The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software (Working Knowledge)
The Harvard Business School's "Working Knowledge" site has an
article arguing that it can pay for companies to allow their developers
to contribute back to the projects whose software they use.
"And that presents an interesting dilemma for firms that rely heavily
on open source. Should they allow employees on company time to make updates
and edits to the software for community use that could be used by
competitors? New research by Assistant Professor Frank Nagle, a member of
the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, shows that paying employees
to contribute to such software boosts the company’s productivity from using
the software by as much as 100 percent, when compared with free-riding
competitors."