Browsing by Author "Van Wendel de Joode, Ruben"

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Continuity of the Commons in Open Source Communities
(2003) Van Wendel de Joode, Ruben
"This article focuses on the question: given that volunteers are motivated to participate in open source software development (e.g. Markus, 2000 #192; Lakhani, 2000 #198), what mechanisms are present to coordinate their invested time and effort and ensure continuity of software? "Elinor Ostrom (1990) identifies eight design principles, e.g. the presence of conflict resolution mechanisms and collective choice arrangements, that explain how individuals in communities ensure the continuity of depletable resources, like fishing grounds and grazing fields. This article provides a first discussion of the mechanisms that institutionalize these principles in open source communities."
Explaining the Organization of Open Source Communities with the CPR Framework
(2004) Van Wendel de Joode, Ruben
"This paper describes work-in-progress. It describes the background, research framework and some preliminary results from a PhD research on the organization of open source communities. Most open source communities are very small. However, some communities have become very popular and they connect thousands of predominantly highly skilled programmers from various parts of the world. Together these programmers create and maintain highly complex software. Wellknown examples of such communities are Apache and Linux. The software developed in open source communities has one very important characteristic: the source code of the software is open and freely available. "To many it is highly surprising that programmers in open source communities are able to create successful software. Two questions prevail, they are: a) how are open source communities able to deal with internal pressures like free-riding and cascading conflicts and b) how are they able to resist external pressures, created by parties who appropriate software through copyrights and patents? This paper addresses the question how programmers in open source communities organize and sustain themselves amidst these pressures. Ostroms (1990) eight design principles are adopted to answer this question. "The two most dominant conclusions from this research are: (a) individuals in open source communities are driven by individual choice and (b) formal mechanisms have a limited role in solving the issues addressed by the design principles. This article will analyze one design principle in more detail, namely the presence of conflict resolution mechanisms."
The Institutions in a Digital Information Commons: A Case Study on Open Source Communities
(2006) Van Wendel de Joode, Ruben
"Some open source communities consist of hundreds or thousands of individuals who have different interests, backgrounds and motives. In the communities, the source code of software is not treated as a secret. Programmers agree that the software and corresponding source code should be open, visible, downloadable and modifiable for anyone interested. The software and the corresponding source code are said to be in a commons (Benkler 2002a, Bollier 2001b, Boyle 2003, Bruns 2000, McGowan 2001). The question in this paper is: 'How are the open source commons organized and how are they sustained?' An answer to this question is believed to be relevant to all those who study and are involved in digital information commons. "The goal of this paper is to provide an analysis of the institutional design of open source commons. The eight design principles, as put forward by Elinor Ostrom, are adopted to answer the research question. They are: 1) clearly defined boundaries, 2) congruence between appropriation and provision rules and local conditions, 3) collective choice arrangements, 4) monitoring, 5) graduated sanctioning, 6) conflict resolution mechanisms, 7) minimal recognition of rights to organize, 8) nested enterprise. Among the reasons for choosing this framework are: i) it bridges a gap that exists in state-of-the-art research on open source communities and ii) it is based on rigorous empirical analysis of the institutions in self-governing communities. "The material presented in this paper is based on observations of mailing lists, secondary literature and 60 in-depth interviews. The interviews were held with a mixture of people ranging from hobbyist software programmers to commercial end users. Five communities were studied in more detail, they are: Apache, Linux, Debian, Python and PostgreSQL. "A first outcome is that open source communities have a multitude of quite formal institutions like foundations, open source licenses and elected leadership. Their role is to protect the commons from external pressures threatening the future availability of the software (see also O'Mahony, 2003). They serve as boundaries. These and other institutions, however, have little explanatory value in the organization of the communities. For instance, the communities have devised voting mechanisms, but they have hardly any affect in solving conflicts or leading to a collective choice. Many respondents explained to ignore the outcome of a vote and instead decided to do what they think is best. "Another important outcome is that the open source commons are based on a highly intelligent infrastructure, which consists of many mechanisms and tools. Examples of tools are databases to structure the development process and guidelines to describe how the software should be written. The infrastructure eases the process for developers and users to contribute to the commons; they lower the costs involved in e.g. searching for the contributions of others and understanding what others have contributed."
Protecting the Virtual Commons: Self-Organizing Open Source Communities and Innovative Intellectual Property Regimes
(Asser Press, International Distribution by Kluwer Law International, 2003) Van Wendel de Joode, Ruben; De Bruijn, J. A.; Van Eeten, M. J. G.
"Worldwide, governments and business are recognizing the added value of open source and free software. Unlike other software, this software is developed and continuously improved by volunteers in communities on the Internet. Some of these communities, like Linux and Apache, connect thousands of volunteers worldwide. Question is how these communities are capable to continuously develop innovative software in a world dominated by markets, companies and laws. "Protecting the Virtual Commons tells about the surprisingly creative solutions that explain the long-lasting stability of the communities. It identifies the threats that the communities are faced with and discusses the amazingly innovative strategies developed to neutralize these threats. The book is written with a clear focus on intellectual property rights. "In their analysis, the authors provide answers to the following questions: Why have open source and free software communities created so many different licenses to protect their intellectual property? What influence do licenses have on the organization of the communities and their ability to innovate? What are the differences between intellectual property rights on software in Europe and the United States? What are the tensions between the way open source and free software communities deal with intellectual property and the way that companies protect and use intellectual property? What regulatory arrangements can deal with the tensions between the corporate model and the open source and free software development model?"