Exploring motivations for contributing to open source.pdfVIP

Available online at Computers in Human Behavior Computers in Human Behavior 24 (2008) 2055–2073 /locate/comphumbeh Exploring motivations for contributing to open source initiatives: The roles of contribution context and personal values Shaul Oreg a,*,1, Oded Nov b,1,2 a Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel b Department of Management, Polytechnic University, New York, NY 11201, USA Available online 14 November 2007 Abstract We explore contextual and dispositional correlates of the motivation to contribute to open source initiatives. We examine how the context of the open source project, and the personal values of con- tributors, are related to the types of motivations for contributing. A web-based survey was admin- istered to 300 contributors in two prominent open source contexts: software and content. As hypothesized, software contributors placed a greater emphasis on reputation-gaining and self-devel- opment motivations, compared with content contributors, who placed a greater emphasis on altru- istic motives. Furthermore, the hypothesized relationships were found between contributors’ personal values and their motivations for contributing. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Personal values; Motivations; Open source; Wikipedia In recent years there has been a growing interest in open source software and open source content development initiatives (e.g. Awazu Desouza, 2