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Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:02:09 -0400
Message-ID: <AANLkTineuw9yurj_gpGCYHZfcMfUQVwE2ENZk5Nx_YAm@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Are devs who work on or use open source happier in their
 employment?
From: Michael McCandless <lucene@mikemccandless.com>
To: community@apache.org
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Well, I know I personally feel this way!  I've worked on closed source
search engines a good while, and now Lucene/Solr for a good while, and
I know which one makes me happier ;)

And I suspect that's a good strategy by this client of yours..

I know once I finally have to move away from my sponsor, being free to
work in open-source will be a strong requirement for whatever I do
next.

As for "real" references, I think this video is delightfully relevant:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Du6XAPnuFjJc

It summarizes research by economists into what it is that makes people
happy, motivates them, in their work, and it ties this nicely into
open-source.

Mike

On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 11:37 AM, Grant Ingersoll <gsingers@apache.org> wro=
te:
> One of the things I've noticed in my day job, which is admittedly self-se=
lecting since I work for a company that engages with people deploying open =
source, is that I routinely hear, how shall I say it, more enjoyment from t=
he developers in their work as compared to the old days when they worked on=
 a proprietary equivalent, and I think it even holds true when working on "=
troubleshooting" engagements where something is broken. =A0Since, most of u=
s here likely work on open source, I'm curious as to what others think? =A0=
Are devs who work on or use open source happier in their day jobs? =A0And I=
 don't just mean committers/contributors here, I mean people who are using =
the software to solve some bigger problem for their company and who may nev=
er do anything more than ask a question on a mailing list from time to time=
. =A0Has anyone seen _independent_ studies that say one way or the other? =
=A0(References please.) =A0I do think, that some of the answer depends on t=
he quality of the software they are working on (just as it likely does when=
 working on proprietary software), so perhaps I should separate out what co=
uld be called hobbyist open source versus open source that has a large comm=
unity of followers (regardless of license) like Linux, ASF projects, Eclips=
e, etc. =A0Therefore, assuming two different pieces of software, one being =
proprietary and one being open, both of which will solve the problem, are d=
evelopers who solve the problem with open source happier in their job?
>
> At any rate, my motivation for asking is that I'm writing an article on s=
ome thoughts in this area spurred by something a client told me (at a very =
old, established company, mind you) about why they wanted to get the word o=
ut that they were using open source: =A0they felt it would help them attrac=
t and retain developers b/c they would be more satisfied in their jobs b/c =
they got to work on innovative open source technologies.
>
> Thanks for your insights,
> Grant
>
>
>
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