TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring motivations for contributing to open source initiatives
T2 - The roles of contribution context and personal values
AU - Oreg, Shaul
AU - Nov, Oded
PY - 2008/9
Y1 - 2008/9
N2 - We explore contextual and dispositional correlates of the motivation to contribute to open source initiatives. We examine how the context of the open source project, and the personal values of contributors, are related to the types of motivations for contributing. A web-based survey was administered to 300 contributors in two prominent open source contexts: software and content. As hypothesized, software contributors placed a greater emphasis on reputation-gaining and self-development motivations, compared with content contributors, who placed a greater emphasis on altruistic motives. Furthermore, the hypothesized relationships were found between contributors' personal values and their motivations for contributing.
AB - We explore contextual and dispositional correlates of the motivation to contribute to open source initiatives. We examine how the context of the open source project, and the personal values of contributors, are related to the types of motivations for contributing. A web-based survey was administered to 300 contributors in two prominent open source contexts: software and content. As hypothesized, software contributors placed a greater emphasis on reputation-gaining and self-development motivations, compared with content contributors, who placed a greater emphasis on altruistic motives. Furthermore, the hypothesized relationships were found between contributors' personal values and their motivations for contributing.
KW - Motivations
KW - Open source
KW - Personal values
KW - Wikipedia
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=41449091262&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.chb.2007.09.007
DO - 10.1016/j.chb.2007.09.007
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AN - SCOPUS:41449091262
SN - 0747-5632
VL - 24
SP - 2055
EP - 2073
JO - Computers in Human Behavior
JF - Computers in Human Behavior
IS - 5
ER -