UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF PARTICIPATION & COORDINATION IN OPEN AND GATED SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITIES.
Sonali Shah · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2004
This article focuses on two questions related to community-based product development: why do participants voluntarily work within and contribute to communities that provide, support, and maintain a public good, and how to large numbers of participants coordinate their work efforts? The article states that main reasons why an individual might participate in a product development community are enjoyment and a need for software. The article discusses the importance of a variety of users and developers, and communication between them, and states that limiting a participant's ability to alter code will result in a decrease in participation.