SUMMARY

UNDERSTANDING THE MOTIVATIONS, PARTICIPATION, AND

PERFORMANCE OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS: A
LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF THE APACHE PROJECTS

JEFFERY A. ROBERTS – IL-HORN HANN – SANDRA A. SLAUGHTER

Understanding what motivates the participation of developers is considered

“the central theme in the research of open source software (OSS)
development.” Because “OSS communities cannot exist or prosper without
the contributions of highly motivated developers (…)”

The study focuses on analyzing which are the different motivations of OSS
developers focusing on 4 main elements: What motivates their participation;
how different motivations are interrelated; how these influence participation
and performance; how past performance influences subsequent
motivations.

The approach chosen

was based on a
theoretical frame work
that looks at the
interrelation of
motivations, drawing on
theories of intrinsic1 and
extrinsic2 motivations.

The analysis looked at

how the motivations of
contributors were
interrelated. Were there
independent,
complementary or
contradictory
motivations?

In addition, there was also said to occur situations of Internalized Extrinsic

Motivations; when individuals make otherwise extrinsic motivations their
own (e.g.: Status and Career Opportunities – which arise from other
increasing recognition from other people, but the individual has it as a basic
need of his)

Because of these different motivations; it is important to understand which

types of motivations are likely to generate more (or less) participation in the
Apache Open Source Software community, examining the relationships
between the different motivations. Roberts et al. considered this (OSS

1
Satisfaction of Basic human needs (ex: competence, control, autonomy)
2
Page 985 “External to the Task and is usually applied by someone other than the
person being motivated” (ex: being paid to contribute)
Projects) a rich source to examine because of the importance that each
contributor had in a context where there was “high degree of autonomy and
self-determination and are valued for their competence”. Out of 1,301
requests, 288 developers responded to the survey to test the 13 hypotheses
laid out (see page 988-990 for details).

Although it is not unusual for companies to employ programmers that

specifically contribute to OSS projects (e.g.: “Time Warner’s in Mozilla; and
IBM’s involvement in Linux and Apache”) the main reason identified by
some studies for participation is use value.

The Results obtained, based on a statistical framework, showed four main

insights.

1. Contributors have multiple motivations to participate in OSS projects

and that some motivations are complementary, whereas others are
not. Not all motivations are “mutually reinforcing” as Markus et al.
2001 pointed out, and there is no hard evidence that extrinsic
motivations crowd out intrinsic motivations. However, status
motivations do enhance intrinsic motivations. The possibility to
contribute so as to further someone’s career seems to be shown. On
the other hand, being paid to contribute is negatively associated with
contributors’ use-value motivations.

2. Not all motivations affect OSS participation equally or in the same

way. As they had predicted, being paid to contribute and status
motivations (extrinsic motivations) set above-average participations
levels. However, contrary to expectations, intrinsic motivations
(personal enjoyment) and use value motivations have actually not
translated into higher levels of code contribution. This is seen to be
consistent with Sansone and Smith (2000) “that without motivations
that help to sustain interest, individuals could lose interest over time,
even in activities they have previously found motivating.”

3. Apache meritocracy promotes contributions effectively, because

promotions within the community are correctly based on actual
contributions from participants directly to the Apache projects.

4. Past-Performance rankings enhance some motivations for

participating but not others. These ranking positively affected
participation due to status motives, but such association was not
found regarding intrinsic and use value motivations. Primarily
because the ranks do not offer details on reported contribution and
any feedback on performance to affect the other motivations, besides
status.

Overall, the results show that OSS communities should welcome

commercial efforts by companies. In addition a feedback system would
increase past-performance and status motivations which are shown do
increase participation levels.

Other positive aspect of the study relate to the collection of data over a 4-
year period and the numerical approach used allowed for hindsight into
suggestions on improvement to OSS communities.
Nonetheless, some limitations regarding the sample size and the sole focus
on the Apache OSS community to limit some of the obtained conclusions.
Moreover, there are other psychological motivations which could have been
analyzed, for example in situations where people feel obligated to
participate, due to impending moral argument which someone might feel
after the first few contributions.