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article arguing that it can pay for companies to allow their developers
to contribute back to the projects whose software they use.
&quot;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.&quot;" />
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<h1>The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software (Working Knowledge)</h1>
<div class="Byline">[Posted September 6, 2018 by corbet]
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The Harvard Business School's "Working Knowledge" site has <a
href="https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/the-hidden-benefit-of-giving-back-to-open-source-software">an
article</a> arguing that it can pay for companies to allow their developers
to contribute back to the projects whose software they use.
"<span>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.</span>"<hr width="60%" align="left">
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  <p class="CommentTitle">The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software (Working Knowledge)</p>
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    <p class="CommentPoster">Posted Sep 6, 2018 18:43 UTC (Thu) by <b>sjfriedl</b> (subscriber, #10111)
       [<a href="/Articles/764326/">Link</a>]
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This is no surprise to me.  Most of the open source software improvements that might help a competitor are too general in nature to really be giving the other guys a competitive advantage.<br>
<p>
For instance, if Lyft contributed Linux kernel or PHP or Apache or whatever fixes, the benefit to Lyft of having that improved expertise far exceeds the general benefit to competitor Uber.<br>
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    <p class="CommentPoster">Posted Sep 6, 2018 21:42 UTC (Thu) by <b>k8to</b> (subscriber, #15413)
       [<a href="/Articles/764334/">Link</a>]
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Even having to debate it seems so farcical.  If you're worried about people who "do the same thing", the software they use is not the main differentiator.  How your company is organized, how you treat your people and your customers, how you organized projects etc are huge, and software is ultimately minor.  Fixes and changes to software? Incredibly minor.<br>
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    <p class="CommentPoster">Posted Sep 6, 2018 21:56 UTC (Thu) by <b>k8to</b> (subscriber, #15413)
       [<a href="/Articles/764337/">Link</a>]
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Perhaps this is too dismissive, as there is the part about letting your programmers do their job to the best of their ability.  That seems pretty big.<br>
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98	<h1>The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software (Working Knowledge)</h1>
99	<div class="Byline">[Posted September 6, 2018 by corbet]
100	<p>
101	</div>
102	</div>
103	<div class="ArticleText">
104	The Harvard Business School's "Working Knowledge" site has <a
105	href="https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/the-hidden-benefit-of-giving-back-to-open-source-software">an
106	article</a> arguing that it can pay for companies to allow their developers
107	to contribute back to the projects whose software they use.
108	"<span>And that presents an interesting dilemma for firms that rely heavily
109	on open source. Should they allow employees on company time to make updates
110	and edits to the software for community use that could be used by
111	competitors? New research by Assistant Professor Frank Nagle, a member of
112	the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, shows that paying employees
113	to contribute to such software boosts the company’s productivity from using
114	the software by as much as 100 percent, when compared with free-riding
115	competitors.</span>"<hr width="60%" align="left">
116	(<a href="https://lwn.net/Login/?target=/Articles/764321/">Log in</a> to post comments)
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124	<p class="CommentTitle">The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software (Working Knowledge)</p>
125	<div class="CommentBody">
126	<p class="CommentPoster">Posted Sep 6, 2018 18:43 UTC (Thu) by <b>sjfriedl</b> (subscriber, #10111)
127	[<a href="/Articles/764326/">Link</a>]
128	</p>
129	<div class="FormattedComment">
130	This is no surprise to me. Most of the open source software improvements that might help a competitor are too general in nature to really be giving the other guys a competitive advantage.<br>
131	<p>
132	For instance, if Lyft contributed Linux kernel or PHP or Apache or whatever fixes, the benefit to Lyft of having that improved expertise far exceeds the general benefit to competitor Uber.<br>
133	</div>
134
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147	<p class="CommentTitle">The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software (Working Knowledge)</p>
148	<div class="CommentBody">
149	<p class="CommentPoster">Posted Sep 6, 2018 21:42 UTC (Thu) by <b>k8to</b> (subscriber, #15413)
150	[<a href="/Articles/764334/">Link</a>]
151	</p>
152	<div class="FormattedComment">
153	Even having to debate it seems so farcical. If you're worried about people who "do the same thing", the software they use is not the main differentiator. How your company is organized, how you treat your people and your customers, how you organized projects etc are huge, and software is ultimately minor. Fixes and changes to software? Incredibly minor.<br>
154	</div>
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168	<div class="CommentBox">
169	<p class="CommentTitle">The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software (Working Knowledge)</p>
170	<div class="CommentBody">
171	<p class="CommentPoster">Posted Sep 6, 2018 21:56 UTC (Thu) by <b>k8to</b> (subscriber, #15413)
172	[<a href="/Articles/764337/">Link</a>]
173	</p>
174	<div class="FormattedComment">
175	Perhaps this is too dismissive, as there is the part about letting your programmers do their job to the best of their ability. That seems pretty big.<br>
176	</div>
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