OPEN SOURCE INNOVATION

 

Background

The spectacular success of open collaborative product development in the field of software (OSS) over the last years raises the question, both in academia and practice, if it is a) possible and b) useful to transfer the idea from software to other domains. In OSS, companies and/or a geographically distributed user community make volunteer contributions. People/organisations contribute to increase profits, to build a reputation among the community members, or even to have fun.