As the Free and Open Source (FOSS) concept has matured, its commercial significance has also increased, and issues such as quality and sustainability have moved to the fore. In this study, we focus on time-based release management in large volunteer FOSS projects, and reveal how it addresses quality and sustainability issues. We discuss the differences between release management in the traditio...

II. THE LANDSCAPE ..............................................................................5 A. The Proprietary Software Model..................................................5 1. Formation and Maturation of the Proprietary Software Industry ...............................................................................5 2. Software Licensing Under Proprietary Models ........................

Open source has seen phenomenal interest and growth in recent years. In many ways, it has been a great success story. Clearly, it is no longer just hype, or a temporary fad. Yet it is interesting to think about the conditions that would enable the open-source movement to remain viable, and thrive. This chapter explores the driving forces behind this model, and the constraints on it, discussing ...

After observing a contradiction between the 'official' ideology defined by open-source licenses and the actual behavior of hackers, we examine the actual customs which regulate the ownership and control of open-source software. We discover that they imply an underlying theory of property rights homologous to the Lockean theory of land tenure. We relate that to an analysis of the hacker culture ...

This paper studies the role of intrinsic motivation, reputation, and reciprocity in driving open source software innovation. Unlike previous literature based on survey data, we exploit the observed pattern of contributions the .revealed preference. of developers to infer the underlying incentives driving the decision to contribute source code. Using detailed information on code contributions an...