Open Source Software

July, 2006

Guest Editors
Eric von Hippel, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and
Georg von Krogh, Institute of Management, University of St. Gallen

Free and open-source software (OSS) and the processes used to develop it are very unusual in a number of ways. Such software is developed by individuals and firms that freely reveal the code that they write, releasing it under licenses that allow others to use it, to modify it as they wish, and distribute their modifications to others. Project management methods used in open source software projects have proven capable of converting the volunteer efforts of users and programmers who come and go as they please into high quality software products - some very large and complex. The efforts of these volunteers are coordinated with the aid of only very simple but powerful collaborative tools. Thousands of such projects exist today, and the code they develop and freely reveal can offer value to many. (Well-known examples are the GNU/Linux computer operating system, Apache server software and the Perl programming language.)

Researchers in the social sciences have become aware of the very interesting characteristics of F/OSS and its development system, and a lively, interdisciplinary research community has sprung up to explore the phenomenon and its implications for management. The aim of this special issue is to provide an appropriate forum for some of the very exciting and high quality research now being done on OSS. The outstanding quality and interdisciplinary scope of Management Science makes it an ideal journal for this purpose.