%0 Journal Article %J International Journal of Human-Computer Studies %D 2018 %T Stages of motivation for contributing user-generated content: A theory and empirical test %A Kevin Crowston %A Fagnot, Isabelle %X

User-generated content (UGC) projects involve large numbers of mostly unpaid contributors collaborating to create content. Motivation for such contributions has been an active area of research. In prior research, motivation for contribution to UGC has been considered a single, static and individual phenomenon. In this paper, we argue that it is instead three separate but interrelated phenomena. Using the theory of helping behaviour as a framework and integrating social movement theory, we propose a stage theory that distinguishes three separate sets (initial, sustained and meta) of motivations for participation in UGC. We test this theory using a data set from a Wikimedia Editor Survey (Wikimedia Foundation, 2011). The results suggest several opportunities for further refinement of the theory but provide support for the main hypothesis, that different stages of contribution have distinct motives. The theory has implications for both researchers and practitioners who manage UGC projects.

%B International Journal of Human-Computer Studies %I Syracuse University %C Syracuse, NY %V 109 %P 89-101 %R 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2017.08.005 %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/crowston%20fagnot%20to%20distribute.pdf %0 Journal Article %J Cognitive Systems Research %D 2016 %T Stigmergic coordination in FLOSS development teams: Integrating explicit and implicit mechanisms %A Bolici, Francesco %A James Howison %A Kevin Crowston %K Coordination %K Stigmergy %B Cognitive Systems Research %V 38 %P 14–22 %R 10.1016/j.cogsys.2015.12.003 %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/COGSYS-RS-%28HHS%29-%282015%29-%283%29.pdf %0 Journal Article %J Technology Innovation Management Review %D 2013 %T Sustainability of Open Collaborative Communities: Analyzing Recruitment Efficiency %A Kevin Crowston %A Nicolas Jullien %A Felipe Ortega %X Extensive research has been conducted over the past years to improve our understanding of sustainability conditions for large-scale collaborative projects, especially from an economic and governance perspective. However, the influence of recruitment and retention of participants in these projects has received comparatively less attention from researchers. Nevertheless, these concerns are significant for practitioners, especially regarding the apparently decreasing ability of the main open online projects to attract and retain new contributors. A possible explanation for this decrease is that those projects have simply reached a mature state of development. Marwell and Oliver (1993) and Oliver, Marwell, and Teixeira (1985) note that, at the initial stage in collective projects, participants are few and efforts are costly; in the diffusion phase, the number of participants grows, as their efforts are rewarding; and in the mature phase, some inefficiency may appear as the number of contributors is greater than required for the work. In this article, we examine this possibility. We use original data from 36 Wikipedias in different languages to compare their efficiency in recruiting participants. We chose Wikipedia because the different language projects are at different states of development, but are quite comparable on the other aspects, providing a test of the impact of development on efficiency. Results confirm that most of the largest Wikipedias seem to be characterized by a reduced return to scale. As a result, we can draw interesting conclusions that can be useful for practitioners, facilitators, and managers of collaborative projects in order to identify key factors potentially influencing the adequate development of their communities over the medium-to-long term. %B Technology Innovation Management Review %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %P 20–26 %8 01/2013 %U http://timreview.ca/article/646 %0 Conference Proceedings %B Proceedings of the 41st Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) %D 2008 %T Shared mental models among open source software developers %A Scozzi, Barbara %A Kevin Crowston %A Eseryel, U. Yeliz %A Li, Qing %X Shared understandings are important for software development as they guide to effective individual contributions to, and coordination of, the software development process. In this paper, we present the results of a preliminary analysis on shared mental models within Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams. Based on structuration theory and by adopting cognitive mapping and process analysis, we represented and com-pared the mental models of some developers of the Lucene Java project. Our analysis suggests that there is a high-level of sharing among core developers but the shar-ing is not complete, with some differences related to ten-ure in the project. %B Proceedings of the 41st Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) %C Big Island, Hawai'i, 7-10 January %G eng %R 10.1109/HICSS.2008.391 %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/SharedMntalModels.pdf %0 Conference Proceedings %B Proceedings of the IFIP 2.13 Working Conference on Open Source Software (OSS) %D 2008 %T Social dynamics of FLOSS team communication across channels %A Wiggins, Andrea %A James Howison %A Kevin Crowston %K FLOSS %X This paper extends prior investigation into the social dynamics of free and open source (FLOSS) teams by examining the methodological questions arising from research using social network analysis on open source projects. We evaluate the validity of data sampling by examining dynamics of communication centralization, which vary across multiple communication channels. We also introduce a method for intensity-based smoothing in dynamic social network analysis. %B Proceedings of the IFIP 2.13 Working Conference on Open Source Software (OSS) %I Springer Boston %C Milan, Italy, 7-10 September %P 131-142 %@ 978-0-387-09683-4 %G eng %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/DSNAWigginsIFIP.pdf %0 Journal Article %J Information and Software Technology Journal: Special issue on Understanding the Social Side of Software Engineering, Qualitative Software Engineering Research %D 2007 %T Self-organization of teams in free/libre open source software development %A Kevin Crowston %A Kangning Wei %A Li, Qing %A Eseryel, U. Yeliz %A James Howison %X This paper provides empirical evidence about how free/libre open source software development teams self-organize their work, specifically, how tasks are assigned to project team members. Following a case study methodology, we examined developer interaction data from three active and successful FLOSS projects using qualitative research methods, specifically inductive content analysis, to identify the task-assignment mechanisms used by the participants. We found that ‘self-assignment’ was the most common mechanism across three FLOSS projects. This mechanism is consistent with expectations for distributed and largely volunteer teams. We conclude by discussing whether these emergent practices can be usefully