Open-source developers are motivated by personal development and building their reputation, according to Psychology Today. Which of course means that they're a self-serving, greedy bunch — just like the rest of us. If such self-interest leads to new software like the Firefox brower I'm using right now, good for us. And if fame-seeking keeps open-source developers from getting screwed over like Wikipedia users — who, according to Psychology Today, edit Jimmy Wales's comprehensive list of English soccer stars for more altruistic purposes — well, good for him. (Photo by jagelado)
Open-source programmers actually raging greedtards
10:00 AM on Wed Mar 5 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
649 views
6 comments









Comments
But Wikipedia editors ARE open-source developers. It's the labour model you're talking about here, yes, not the fact that these widgets are software while those are thoughts?
Photo is almost certainly not originally by Jagelado. That picture has been floating around since at least the early 2000s. I forget the original source, unfortunately.
Communism fails because of greed. I have nothing against greed--it goes hand-in-hand with ambition--and it isn't always about money.
This is the problem the open source community has. They have the resources to solve some real problems, but their flamewars and politics yield a bunch of half-assed Windows clones, all striving to be recognized as the Windows killer.
And obviously by bettering their reputations they get better-paying jobs. It's always about money.
another meaningful and ground-breaking article from Pscyhology Today...
This is hardly new or ground-breaking; in fact, the Psych Today paper is not particularly incisive in showing what they so clearly want to show; it's all about reputation.
Hardly surprising though, and as much as I used to be a raving freetard evangelist, when I ended up doing some very similar research:
[www.felixcohen.co.uk]
And it turns out to be pretty much true. With some proviso's...taking time and experience into account, developers start out getting into free software to learn how to code, then once they've got a couple of projects under their belt, move on to caring about their reputation. Oh, and they're generally a bunch of stinking M$ haters...
And yeah, something of a dearth of the fairer sex in F/OSS coding. I blame Stallman.
Start a discussion:
Login with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?