Open source software development-Just another case of collective invention? [An article from: Research Policy]

This digital document is a journal article from Research Policy, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Do open source software (OSS) projects represent a new innovation model? Under what conditions can it be employed in other contexts? ''Collective invention'' regimes usually ended when a dominant design emerged. This is not the case with OSS. Firstly, the OSS community developed the institutional innovation of OSS licenses enabling OSS software to survive as a common property. Secondly, these licenses are mainly enforced by pro-socially motivated contributors. We characterize the conditions under which OSS communities develop and sustain pro-social commitments. We point out the vulnerability of these conditions to developments in patent legislation.