Of Hackers and Hairdressers: Modularity and the Organizational Economics of Open‐source Collaboration
Richard N. Langlois, Giampaolo Garzarelli · Industry and Innovation · 2008
Using the idea of modularity, we study the general phenomenon of open‐source collaboration, which includes such things as collective invention and open science in addition to open‐source software production. We argue that open‐source collaboration coordinates the division of labor through the exchange of effort rather than of products: suppliers of effort self‐identify in the same way as suppliers of products in a market rather than accepting assignments like employees in a firm. We suggest that open‐source software (and other) projects are neither bazaars nor cathedrals, but hybrids manifesting both voluntary production and conscious planning.