The emergence of governance in an open source community
S O'mahony, F Ferraro - Academy of Management Journal, 2007 - journals.aom.org
Academy of Management Journal, 2007•journals.aom.org
Little is known about how communities producing collective goods govern themselves. In a
multimethod study of one open source software community, we found that members
developed a shared basis of formal authority but limited it with democratic mechanisms that
enabled experimentation with shifting conceptions of authority over time. When members
settled on a shared conception of authority, it was more expansive than their original design.
A statistical test of the predictors of leadership reinforced this finding. By blending …
multimethod study of one open source software community, we found that members
developed a shared basis of formal authority but limited it with democratic mechanisms that
enabled experimentation with shifting conceptions of authority over time. When members
settled on a shared conception of authority, it was more expansive than their original design.
A statistical test of the predictors of leadership reinforced this finding. By blending …
Little is known about how communities producing collective goods govern themselves. In a multimethod study of one open source software community, we found that members developed a shared basis of formal authority but limited it with democratic mechanisms that enabled experimentation with shifting conceptions of authority over time. When members settled on a shared conception of authority, it was more expansive than their original design. A statistical test of the predictors of leadership reinforced this finding. By blending bureaucratic and democratic mechanisms, the governance system evolved with the community's changing conceptions of authority.
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