Why Hackers Do What They Do: Understanding Motivation and Effort in Free/Open Source Software Projects
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In this paper we report on the results of a study of the effort and motivations of individuals to contributing to the creation of Free/Open Source software. We used a Web-based survey, administered to 684 software developers in 287 F/OSS projects, to learn what lies behind the effort put into such projects. Academic theorizing on individual motivations for participating in F/OSS projects has posited that external motivational factors in the form of extrinsic benefits (e.g.: better jobs, career advancement) are the main drivers of effort. We find in contrast, that enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project, is the strongest and most pervasive driver. We also find that user need, intellectual stimulation derived from writing code, and improving programming skills are top motivators for project participation. A majority of our respondents are skilled and experienced professionals working in IT-related jobs, with approximately 40 percent being paid to participate in the F/OSS project.
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Expected benefits of OSS contribution include signaling skills to the labor market, building reputation within the community, and deriving intrinsic satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
“Expected benefits include signaling skills to the labor market, building reputation within the community, and deriving intrinsic satisfaction and a sense of achievement (Lakhani and Wolf 2003, Roberts et al. 2006, Hann et al. 2013).”
From The Impact of Generative AI on Collaborative Open-Source Software Development: Evidence from GitHub Copilot  (2024) · cites this paper as Lakhani and Wolf 2003
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- Authors
- Lakhani, K. R., & Wolf, R. G.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Boston Consulting Group (United States) (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lakhani, Karim R.
- ORCID
- Lakhani, Karim R.
- Venue
- The MIT Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2003
- Pages
- 3-22
- OpenAlex
- W4255589644
- Cited by
- 1,531
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 58 · 2019: 91 · 2018: 75 · 2017: 90 · 2016: 82 · 2015: 83 · 2014: 107 · 2013: 87 · 2012: 103
- FWCI
- 163.48
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- The MIT Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- 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 › Marketing › Copyright and Intellectual Property
- Keywords
- hackers, motivation, effort, free and open source software, open source communities, developer behavior
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