scholarly journals Sharing is not erring: Pseudo-reciprocity in collective search

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imen Bouhlel ◽  
Charley M. Wu ◽  
Nobuyuki Hanaki ◽  
Robert L. Goldstone
Keyword(s):  
Information Sharing ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
Dynamic Environments ◽  
Competitive Environments ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Robust Evidence ◽  
Self Organizing

AbstractInformation sharing in competitive environments may seem counterintuitive, yet it is widely observed in humans and other animals. For instance, the open-source software movement has led to new and valuable technologies being released publicly to facilitate broader collaboration and further innovation. What drives this behavior and under which conditions can it be beneficial for an individual? Using simulations in both static and dynamic environments, we show that sharing information can lead to individual benefits through the mechanisms of pseudo-reciprocity, whereby shared information leads to by-product benefits for an individual without the need for explicit reciprocation. Crucially, imitation with a certain level of innovation is required to avoid a tragedy of the commons, while the mechanism of a local visibility radius allows for the coordination of self-organizing collectives of agents. When these two mechanisms are present, we find robust evidence for the benefits of sharing—even when others do not reciprocate.

Developers, Quality Control and Download Volume in Open Source Software (OSS) Projects

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-66
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Hill ◽  
Pratim Datta ◽  
Candice Vander Weerdt
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Inflection Point ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
Curvilinear Relationship ◽  
Segmented Regression ◽  
The Commons

The open-source software (OSS) movement is often analogized as a commons, where products are developed by and consumed in an open community. However, does a larger commons automatically beget success or does the phenomenon fall prey to the tragedy of the commons? This research forwards and empirically investigates the curvilinear relationship between developers and OSS project quality and a project's download volume. Using segmented regression on over 12,000 SourceForge OSS projects, findings suggest an inflection point in the number of contributing developers on download volume – suggesting increasing and diminishing returns to scale from adding developers to OSS projects. Findings support the economic principle of the tragedy of the commons, a concept where an over-allocated (large number) of developers, even in an open-source environment, can lead to resource mismanagement and reduce the benefit of a public good, i.e. the OSS project.

scholarly journals Trust and Community in Open Source Software Production

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margit Osterloh ◽  
Sandra Rota
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Extrinsic Motivation ◽  
Source Model ◽  
Private Ownership ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Software Production ◽  
Innovation Model ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Low Costs

AbstractOpen source software production is a successful new innovation model which disproves that only private ownership of intellectual property rights fosters innovations. It is analyzed here under which conditions the open source model may be successful in general. We show that a complex interplay of situational, motivational, and institutional factors have to be taken into account to understand how to manage the ‘tragedy of the commons’ as well as the ‘tragedy of the anticommons’. It is argued that the success of this new innovation model is greatly facilitated by a well balanced portfolio of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, low costs for contributors and governance mechanisms that do not crowd out intrinsic motivation.

Modeling the Free/Open Source Software Community

2011 ◽  
pp. 2043-2057
Author(s):  
Gregory Madey ◽  
Vincent Freeh ◽  
Renee Tynan
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Free Open Source Software ◽  
Community Model ◽  
Free Open Source ◽  
Self Organizing

In this chapter we summarize the latest results from an ongoing study examining Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) Development communities as self-organizing systems. Using publicly available data about projects, developers, and their relationships at F/OSS hosting sites such as SourceForge, we have found the existence of several power-law relationships, which is consistent with the contention that F/OSS communities are self-organizing systems. The F/OSS community is modeled as a collection of ad hoc, social networks consisting of heterogeneous agents, self-organizing into projects and clusters of projects. A computer simulation of the F/OSS community model is developed using SWARM, an agent-based simulation toolkit. Empirical data is used to parameterize the simulation, which in turn is used to investigate a social psychological model of communication and team effectiveness in F/OSS projects.

Spatial Information Sharing Based on the REST Style

2011 ◽  
Vol 204-210 ◽  
pp. 2007-2010
Author(s):  
Xiao Lu Li ◽  
Wen Feng Zheng ◽  
Xun Li ◽  
Dan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Information Sharing ◽  
Software Architecture ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Information Service ◽  
Service Characteristic ◽  
Information Share ◽  
Spatial Information Service ◽  
Spatial Information Sharing

In order to explore the method to realize spatial information sharing and integration, in this article we choose REST as spatial information share framework and foundations of software architecture, focus on spatial information service characteristic, construct a REST style framework spatial information sharing model, and evaluate it. And then base on open source software, build up demo system, test the framework’s feasibility. Result turn out to be effective-spatial information sharing base on the REST style can realize spatial information sharing to a certain extent.

Modeling the Free/Open Source Software Community

2008 ◽  
pp. 3296-3298
Author(s):  
Gregory Madey ◽  
Vincent Freeh ◽  
Renee Tynan
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Free Open Source Software ◽  
Community Model ◽  
Free Open Source ◽  
Self Organizing

In this chapter we summarize the latest results from an ongoing study examining Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) Development communities as self-organizing systems. Using publicly available data about projects, developers, and their relationships at F/OSS hosting sites such as SourceForge, we have found the existence of several power-law relationships, which is consistent with the contention that F/OSS communities are self-organizing systems. The F/OSS community is modeled as a collection of ad hoc, social networks consisting of heterogeneous agents, self-organizing into projects and clusters of projects. A computer simulation of the F/OSS community model is developed using SWARM, an agent-based simulation toolkit. Empirical data is used to parameterize the simulation, which in turn is used to investigate a social psychological model of communication and team effectiveness in F/OSS projects.

scholarly journals Tragedy of the FOSS commons? Investigating the institutional designs of free/libre and open source software projects

First Monday ◽  
2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles M. Schweik ◽  
Robert English
Keyword(s):  
Transaction Costs ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Preliminary Examination ◽  
Significant Interest ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Garrett Hardin ◽  
Shed Light

Free/Libre and Open Source Software projects (FOSS) are a form of Internet-based commons. Since 1968, when Garrett Hardin published his famous article “Tragedy of the Commons” in the journal Science, there has been significant interest in understanding how to manage commons appropriately, particularly in environmental fields. An important distinction between natural resource commons and FOSS commons is that the “tragedy” to be avoided in natural resources is over-harvesting and the potential destruction of the resource. In FOSS commons the “tragedy” to be avoided is project abandonment and a “dead” project. Institutions – defined as informal norms, more formalized rules, and governance structures – are mechanisms that have been shown to help overcome tragedies in some environmental commons situations. The goal of this paper is to more formally describe the concept of FOSS institutions and to conduct a preliminary examination of FOSS projects in order to shed light into institutions, their composition and importance to the projects. We report findings from an initial set of interviews of FOSS developers and find that in commons settings that need to encourage contribution rather than control over-appropriation, the institutional designs appear to be extremely lean and as unobtrusive as possible. To the FOSS programmers we interviewed, institutional structure adds transaction costs and hinders collective action. This is markedly different from traditional environmental commons settings.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document