Table 2 Individual motivations for contributing

Economic

The programmer earns money from his/her contributions.

[22, 27, 31, 37, 38, 43, 45, 46]

Enjoyment

The programmer likes contributing. It is fun.

[33, 34, 38, 43, 45–48]

Identity

The programmer identifies him/herself as an open source programmer and wants to maintain that identity.

[33, 45, 49]

Learning

The programmer wants to learn about the software, programming language, architecture, existing problems, new features, etc.

[22, 33–36, 43–45, 48, 50–52]

Networking

The programmer wants to develop a peer network.

[27, 36, 43]

Own use

The programmer needs the code for his/her software.

[27, 33, 35, 38, 43, 45–48, 50, 51, 53]

Political

The programmer believes that "all software should be free".

[27, 33, 34, 39, 43–45, 54]

Signaling

The programmer wants to signal (or demonstrate) his/her skills to a wider audience, possibly to assist in finding a job, being promoted or another extrinsic reason.

[34, 35, 38, 45–48, 50]