fOSSa 2012- heymann - motivations in oss projects
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Transcript of fOSSa 2012- heymann - motivations in oss projects
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Motivations in FLOSS communities
(aka the Chocolate talk)Sébastien Heymann - Gephi Consortium
http://sebastien.pro [email protected]
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Some words about me...
Community manager of the Gephi project.I democratize network thinking.
PhD candidate in complex networks @LIP6.I love chocolates too :)
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Motivations in studying motivations
Who would be likely to contribute to my project?
How to attract skilled developers?
Who is worth the time spent?
What win-win deals can we make?
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"In many ways, I actually think the real idea of open source is for it to allow everybody to be 'selfish', not about trying to get everybody to
contribute to some common good.[...]
Now, those selfish reasons by no means need to be about 'financial reward', though."
Interview of L. Torvalds for the BBC, June 2012
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"When I started making a living writing add-ons and other Mozilla software, I felt I needed
to give something back [...]. So there were altruistic and selfish reasons mixed together."
Interview of B. King (Mozilla volunteer) by Tristan Nitot, Dec 2012
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Plan: beyond altruism vs selfishness
1. Why motivation matters?2. Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation.3. Why care about intrinsic motivation?4. Open questions.
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3. Why motivation matters?image: The Big Lebowski
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Key issues in FLOSS communities
Fast evolution! need for creativity.
Contributors are not paid most of the time.
Contributions based on free will.
Willingness to cooperate.
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Contributors?
People who:
● develop● communicate● manage● use and spread the word● ...
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Why contribute for FREE?
What about you?
for glory?
for t3h lulz? :)
for White Russians?
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What about them?
R. Stallman L. Torvalds
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For personal values
R. Stallman
"I refuse to break solidarity with other users. [...] So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have decided to put together a sufficient body of free software..."
The GNU Manifesto [online], 1985
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For social status
L. Torvalds
"I have enough recognition that I feel good about myself, that I know that what I'm doing is actually meaningful to people."
Linux Manifesto [online], 1998
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2. Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivationimage: AllTheRageFaces.com
dude, come on
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Motivation: what makes [a dude] engaged for something. (Deci & Ryan, 1985)
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Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation:Something is "valued for its own sake and appears to be self sustained".(Calder & Straw, 1975)
Extrinsic motivation:Something is perceived as an investment.(Deci & Ryan, 1985)
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Some intrinsic incentives
Feeling of being skilled and being proud of something.
Joy to give and be useful.
Aesthetic/creative pleasure.
To satisfy some personal values, like freedom.
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Some extrinsic (positive) incentives
Money, rewards.
Source code for personal needs.
Positive feedbacks.
Social status / reputation.
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3. Why care about intrinsic motivation?
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People with high intrinsic motivations are great
contributors.
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"People for whom [the pure artistic satisfaction of designing beautiful software
and making it work] is not a significant motivation never become hackers in the first
place, just as people who don't love music never become composers."
- Homesteading the Noosphere, chap.7, 2000 E. Raymond
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Benefits of intrinsic motivations
Better creativity.
Faster learning.
Increased autonomy of contributors.
Better code.
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FLOSS communities: we may not have oil, but we have
intrinsic motivation.
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How to get intrinsic motivations high?
Take care of contributors':● autonomy,● emotional attachment (to the project),● skills evolution.
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How to get intrinsic motivations high?
Take care of contributors':● autonomy,● emotional attachment (to the project),● skills evolution.
Intrinsic motivation increases when one:● feels that he/she has the control,● and receives positive, detailed feedback.
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"Individuals join for various reasons, and no one reason tends to dominate
the community." (Lakhani & Wolf, 2003)
Why not increasing both types of motivation?
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"Hidden costs of rewards"
Increase of extrinsic motivations=>
Increase of the feeling of external control=>
decrease of intrinsic motivations
Lepper & Greene, 1978
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"Hidden costs of rewards"
Increase of extrinsic motivations=>
Increase of the feeling of external control=>
decrease of intrinsic motivations
Lepper & Greene, 1978
/!\ hybrid communitiesIf some people are paid to contribute, the motivation of the other people may decrease.
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Conclusion: good communities are motivation dealers.
Contributors come with various reasons.
Taking care of intrinsic incentives seems to be a key to improve contributions.
A good balance may be hard to reach: critical issue for open source business ecosystems.
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3 open questions
How to better understand the motivations of FLOSS contributors?
How motivations evolvealong the way?
Can we extract some advices for FLOSS community management?
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Some references
Communautés de Logiciel Libre : écosystème des motivations, S. Heymann, 2009 [PDF].The self perception of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Calder B. & Straw B., in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, n°31, pp.599-605, 1975.Intrinsic motivation in a new light, Lindenberg S., in Kylos, n°54 pp.317-342, 2001.Le logiciel libre et la communauté autorégulée, Meyer M. & Montagne F., in Les carnets du centre de philosophie du Droit, n°113, 2005.Intrinsic motivation and self-determination of behavior, Deci E. & Ryan R., Plenum Press, New York, 1985.Linux Manifesto [online], 1998.Les motivations des développeurs dans l’Open Source Une revue de la littérature, Jean-Jacques Gauguier, 2005 [PDF].Lakhani K. & Wolf R., Why hackers do what they do : Understanding motivation effort in free/open source software projects, MIT Sloan School of Management (2003), no. 4425-03.
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Credits
Slide 1: Chocolates, by J. Paxon Reyes, under CC by-nc 2.0.Slide 2: Screenshot of Gephi 0.7.Slide 6: Image from The Big Lebowski, 1998.Slide 9: Dude Vinci, by Colin Cotterill, from https://dudeism.com/.Slide 10, 11: Richard Stallman gives a talk on Free Software and Copyright law at The University of Pittsburgh, by Victor Powell, under CC by-sa 3.0.Slide 10, 12: Linus Torvalds, Linuxmag.com, under CC by-sa 3.0.Slide 13: AllTheRageFaces.com.Slide 18: Focus Shift, 2008.Slide 28: Chocolate mocha, by Debbie R, under CC by-nc-nd 2.0.