You Scratch My Back, We’ll Scratch

Yours

--------Exploring Open Entrepreneurship in

a Private-collective Community

Robin TeiglandStockholm School of Economics

Paul M. Di GangiLoyola University Maryland

Copenhagen Business School, May 2012

Innovation and Market Creation in and around Virtual Worlds

#opensim #virtualworlds #innovation #entrepreneurship

Zeynep YetisStockholm School of Economics

Christina HuitfeldtStockholm School of Economics

Introduction

Theory & Research Questions

Research Methodology & Results

Conclusions

Motivation

Social Capital

OpenSimulator

Contributions

Thank You!

Overview

Open Source Communities

Private-collective community: A network

comprising individuals, organizations, and

interested parties contributing resources to

accomplish a personal and shared goal

(adapted from von Hippel & Von Krogh, 2003)

Linux

Apache

MySQL

“Open source” communities

expanding beyond software

Private

Collectivevs

E.g., Entrepreneurs~ Driven by personal vision and knowledge

to realize an idea for a new venture

E.g., Open Source Software~ Built by users and distributed freely

regardless of affiliation

Models of Knowledge Creation

Private

Collectivevs

Profit-based rational behavior of

entrepreneur would lead to

entrepreneurs free-riding on efforts of

others

But an Inherent Tension

Contributes valuable

time, effort, and knowledge

contributing to community and

making it freely available.

Our Primary Research Purpose

Do entrepreneurs participate in open source communities and if so, what benefits do the

entrepreneurs provide the community and vice versa?

MotivationIntroduction

Theory & Research Questions

Research Methodology & Results

Conclusions

Social Capital

OpenSimulator

Contributions

Thank You!

Overview

Social Capital

The resources embedded in a social structure that are accessed and/or mobilized in purposive action

Lin, 2001

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulyp13/2600200854/sizes/l/in/photostream/

RQ1. How do entrepreneurs contribute to

the social capital of an OSS community?

RQ2. How does an OSS community

contribute to an entrepreneur’s social

capital?

Research Questions

Entrepreneurial success

Organizationalsuccess

Structural

Capital

Individual’s position

within a network that

provides access to

resources

Cognitive

Capital

Ability for individuals

to develop a shared

language or foster

collaboration

through boundary

spanning objects

Relational

Capital

Ability of individual to

identify with subset of

overarching network

through common

attribute

Social Capital

Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998Wasko & Faraj, 2005

OpenSimulator

Introduction

Theory & Research Questions

Research Methodology & Results

Conclusions

Motivation

Social Capital

Contributions

Thank You!

Overview

OpenSimulator Project

An open source community comprising different

individuals and organizations developing a multi-

platform, multi-user 3D application enabling creation

of customized virtual worlds.

URL: http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page

1) Developer Mailing List2) Ohloh Commit List3) OpenSimulator Wiki4) SNS, blogs, homepages, etc.5) 21 Interviews

Conducting an interview

Data Collection

Mixed methods, explorative case study

Qualitative & Quantitative

Two Periods: 1) 2007-2009 2) 2009-2011

Structural CapitalIndividual’s position

within network

providing him or her

with access to

resources

Network Analysis

(Centrality & Structural

Hole Measures);

Means Testing

(significance)

Cognitive CapitalAbility for individuals to

develop shared

language or foster

collaboration through

boundary spanning

objects

Textual Analysis (Word

Burst Lists); Code

Analysis (Contributions to

Code Repository)

Relational CapitalAbility of individual to

identify with subset of

overarching network

through a common

attribute

Heterogeneity of Ties

Analysis (Identification

with Groups)

