Pervasive fun

Abstract

The goal of the study on Fun and Software Development (FASD) is to precisely assess the importance that fun has as motivation for software developers to engage in open source projects. A survey carried out both under open source developers and programmers working in Swiss software companies yielded that the fun motive accounts for about 27 percent to 33 percent of open source developers’ motivation. Fun is a pervasive feature of software development, not only for open source programmers but in the area of commercial software development too: Open source developers that are paid for their work are observed to be very motivated and prepared for future effort, especially if they enjoy their development time. Furthermore, the fun that programmers experience functions as a good proxy for their productivity. Therefore, employers that want to enhance the programmers’ productivity can safely invest in an environment of fun for developers in their company.

Open government objectives and participation motivations

“…• Kinship describes the motivation of contributing to a community to which one belongs, in order to help this community without expecting economic rewards (Von Krogh et al, 2012). • Fun or enjoyment is one of the most influential factors when explaining the amount of time spent on FLOSS projects (Luthiger and Jungwirth (2007).…”

Flow Experience in Cyberspace: Current Studies and Perspectives

“…Luthiger and Jungwirth suggest that programmers engaged in commercial software projects have a good chance, nevertheless, to get involved in projects that provide both extrinsic benefits and fun -the fun represents a characteristic closely connected with intrinsic motivation and the flow experience. The employers too should be aware of this fact because a programmer's fun is likely to increase his or her productivity (Luthiger & Jungwirth, 2007). In an earlier study of the open source programmers' motivation, the researchers report that "an interplay between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations: neither dominates or destroys the efficacy of the other" (Lakhani & Wolf, 2005, p. 19).…”

“…(Csikszentmihalyi, Abuhamdeh, & Nakamura, 2005) This statement gives a psychologically adequate explanation of a wellknown situation on the software market. A recent work by Luthiger and Jungwirth (2007) shows that open source programmers report fun, or enjoyment, as we have called it, to be inherent to their work, and they provide such reports significantly more often as compared with the developers of commercial software. Luthiger and Jungwirth suggest that programmers engaged in commercial software projects have a good chance, nevertheless, to get involved in projects that provide both extrinsic benefits and fun -the fun represents a characteristic closely connected with intrinsic motivation and the flow experience.…”

“…Although various computer security issues are nowadays universally believed to be critically important, the valuable theoretical classifications (Beveren, 2001) or empirical studies (Lakhani & Wolf, 2005; Voiskounsky, Babaeva, & Smyslova, 2000;Voiskounsky & Smyslova, 2003a, 2003b in the field are rather few, possibly because of the difficulties in collecting relevant data. Computer programmers are sometimes called hackers (probably not quite correctly, without any connotation to an illegal performance), if (Luthiger & Jungwirth, 2007). It has been proposed recently (Voiskounsky, 2004(Voiskounsky, , 2005(Voiskounsky, , 2006 to teach adolescents the fundamentals of computer ethics in order to help the younger generations, including the talented young computer geeks/nerds (Babaeva & Voiskounsky, 2002), to overcome a temptation of joining the communities of computer criminals.…”

Shedding Light on Participation in Open Government Arenas: Determinants of Platform Activity of Web and App Users

“…Empirical studies on motivation to participate in open-source projects [29,36,48] show that users contribute to open source software as they enjoy the creative experience. Also citizens' willingness to participate in collaborative projects [58] is mainly driven by fun in participating.…”