Open source community: a new innovation organization based on internet

Abstract

Since Stallman 1984 first put forward the idea of free source, open source software and open source community attract more and more attentions in the world. In literature there exists some discussions about the linkage between open source communities and innovation, on one side it has been claimed that Open Source is about imitation, not innovation, pointing out that most of Open Source programs are imitations of proprietary solutions; on the other side it has been underlined that the free circulation of ideas within the bazaar production mode makes up an environment that is particularly suitable for innovation. We consider open source community a new innovation form based on Internet and put forward a model of innovation carried out in such community. This new form gathers individual and collective effort to contribute to the new software, provide more opportunities for users to join in new product developing and create a great platform for each other to communicate.