Would you do it again for free?

Book Review: The Starfish and the Spider & Open source software organizations and money

2 Comments / Books, open source, Would you do it again for free? /

The Starfish and the Spider compares two types of organizational structures. Spider organizations have a central command structure, like a CEO. If you detach one of the spider’s legs from the head, the leg can no longer function. It is not autonomous. Starfish organizations have very distributed command structures. Cut off a leg and it […]

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Forking an open source project: regaining internal motivation

1 Comment / Business, open source, PlanetGNOME, Would you do it again for free? /

Can forking a free software project enable you to regain your internal motivation to work on a project? My current theory is that if you work on free software, then you get paid to work on it and then you get laid off, that you would work on a different project. Because the first one

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Why do you have to pay employees to do the right thing?

11 Comments / Business, culture, PlanetGNOME, Would you do it again for free? /

Energizer Battery Company is rewarding employees for flying coach. If employees fly coach, the company splits the difference with them – up to $2,000 for trips to Europe. This just seems really strange. Let’s put aside the fact that employees are now getting a $1,000 bonus for flying to Europe, so they may be inclined

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Unexpected rewards are better than expected rewards

9 Comments / Would you do it again for free? /

Since I’ve started talking about Would you do it again for free?, I’ve been very interested in any studies that show how extrinsic rewards change intrinsic rewards. The theory is that external rewards can replace your internal values to the point that you’ll no longer do what you valued without external payment or reward of

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Supporting free software with grant money

2 Comments / open source, Would you do it again for free? /

I recently started investigating how GNOME could fund projects with grant money. Will Ross sent me an email with a lot of good information and I’d like to share his experience with others in the open source software community. Will Ross is a project manager with Mendocino Informatics, a small healthcare technology consulting firm in

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Companies: fostering or controlling communities? An interview with Kim Weins

3 Comments / interview, open source, Would you do it again for free? /

Kim Weins is the Senior VP of Marketing at OpenLogic. Kim spent three years as a principal in CMO Strategy Group and helped companies such as Atomz (acquired by WebSideStory), TuVox and RedSeal to significantly accelerate their marketing efforts. Prior to CMO Strategy Group, she was at PeopleSoft where she was responsible for driving PeopleSoft’s

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Are volunteers more dedicated than paid staff?

3 Comments / open source, volunteering, Would you do it again for free? /

As many of you know I’m fascinated not only with how the open source software model works but how companies are unintentionally influencing the model by injecting money. I’ve shared my research and thoughts in my “Would you do it again for free?” talk. So when I saw Volunteer staff are surprisingly committed, I was

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