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Motives for Participation
in FLOSS
Communities
Katja Guček
@KatjaG

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?
Free / Libre / Open-Source Software

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Free Software
and
movements beyond the code
The main principles

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Research question:
„What are the main motives that lead
individuals to voluntarily participate in FLOSS
communities?“

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Target population and criteria:
● voluntary participation
● various spectrum of FLOSS projects
● any type of activities or tasks

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Online survey
● 3.295 clicks on the survey
● 605 partly completed questionnaires
● 484 completed questionnaires

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Population

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Population

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Population
Duration of contributing:
84% for 1-15 years or more
Time dedicated to contributing:
75% 1 - 10 hours/ week
almost 25% 1 - 40 hours/ week

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Demography
Gender:
87% male
10% female

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Demography
Education level:
70% bachelor's, masters, PhD | 24% high school

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Demography

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Demography

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Motivation categories
1. Internal motivators
2. External motivators

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1. Internal motivators:
1.1 Intrinsic motivation, self-determination
1.2 Altruism
1.3 Community

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1. Internal motivators:
1.1 Intrinsic motivation, self-determination
1.2 Altruism
1.3 Community

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1.1 Intrinsic motivation,
self-determination
- joy, enjoyment, satisfaction, accomplishment,
fulfilment, happiness
- fun!
- challenge
- feeling of competence and effectiveness
- expressing creativity, create and invent
- personal friendships
- getting to know how technologies work

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1.2 Altruism
- helping others
- sharing knowledge and experience
- giving back to the community as a user
- benefits for the public good
- contributing to transformation of technologies and
society in general

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1.3 Community
- being part of a community - belonging,
acceptance, connection, happiness
- expressing ideas and opinions - being heard,
valued, included
- events

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Motivation categories
1. Internal motivators
2. External motivators

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2. External motivators
2.1 Future rewards
2.2 Personal needs

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2.1 Future rewards
a) Career and job opportunities
- looking for job opportunities
- better job opportunities and enhancement of my
career
b) Monetary rewards
“I wish to be paid for this kind of work in the future.”

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2.1 Future rewards
c) Human capital, self-development
- new knowledge, skills and experiences
- need skills and knowledge I gain in the community
for my job
- peer recognition
- building & widening network of peers
- socialising & creating with like-minded & inspiring
people

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2.1 Future rewards
d) Self-marketing, reputation-building
- building reputation, self-promotion, becoming
more marketable

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2. External motivators
2.1 Future rewards
2.2 Personal needs
- modifying technologies or creating new solutions
for myself
- contributing to better products and solutions;
creating, experimenting

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Results / Conclusions

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Questions, feedback? Contact me:
katja.gucek@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katjagucek/
Twitter: @KatjaG
Thesis online (Slo. language):
http://www.cobiss.si/
Direct link:
http://dk.fdv.uni-lj.si/diplomska/pdfs/gucek-katja.pdf
Guček, Katja. 2016. Motivi za participacijo v FLOSS
(free/libre/open-source software) skupnostih. Ljubljana:
Fakulteta za družbene vede.