The Economics of Open Source

     Dalle, J.-M. et al. (2004). Advancing Economic Research in the Free and Open Source Software Mode of Production. Forthcoming in Building Our Digital Future: Future Economic, Social and Cultural Scenarios Based On Open Standards, edited by Marleen Wynants and Jan Cornelis. Brussels: Vrjie Universiteit Brussels (VUB) Press.
     Lerner, J. and J. Tirole. (2004). The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond. Working Paper no. 10956, NBER, Cambridge, Mass.

     There are a number of reasons why universities are slow to adopt open source software; one is the perception that the open source mode of production is not a viable economic model, i.e., that it is not sustainable over time. The two articles cited above are part of a growing body of literature demonstrating that open source initiatives are not only viable, but interesting.
     Lerner and Tirole provide a brief history of open source software, motivations for participating in open source development, the relative quality of open source software, public policy toward open source, the role software patents play, and areas for further research. Of particular interest is their section on parallels between open source and academia, and where academia could benefit from adopting the open source model. Two examples discussed are sharing datasets or constructing large multi-institutional resources, a "strategy [that] might be especially effective for those at smaller and less centrally located institutions"; and, secondly, requiring that published works remain publicly accessible, rather than ceding copyright to publishers.
     J.-M. Dalle et al. seeks to redirect research away from the study of why people participate in open source projects, which the authors describe as neither unique nor hsitorically unprecedented, and toward the modes of organization, governance and performance of open source initiatives, "in order to to assess the potentialities of the 'open source way of working' as a paradigm for a broader class of knowledge and information-goods production." The authors describe four areas for further investigation: the emerging importance of new standards, such as XML; the relationship between open source and peer-to-peer networking as a means of distribution; the development of reputation systems within open source communities; and the interface between open-source distribution and other forms of pubication and distribution. Posted by Chris Hodge at January 4, 2005 04:14 PM | TrackBack | Links to this post
Categories: Open Source