[Python-Dev] altruism (original) (raw)

Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Wed Sep 23 13:36:49 CEST 2009


Brett Cannon <brett python.org> writes:

Trust me, if you are doing open source for anything other than altruistic reasons you are bound to be disappointed.

I'm surprised by this statement but perhaps it's a matter of vocabulary. Having fun and doing things you like to do does not strike me as "altruistic". Being involved in a FOSS project is not the same as participating in a charity.

See this quick presentation about motivation of FOSS developers (second slide says: "Altruism? Not really"): http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/papers/20030619/index.htm The full study is at: http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/report/index.htm ("Part IV: Survey of Developers")

(but of course there's the question of whether "altruism" exists at large, or is a political and moral fiction)

Regards

Antoine.



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