The Comingled Code: Open Source and Economic Development

by Josh Lerner, Mark Schankerman

The interaction of open source and proprietary software and the implications for economic development. Discussions of the economic impact of open source software often generate more heat than light. Advocates passionately assert the benefits of open source while critics decry its effects. Missing from the debate is rigorous economic analysis and systematic economic evidence of the impact of open source on consumers, firms, and economic development in general. This book fills that gap. In The Comingled Code , Josh Lerner and Mark Schankerman, drawing on a new, large-scale database, show that open source and proprietary software interact in sometimes unexpected ways, and discuss the policy implications of these findings. The new data (from a range of countries in varying stages of development) documents the mixing of open source and proprietary firms sell proprietary software while contributing to open source, and users extensively mix and match the two. Lerner and Schankerman examine the ways in which software differs from other technologies in promoting economic development, what motivates individuals and firms to contribute to open source projects, how developers and users view the trade-offs between the two kinds of software, and how government policies can ensure that open source competes effectively with proprietary software and contributes to economic development.

238 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 2010

Reviews

[Jory Carson-burson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a very full economic analysis of different approaches to software development. At this point it’s a bit dated so the study should be conducted again, but I think this really contributes to how people should be thinking about total cost of ownership of different kinds of software, as well as the role of standards.

[Stephen Walton]

I've wanted to read a good analysis of the affects of open source for years. This was that, and the author made some really interesting discoveries, some that were very surprising. It reads like a research paper though. Expect most of it to be analyzing how he got the data, the statistical methods used, and the graphs, and the raw data summaries. Most of what he concludes is probably common sense for a software developer, but still, it's a worthwhile read if software is your profession.