Giving it Away for Free? The Nature of Job-Market Signaling by Open-Source Software Developers

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wafa Hakim Orman
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
Job Market Signaling ◽  
Market Signaling

Giving It Away for Free? The Nature of Job-Market Signaling by Open-Source Software Developers

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wafa Hakim Orman
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
College Education ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
Financial Gain ◽  
Source Contributions ◽  
Job Market Signaling ◽  
Market Signaling

Abstract Much work has been done in recent times to answer the question of why people contribute, and continue to contribute to open-source and free software, despite the lack of immediate financial gain in most cases. Lerner and Tirole (2002) hypothesize that open-source contributions act as a form of job-market signaling – they permit prospective employers to judge a person's ability directly. This paper tests the nature of this signaling using a complementarity framework. Do developers use open source software as a way to enhance the signal from a college education, or to substitute for it, in a form of learning by doing? I find evidence that they are complements, while conclusively rejecting the idea that they are substitutes.

Evidence-Based Assurance to Support Process Quality in the F/OSS Community

2007 ◽  
pp. 120-146
Author(s):  
Anas Tawileh ◽  
Omer F. Rana ◽  
Wendy Ivins ◽  
Stephen McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Development Process ◽  
End Users ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
Substantial Growth ◽  
Development Processes

This chapter investigates the quality issues of the free and open source software (F/OSS) development processes. It argues that software developed within the F/OSS paradigm has witnessed substantial growth rates within the software developers’ community. However, end users from outside the community are still sceptical about adopting F/OSS because of the perceived lack of quality assurance mechanisms within the F/OSS development process. The authors aim to promote higher adoption of F/OSS artefacts outside the developers’ community by exploring possibilities to provide appropriate evidence based assurances that F/OSS artefacts will meet the quality levels expected by users.

An empirical analysis of open source software developers’ motivations and continuance intentions

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chorng-Guang Wu ◽  
James H. Gerlach ◽  
Clifford E. Young
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Software Developers

scholarly journals USABILITY IN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: OPINIONS AND PRACTICE

2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Sieker Andreasen ◽  
Henrik Villemann Nielsen ◽  
Simon Ormholt Schrøder ◽  
Jan Stage
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Usability Evaluation ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
Commercial Software ◽  
Proprietary Software

Open Source Software (OSS) development has gained significant importance in the production of soft-ware products. Open Source Software developers have produced systems with a functionality that is competitive with similar proprietary software developed by commercial software organizations. Yet OSS is usually designed for and by power-users, and OSS products have been criticized for having little or no emphasis on usability. We have conducted an empirical study of the developers’ opinions about usability and the way usability engineering is practiced in a variety of OSS projects. The study included a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews, where we interviewed OSS contributors with both technical and usability backgrounds. Overall we found that OSS developers are interested in usability, but in practice it is not top priority, and OSS projects rarely employs systematic usability evaluation. Most of the efforts are based on common sense. Most developers have a very limited understanding of usability, and there is a lack of resources and evaluation methods fitting into the OSS paradigm.

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