Impacts of License Choice and Organizational Sponsorship on User Interest and Development Activity in Open Source Software Projects

What differentiates successful from unsuccessful open source software projects? This paper develops and tests a model of the impacts of license restrictiveness and organizational sponsorship on two indicators of success: user interest in, and development activity on, open source software development projects. Using data gathered from Freshmeat.net and project home pages, the main conclusions derived from the analysis are that (1) license restrictiveness and organizational sponsorship interact to influence user perceptions of the likely utility of open source software in such a way that users are most attracted to projects that are sponsored by nonmarket organizations and that employ nonrestrictive licenses, and (2) licensing and sponsorship address complementary developer motivations such that the influence of licensing on development activity depends on what kind of organizational sponsor a project has. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and the paper outlines several avenues for future research.