Definition

Method

Methodology

Interviews used to validate findings

Structural

Capital

Network Structure of OpenSimulator Developer Mailing List

Entrepreneurs play significant role through

their highly central positions that bridge

across structural holes

Structural Capital

Period One Period Two

Collapsed Node Structureof OpenSimulator Developer Mailing List

Stakeholder Affiliation

August 2007 - September 2009 October 2009 – October 2011Active Core Developers

Ohloh Top 20 Committers

Active Core Developers

Ohloh Top 20 Committers

# Inds % Total # Inds % Total # Inds % Total # Inds % Total1-Academic 2 10% 2 10% 1 8% 1 5%

2-Entrepreneur 8 40% 11 55% 7 58% 9 45%3–Hobbyist 4 20% 2 10% 2 17% 6 30%4-Large Firm 3 15% 3 15% 2 17% 4 20%5–Non-profit 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%6-Local Public 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%

7–Federal Public 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%8-Research Inst 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%

9-SME 3 15% 2 10% 0 0% 0 0%Total 20 100% 20 100% 12 100% 20 100%

Cognitive Capital

Entrepreneurs are the primary group of contributors to code development.

Academics Entrepreneur Hobbyist Large Firm SME

inventory state debug availabletype portability

user join osg processing openid

really obscures saving file metadata

servers night succeeded worlds asset

think pages osgrid users userserver

server scene shape mathematics inventoryserver

millions region guest center regionserver

region believe functions tree script

addresses physics guests wrote goods

different prerouting grid next class

inventoryserver core value approach executed

modules currency build computer assets

grid incoming sims rest assetbase

agent revision project attachments inform

service opencurrency allow asset cable

Academics Entrepreneur Hobbyist Large Firm SME

hg we bulletsim updates admin

wifi state wiki sciencesim item

master established pm trust megaregions

info join documents testclient prims

scholar never bots queue viewer

robust night part adaptive megarion

timeout pages testclient voice trees

regionstore scene next dsg add

freeswitch region kins pronounced linkedin

university believe wise bots scalable

version obsolete outfit viewer names

line physics documentation simian inventory

connector core authority appearance root

lgpl modules install packet robot

migration currency users retransmit sequence

Cognitive Capital

Non-profit, Local Public, Federal Public, Research Inst left out for presentation purposes

Period One Period Two

Entrepreneurs focus on real world applicationsand ensure development activities are relevant

to diverse members

Relational CapitalNode Size = Heterogeneity

ScorePeriod One Period Two

Entrepreneurs are significantly more effective at maintaining diverse relationships than other groups while also maintaining

strong ties to other Entrepreneurs

RQ 1 How do entrepreneurs contribute to the social capital of an

OSS community?-------------

• Structural – position themselves as core and bridges

across community • Cognitive – ensure focus of

community on real world applications and relevance

• Relational - create social glue across community members

with diverse interests and goals

RQ 2 How does an OSS community contribute to an entrepreneur’s social capital?

----------• Structural – provides access to

diverse set of resources enabling them to identify and

realize opportunities• Cognitive – enables building of

high quality relationships, not just big networks

• Relational – enables ability to develop expertise while avoiding

learning traps

Summary of Findings

OpenSimulator

Introduction

Theory & Research Questions

Research Methodology & Results

Conclusions

Motivation

Social Capital

Contributions

Thank You!

Overview

•OSS literature

–Entrepreneurs facilitate the community’s development of a

combinative capability, thus leading to the continuous creation of

intellectual capital for the community.

•Social capital literature

–Extend social capital theory to OSS communities to show a

symbiotic relationship between OSS communities and

entrepreneurs.

•Entrepreneurship literature

–Importance of online communities to entrepreneurs as arenas for

building social capital.

–Dialectical view of entrepreneurs as individuals who pursue both

self and collective interests (Van de ven et al., 2007)

Contribution

Entrepreneurs openly engaging in social capital building activities through free revealing of intellectual property

and contribution of other resources with purpose of pursuing self business-related interests while contributing

to pursuit of mutual goals

“Open Entrepreneurship”

Questions?

Thank you for

your criticisms

and comments!

Robin Teigland

aka Karinda Rhode

robin.teigland@hhs.se

www.knowledgenetworking.org

www.slideshare.net/eteigland

www.nordicworlds.net

#RobinTeigland

#NVWN

#Euroversity

Photo: Lindholm, Metro

Photo: Nordenskiöld

Photo: Lindqvist

“If you love knowledge, set it free!”