The Economics of Open Source Networks

The open-source movement is becoming an overarching feature of knowledgecreating environments and this research investigates the mechanisms whereby such a model comes into existence. Far from being the result of gifts of anonymous benefactors, the open-source model is the outcome of a conveyance of informative, valuative and incitive signals that larger sets of potential contributors construe in a subjective fashion. This study challenges the gift-economy metaphor and cautions the argument that open-source software is a reliable and generally applicable model for the forthcoming digital age.