Contrasting Community Building in Sponsored and Community Founded Open Source Projects
Abstract
Prior characterizations of open source projects have been based on the model of a community-founded project. More recently, a second model has emerged, where organizations spinout internally developed code to a public forum. Based on field work on open source projects, we compare the lifecycle differences between these two models. We identify problems unique to spinout projects, particularly in attracting and building an external community. We illustrate these issues with a feasibility analysis of a proposed open source project based on VistA, the primary healthcare information system of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This example illuminates the complexities of building a community after a code base has been developed and suggests that open source software can be used to transfer technology to the private sector.
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Such benefits are particularly attractive for competitively supplied code that is likely to earn low profit margins in any case.
“Such benefits are particularly attractive for competitively supplied code that is likely to earn low profit margins in any case (West and O'Mahoney, 2005).”
From Open Source Software: The New Intellectual Property Paradigm (2006) · cites this paper as West and O'Mahoney, 2005
Social psychology motives may be less important for company-sponsored projects, which usually start with a large mass of mature code that offers little sense of ownership or creative excitement.
“Social psychology motives may also be less important for company-sponsored projects, which usually start with a large mass of mature code that offers little sense of ownership or creative excitement (West and O'Mahoney, 2005).”
From Open Source Software: The New Intellectual Property Paradigm (2006) · cites this paper as West and O'Mahoney, 2005
Cites
Lakhani, K. R., & Wolf, R. G. (2003) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.443040 · Cited by 1,531 · see citing works
Community, joining, and specialization in open source software innovation: a case study
von Krogh, G., Spaeth, S., & Lakhani, K. R. (2003) · Research Policy · doi:10.1016/s0048-7333(03)00050-7 · Cited by 1,025 · cited 2× · see citing works
“A firm may sponsor contributors, but firms typically cannot become members.”
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Challenges of open innovation: the paradox of firm investment in open-source software
West, J., & Gallagher, S. (2006) · R and D Management · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9310.2006.00436.x · Cited by 1,136 · see citing works
Self-citationOpen Source Software: The New Intellectual Property Paradigm
Maurer, S., & Scotchmer, S. (2006) · NBER Working Paper No. 12148 · doi:10.3386/w12148 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
- Authors
- West, J., & O'Mahony, S.
- Affiliations
- San Jose State University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2005-04-01
- Pages
- 196c-196c
- ISSN
- 1530-1605 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2112750810
- Cited by
- 144
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 17.49
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (publishedVersion)
- San Jose State University Scholar Works (San Jose State University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Open Source Software Innovations
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Digital Platforms and Economics
- Keywords
- open source software, community building, sponsored projects, project life cycle, VISTA, health information systems
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