From Planning to Mature: On the Determinants of Open Source Take-Off

24 Pages Posted: 5 Aug 2005 Last revised: 27 Jul 2012

See all articles by Fabio M. Manenti

Fabio M. Manenti

University of Padua - Department of Economics and Management

Stefano Comino

University of Trento - Department of Economics and Management

Maria Laura Parisi

University of Brescia, Department of Economics and Management

Date Written: January 1, 2007

Abstract

users to satisfy their specific needs; the more a software evolves towards a stable release able to address the requirements of its developers, the more successful the project. In this paper we use a large data-set obtained from SourceForge.net to estimate the impact of observed project characteristics on the evolution of the source code from a preliminary release to its mature version. We show that while projects distributed under highly restrictive licensing terms (GPL) have a significantly smaller probability of reaching a stable release, applications towards sophisticated users have a larger probability of evolving in the development status. Interestingly, we find that the size of the "community of developers" increases the chances of progress but this effect decreases as the community gets larger, a signal of possible coordination problems. Finally, we show that the determinants of the development stage of older projects differ significantly from those of newer projects, thus supporting the common perception of open source as an extremely dynamic phenomenon.

Keywords: Software market, open source software, development status, license, topic

JEL Classification: O38, L51, L63

Suggested Citation

Manenti, Fabio M. and Comino, Stefano and Parisi, Maria Laura, From Planning to Mature: On the Determinants of Open Source Take-Off (January 1, 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=766024 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.766024

Fabio M. Manenti (Contact Author)

University of Padua - Department of Economics and Management ( email )

via Del Santo 33
Padova, 35123
Italy

Stefano Comino

University of Trento - Department of Economics and Management ( email )

Via Inama 5
Trento, I-38100
Italy

Maria Laura Parisi

University of Brescia, Department of Economics and Management ( email )

via San Faustino 74/b
Brescia, 25122
Italy
+39 0302988826 (Phone)
+39 0302988837 (Fax)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
152
Abstract Views
1,606
Rank
349,069
PlumX Metrics