 1975)
Extrinsic motivation:Something is perceived as an investment.(Deci & Ryan, 1985)
Some intrinsic incentives
Feeling of being skilled and being proud of something.
Joy to give and be useful.
Aesthetic/creative pleasure.
To satisfy some personal values, like freedom.
Some extrinsic (positive) incentives
Money, rewards.
Source code for personal needs.
Positive feedbacks.
Social status / reputation.
3. Why care about intrinsic motivation?
People with high intrinsic motivations are great
contributors.
"People for whom [the pure artistic satisfaction of designing beautiful software
and making it work] is not a significant motivation never become hackers in the first
place, just as people who don't love music never become composers."
- Homesteading the Noosphere, chap.7, 2000 E. Raymond
Benefits of intrinsic motivations
Better creativity.
Faster learning.
Increased autonomy of contributors.
Better code.
FLOSS communities: we may not have oil, but we have
intrinsic motivation.
How to get intrinsic motivations high?
Take care of contributors':● autonomy,● emotional attachment (to the project),● skills evolution.
How to get intrinsic motivations high?
Take care of contributors':● autonomy,● emotional attachment (to the project),● skills evolution.
Intrinsic motivation increases when one:● feels that he/she has the control,● and receives positive, detailed feedback.
"Individuals join for various reasons, and no one reason tends to dominate
the community." (Lakhani & Wolf, 2003)
Why not increasing both types of motivation?
"Hidden costs of rewards"
Increase of extrinsic motivations=>
Increase of the feeling of external control=>
decrease of intrinsic motivations
Lepper & Greene, 1978
"Hidden costs of rewards"
Increase of extrinsic motivations=>
Increase of the feeling of external control=>
decrease of intrinsic motivations
Lepper & Greene, 1978
/!\ hybrid communitiesIf some people are paid to contribute, the motivation of the other people may decrease.
Conclusion: good communities are motivation dealers.
Contributors come with various reasons.
Taking care of intrinsic incentives seems to be a key to improve contributions.
A good balance may be hard to reach: critical issue for open source business ecosystems.
3 open questions
How to better understand the motivations of FLOSS contributors?
How motivations evolvealong the way?
Can we extract some advices for FLOSS community management?
Some references
Communautés de Logiciel Libre : écosystème des motivations, S. Heymann, 2009 [PDF].The self perception of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Calder B. & Straw B., in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, n°31, pp.599-605, 1975.Intrinsic motivation in a new light, Lindenberg S., in Kylos, n°54 pp.317-342, 2001.Le logiciel libre et la communauté autorégulée, Meyer M. & Montagne F., in Les carnets du centre de philosophie du Droit, n°113, 2005.Intrinsic motivation and self-determination of behavior, Deci E. & Ryan R., Plenum Press, New York, 1985.Linux Manifesto [online], 1998.Les motivations des développeurs dans l’Open Source Une revue de la littérature, Jean-Jacques Gauguier, 2005 [PDF].Lakhani K. & Wolf R., Why hackers do what they do : Understanding motivation effort in free/open source software projects, MIT Sloan School of Management (2003), no. 4425-03.
Credits
Slide 1: Chocolates, by J. Paxon Reyes, under CC by-nc 2.0.Slide 2: Screenshot of Gephi 0.7.Slide 6: Image from The Big Lebowski, 1998.Slide 9: Dude Vinci, by Colin Cotterill, from https://dudeism.com/.Slide 10, 11: Richard Stallman gives a talk on Free Software and Copyright law at The University of Pittsburgh, by Victor Powell, under CC by-sa 3.0.Slide 10, 12: Linus Torvalds, Linuxmag.com, under CC by-sa 3.0.Slide 13: AllTheRageFaces.com.Slide 18: Focus Shift, 2008.Slide 28: Chocolate mocha, by Debbie R, under CC by-nc-nd 2.0.
Related Documents
