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Managing Commercial Conflicts of Interest in Open Source Foundations

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Book cover Software Business (ICSOB 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 370))

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Abstract

When companies opt to open source their software, they may choose to offer the project to an open source foundation. Donating the software to an open source foundation offers a number of advantages, such as access to the foundation’s existing tools and project management. However, in donating the software, the company relinquishes control of the software and grants other foundation members—including competitors—the same rights to the software. Using a multiple-case study research approach, this paper examines how foundations manage conflicts of interest in the open sourcing donation scenario. We find that foundations primarily use a set of well-defined mechanisms to prevent such conflicts from arising, and that the use of these mechanisms can depend on the foundation type.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our interview partners for sharing their time and expertise with us: Mark Hinkle, Stefano Maffulli and the anonymous member of the Eclipse Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Martensstr. 3, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Florian Weikert, Dirk Riehle & Ann Barcomb

Authors
  1. Florian Weikert
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  2. Dirk Riehle
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  3. Ann Barcomb
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ann Barcomb .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University of Technology, Pori, Finland

    Sami Hyrynsalmi

  2. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Mari Suoranta

  3. University of South-Eastern Norway, Bø i Telemark, Norway

    Anh Nguyen-Duc

  4. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Pasi Tyrväinen

  5. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Pekka Abrahamsson

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Weikert, F., Riehle, D., Barcomb, A. (2019). Managing Commercial Conflicts of Interest in Open Source Foundations. In: Hyrynsalmi, S., Suoranta, M., Nguyen-Duc, A., Tyrväinen, P., Abrahamsson, P. (eds) Software Business. ICSOB 2019. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 370. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33742-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33742-1_11

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