Communal resources in open source software development

Online is checked for eligibility for copyright before being made available in the live archive. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to from other web pages. Enquiries If you have any enquiries about any aspect of City Research Online, or if you wish to make contact with the author(s) of this paper, please email the team at [email protected]. Abstract Introduction. Virtual communities play an important role in innovation. The paper focuses on the particular form of collective action in virtual communities underlying as Open Source software development projects. Method. Building on resource mobilization theory and private‐collective innovation, we propose a theory of collective action in innovative virtual communities. We identify three communal resources reputation, control over technology and learning opportunitiess that appear as a byproduct while developing open source software. Analysis. Constructs are derived from exiting literature. Empirical data from Freenet, an open source software project for peer‐to‐peer software, illustrates both the levels of involvement and the communal resources. Results & conclusions. Communal resources are able to solve the collective action dilemma for virtual communities. We show that they increase in value for individuals along with their involvement in the community.