Brenda Chawner, IST Programmes Director at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Information Management, sought to answer two questions about open source contributions in her recent thesis: Factors Influencing Participant Satisfaction with Free/Libre and Open Source Software Projects.
- What types of contributions do participants make to free/libre and open source software projects?
- Do the factors that influence satisfaction vary for different types of participation? If so, in what way?
This study surveyed participants from ten open source projects and pointed towards the importance of communication, process and product openness, and engaging users on multiple levels.
