Learning in Open Source Software (OSS) Development: How Developer Interactions in Culturally Diverse Projects Impact the Acquisition of Collaboration and Learning Skills

Participants in an OSS/FLOSS development project often span national and organizational boundaries, as developers from different countries and corporations join the project. A project team’s national and organizational culture creates opportunities for learning from others, but may also lead to conflict and inhibit learning. This research examines developers’ learning in an OSS project, and the cultural context in which learning takes place. We focus on single- and doubleloop learning and examine the impact of the team’s national and organizational culture on a developer’s learning. Archival and survey data are collected from two large-scale Sourceforge projects. This research can contribute to the OSS literature by examining the impact of team interactions on developers’ learning. Practically, administrators and managers stand to gain insight into the learning benefits of participation in OSS projects, and thus better assess their value as a training ground for global software development.