Sustainability of the OpenSim Community: A Research Agenda
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Transcript of Sustainability of the OpenSim Community: A Research Agenda
SETTING THE STAGE- - -
EXPLORING ACTOR ROLES FOR PRIVATE-COLLECTIVE COMMUNITY
SUSTAINABILITY
RESEARCH-IN-PROGRESS
Robin TeiglandStockholm School of Economics
Paul M. Di GangiLoyola University Maryland
Zeynep YetisStockholm School of Economics
October 2011
Introduction & Research Questions
Research Setting
Proposed Methodology
Expected Contributions
Questions & Answers
Thank You!
Overview
The Firm
The Collective
vs
Microsoft~ Built by employees within
organizational boundaries
Linux~ Built by users and distributed freely regardless of affiliation
Models of Knowledge Creation
Communities expanding across industries
• Software (e.g., LINUX, Apache, and MySQL)
• Pharmaceuticals (e.g., pinkarmy)
• Physical goods (e.g., farm machinery)
Threadless:What came first – the community or
the company?
eZ230+
Partners
40,900Communitymembers
5,000+Customers in 130 countries
eZ Ecosystem
• Open source content management software• 70 employees in 9 countries (US, Europe & Asia)• Customers: Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, UN, Vogue, Hitachi, 3M, MIT
70 emp
Community and firm share experiences and knowledge to co-create value
Community is a complementary asset to be leveraged and combined with firm’s internal
assets to deliver competitive solutions(Dahlander & Wallin 2006)
Private-collective Community (von Hippel & von Krogh 2003)
But there’s tension...
Private ModelDistribution of returns
and delegation of value creation solely to
organization
Collective ModelOpenness and free
distribution of intellectual ideas for common or
public good
VS
Our Primary Research Question
How do private-collective communities sustain themselves despite the challenges that the
tension produces?
Level of Analysis = Community (not the individual nor the firm)
Research Question One
(RQ1) Who are the key actors in a private-collective community, what roles do they
fulfill, and what resources do they contribute to the community to ensure its sustainability?
• Individual motivations from self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Gagné & Deci, 2005; See summary by von Krogh et al., Forthcoming)
– Intrinsic (e.g., fun, enjoyment)– Internalized extrinsic (e.g., reputation, reciprocity,
learning, and own-use)– Extrinsic (e.g., career and pay)
• Particularly when firms can freely leverage your resources for private gains.– Fairness & Transparency (Di Gangi et al., Forthcoming; Di Gangi
et al., 2010)
Research Question Two
Divergent interests
O’Mahony & Bechky, ASQ, 2008
(RQ2a) What motivates an individual to contribute privately held, valuable resources to a collective that will make the outcome of his or her efforts
free to any that seek it?
or does it feel like firms are stealing their candy?
(RQ2a) What motivates a firm to contribute to a collective that may produce unanticipated outcomes
that could diverge from its interests?
or does it feel like “customers” are looting the store?
• As communities mature– Go through different phases of governance – Bureaucratic and democratic mechanisms are
blended in line with the community’s changing conceptions of authority (O’Mahony & Ferraro, 2007)
(RQ3) What are the reciprocal effects of actor behavior (and motivation) and the governance structures used by the community to ensure its
sustainability?
Research Question Three
Introduction & Research Questions
Research Setting
Proposed Methodology
Expected Contributions
Questions & Answers
Thank You!
Overview
The emerging 3D internet
O’Driscoll 2009
Open Source
The OpenSim Community
Core Developers
Missing Core Developers
Retired Core Developers
Developers/ Testers/ Contributors
OpenSim Users
The Decision Makers
Organizational Agents
Dahlander & Wallin (2006)
More than just developers…
Introduction & Research Questions
Research Setting
Proposed Methodology
Expected Contributions
Questions & Answers
Thank You!
Overview
Proposed Methodology
RQ Focus:RQ 1
Core Methodology:Semi-Structured Interviews;
Questionnaires
Approach:Snowball technique
Outcome Focus:Identification of key actors, roles, and resources within
the private-collective community
RQ Focus:Validation & Refinement
Core Methodology:Semi-Structured Interviews;
Case Analysis
Approach:Identified Interviewees
Outcome Focus:Validate existing findings with community members
and extend based upon feedback
RQ Focus:RQ 2 & RQ 3
Core Methodology:Archival; Textual; Network;
Event-driven Analysis
Approach:Web Scraping
Outcome Focus:Develop understanding of evolutionary structure of
community as well as motivations
Stage One Stage ThreeStage Two
Introduction & Research Questions
Research Setting
Proposed Methodology
Expected Contributions
Questions & Answers
Thank You!
Overview
Additional theory• Contingency-based Perspective for Organizing (Lawrence &
Lorsch, 1967)
– Nature and form of organizing is determined by the environment in which a phenomenon operates
– Absorption and reaction to sudden shocks are resolved through the adaptive governance mechanisms derived from the inter-related web of behaviors and motivations driving resource contributions from the key actors of a private-collective community (Weick, 1969)
• Adaptive Governance of Social-ecological Systems (Folke et al., 2005)
– “In a social-ecological system with high adaptability, the actors have the capacity to reorganize the system within desired states in response to changing conditions and disturbance events.”
– “Crisis, perceived or real, seems to trigger learning and knowledge generation (58) and opens up space for new management trajectories of resources and ecosystems.”
Additional theory
• Toward a Network Perspective of the Study of Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems (Janssen et al., 2006)
– “Nodes and links are not always active. Some are sleeping nodes and links that are activated only in specific situations such as a crisis. Maintaining the capacity to reactivate these nodes and links in times of crisis is an important contribution to the system’s resilience. When nodes or links disappear from a system, it seems that one characteristic of a resilient system is the ability to fill up that space in the network with new nodes and links.” (Walker et al. 1999)
RQ 3: Evolution of Community Structure
Picture source: Wasko & Teigland 2004
Change in Number of Participants
150
170
190
210
230
250
270
290
310
330
350
370
Janu
ary
Febru
ary
Mar
chApr
ilM
ayJu
ne July
Augus
t
Septe
mbe
r
Octo
ber
Novem
ber
Decem
ber
Peo
ple
Part 2000 Part 2001 Part 2002 Part 2003 Part 2004
Picture courtesy of Wasko
RQ 3: Mapping Over Time
Inta
ngib
le R
esou
rces
Tang
ible
Res
ourc
es
Intrinsic Motivation Extrinsic Motivation
Exploratory Analysis Objective:-------------------------------------------------------Determine role characteristics of main actors
and what motivates them to contribute resources over time.
Introduction & Research Questions
Research Setting
Proposed Methodology
Expected Contributions
Questions & Answers
Thank You!
Overview
Research Questions• How do private-collective communities sustain
themselves despite challenges that such conflicts produce? – RQ1: Who are key actors in private-collective community, what roles do they
fulfill, and what resources do these actors contribute to community to ensure sustainability?
– (RQ2a) What motivates an individual to contribute his or her privately held, valuable resources to a collective that will make the outcome of his or her efforts free to any that seek it?
– (RQ2b) What motivates a firm to contribute its resources to a collective that may produce unanticipated outcomes that could diverge from its private interests?
– (RQ3) What are the reciprocal effects of actor behavior (and motivation) and the governance structures used by the community to ensure its sustainability?