文档介绍：Research Policy 36 (2007) 157–171
Open source software development—Just another
case of collective invention?
Margit Osterloh ∗,1, Sandra Rota 2
University of Zurich, Institute anization and Administrative Science, Plattenstrasse 14, CH-8032 Zurich, Switzerland
Received 11 December 2005; received in revised form 1 June 2006; accepted 15 October 2006
Available online 17 January 2007
Abstract
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
munity developed the institutional innovation of OSS licenses enabling OSS software to survive as mon property.
Secondly, these licenses are mainly enforced by pro-socially motivated contributors. We characterize the conditions under which
munities develop and sustain pro-mitments. We point out the vulnerability of these conditions to developments
in patent legislation.
© 2007 Published by Elsevier .
Keywords: New innovaton models; Open source software; Collective invention; Copyleft; Intrinsic motivation
1. Introduction private intellectual property rights to the developers. To
a large extent, contributions to these projects are made
Open source software projects are examples of an by voluntary, non-paid members of the munity.
innovation model, which relies neither on the price These members invest their own private resources into a
system nor on formal hierarchies nor on alliance agree- public good.
ments. Does the production of open source software A look at history shows that OSS production seems
(OSS) represent a new model, and under what condi- to be similar to other examples in the past and present
tions can it be used in other contexts? OSS is a term for that can be summarized by the term “collective inven-
software published under licenses that do not give any tion”(Allen, 1983). In the