transferred to mainstream practice and indicating directions for future research. %B Information and Software Technology Journal: Special issue on Understanding the Social Side of Software Engineering, Qualitative Software Engineering Research %V 49 %P 564–575 %G eng %N 6 %R 10.1016/j.infsof.2007.02.004 %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/060918.pdf %0 Conference Proceedings %B Proceedings of the IFIP Working Group 8.2/9.5 Working Conference on Virtuality and Virtualization %D 2007 %T A structurational perspective on leadership in virtual teams %A Heckman, Robert %A Kevin Crowston %A Misiolek, Nora %E Kevin Crowston %E Seiber, Sandra %K FLOSS %K Leadership %X Building on behavioural leadership theory and structuration theory, we present a two-order theory of leadership. It describes four classes of first-order leadership behaviours (task coordination, substantive task contribution, group maintenance and boundary spanning) and defines second-order leadership as behaviour that influences changes in the structure that guides group action. We argue that second-order leadership is enabled by first-order leadership and is therefore action embedded and grounded in processes that define the social identity of the group. We propose that effective virtual teams will exhibit a paradoxical combination of shared, distributed first-order leadership complemented by strong, concentrated, and centralized second-order leadership. We conclude by suggesting future research that might be conducted to test and further elaborate our theory. %B Proceedings of the IFIP Working Group 8.2/9.5 Working Conference on Virtuality and Virtualization %I Springer %C Portland, OR %P 151–168 %G eng %R 10.1007/978-0-387-73025-7_12 %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/AStructurationalPerspectiveOnLeadership.pdf %0 Conference Proceedings %B Proceedings of the IFIP Second International Conference on Open Source Systems %D 2006 %T Social dynamics of free and open source team communications %A James Howison %A Inoue, Keisuke %A Kevin Crowston %K FLOSS %X This paper furthers inquiry into the social structure of free and open source software (FLOSS) teams by undertaking social network analysis across time. Contrary to expectations, we confirmed earlier findings of a wide distribution of centralizations even when examining the networks over time. The paper also provides empirical evidence that while change at the center of FLOSS projects is relatively uncommon, participation across the project communities is highly skewed, with many participants appearing for only one period. Surprisingly, large project teams are not more likely to undergo change at their centers. %B Proceedings of the IFIP Second International Conference on Open Source Systems %C Lake Como, Italy, 8-9 June %P 319-330 %G eng %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/SocialDynamics.pdf %0 Generic %D 2005 %T SE, IS & (FL)OSS @ EASE %A Kevin Crowston %K FLOSS %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/crowston_EASE_talk.pdf %0 Journal Article %J First Monday %D 2005 %T The social structure of Free and Open Source Software development %A Kevin Crowston %A James Howison %K FLOSS %X Metaphors, such as the Cathedral and Bazaar, used to describe the organization of FLOSS projects typically place them in sharp contrast to proprietary development by emphasizing FLOSS’s distinctive social and communications structures. But what do we really know about the communication patterns of FLOSS projects? How generalizable are the projects that have been studied? Is there consistency across FLOSS projects? Questioning the assumption of distinctiveness is important because practitioner–advocates from within the FLOSS community rely on features of social structure to describe and account for some of the advantages of FLOSS production. To address this question, we examined 120 project teams from SourceForge, representing a wide range of FLOSS project types, for their communications centralization as revealed in the interactions in the bug tracking system. We found that FLOSS development teams vary widely in their communications centralization, from projects completely centered on one developer to projects that are highly decentralized and exhibit a distributed pattern of conversation between developers and active users. We suggest, therefore, that it is wrong to assume that FLOSS projects are distinguished by a particular social structure merely because they are FLOSS. Our findings suggest that FLOSS projects might have to work hard to achieve the expected development advantages which have been assumed to flow from "going open." In addition, the variation in communications structure across projects means that communications centralization is useful for comparisons between FLOSS teams. We found that larger FLOSS teams tend to have more decentralized communication patterns, a finding that suggests interesting avenues for further research examining, for example, the relationship between communications structure and code modularity. %B First Monday %V 10 %G eng %U http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1207/1127 %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Social%20structure%20of%20Free%20and%20Open%20Source%20Software%20development.pdf %0 Conference Proceedings %B Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Open Source Systems (OSS) %D 2005 %T A structurational perspective on leadership in Free/Libre Open Source Software teams %A Kevin Crowston %A Heckman, Robert %A Annabi, Hala %A Masango, Chengetai %K FLOSS %K Leadership %X In this conceptual paper, we present a structuration-based theory of leadership behaviours in self-organizing virtual distributed teams such as Free/Libre Open Source Software development teams. Such teams are often composed of members of relatively equal status or who are so disparate in background that formal organizational status seems irrelevant, reducing the usual leadership cues provided by organizational status and title. Building on a functional view of leadership and structuration theory, we suggest that leaders are individuals who develop team structures that then guide the actions of team members. Specifically, we examine structures of signification in the form of shared mental models, structures of domination in the form of role structures and structures of legitimation in form of rules and norms. The main contribution of our paper is the integration of various social theories to describe emergent leadership behaviours in distributed teams. We develop a set of propositions and illustrate with examples taken from Free/Libre Open Source Software development teams. We conclude by suggesting future research that might be conducted to test and further elaborate our theory. %B Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Open Source Systems (OSS) %C Genova, Italy %G eng %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/crowston-final.pdf %0 Generic %D 2004 %T A structurational model of leadership in virtual distributed groups %A Kevin Crowston %A Annabi, Hala %A Heckman, Robert %K FLOSS %> https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/crowston_oasis_2004v3.pdf