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"Motivations in Open Source Communities" January 6, 2003 - 10:30am POST 126, UH-Manoa with Karim Lakhani, MIT and Boston Consulting Group Free/open source software (F/OSS) is software for which the human-readable source code is made available to the user of the software, who can then modify the code in order to fit the software to the user's needs. When source code is made fully accessible programmers can read it, modify it, and redistribute it, thereby improving and adapting the software. In this manner the software evolves at a rate unmatched by traditional proprietary software. For many years free/open source software has been building momentum. Beginning amidst the technical cultures that produced the Internet and World Wide Web, it is now causing quite a stir in the commercial world as large software corporations are finding themselves competing against commercially available open source software. Preliminary results of a survey of open source participants suggests that: ? Participants note extremely high levels of creativity in their projects. ? Having fun, enhancing skills, access to source code and user needs drive contributions to the Open Source community. Defeating proprietary software companies is not a major motivator. ? The Open Source community is truly global in composition with respondents coming from 35 countries. ? Most participants dedicated at least 10 hours per week in their shared programming efforts ? Contrary to popular belief, the open source community is mostly comprised of highly skilled IT professionals who have on average over 10 years of programming experience. This free and open source software movement has piqued interest among scholars in disciplines ranging from sociology to economics to social psychology, and has raised questions in fields of application ranging from innovation processes to strategic management. As an aid to these scholars, the Free / Open Source Research Community has been established at MIT. By opening its research databases, it will establish a community of information exchange that will lead to a greater understanding of open source and it's applications. Join Karim R. Lakhani as he discusses motivations in open source communities. Karim is a doctoral student at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group. He is a co-founder of the MIT Open Source Research Project and runs the MIT based Open Source Research Community website. His research at MIT is focused on the management of technological innovation with a specific focus on coordination and innovation in open source communities. His work at BCG is focused on the intersection of emerging technologies, intellectual property and new organization forms. He has a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Management from McMaster University, Canada, and a Masters in Technology and Policy from MIT. Previously he worked at GE Medical Systems. ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------