Software Freedom, Open Software and the Participant's Motivation - A Multidisciplinary Study

The success of Free/Open Source Software has demonstrated the viability and often the dominance of an alternative ? almost paradoxical ? form of software development. This innovative organisational formation and operation has, recently, been studied intensively. The current paper deals with the issue of participant?s motivation to join and then to operate in a free/open source software development process. However, it does not adopt a single perspective towards reaching a definite answer. On the contrary, building on accumulative research work, it argues that no single perspective is adequate to explain free/open source software participants? motivation, since each perspective provides a rather limited understanding of the issue.