Presentation from OSS 2012 The Eighth International Conference on Open Source Systems

1. OSS 2012
The Eighth International Conference on Open Source Systems
Emerging hackerspaces –
Peer-production generation
Jarkko Moilanen
jarkko.moilanen@uta.fi
University of Tampere
School of Information Sciences
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Jarkko Moilanen

2. Research motivation
● Personal history in hackerspaces and in hacker culture
● Started as pure 'hackerspaces' study, expanded to
cover other forms as well.
● To provide missing accurate longitudinal statistical
research data and results about commons-based peer
production community such as:
● Common characteristics of the community
● Member motivation and
● Community values
● To put DIY communities on the larger context of hacker
generations as 'Peer-production' generation
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3. Observation and surveys
● Methods used
● Empirical observation (helped in defining survey
questions)
● Annual surveys (main data collection method)
● Surveys are part of P2P Foundation supported
Statistical Studies of Peer Production studies
established by author.
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4. Peer-production surveys
● Conducted 2010 and 2011 (also 2012)
● Conducted among DIY communities such as
● Hackerspaces
● Makerspaces
● DIYbio
● Fablabs
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5. Results
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6. Middle-aged western men
● 'Average' member of DIY community is a highly
educated 26 - 31 years old male from Europe
(2011: 39%) or North America (2011:48%)
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7. Bachelors and Masters of 'hacking'
● 2011: 56% at least Bachelor Degree (2010:
49%)
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8. Committed to one local community
● Nearly 91% are members of just one
community
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9. Building objects in crowd
● Top 3 interests:building objects (82%), social
aspects (67%) and software hacking (65%)
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10. Fun loving altruistic community
● Altruism, community commitment, meeting
other hackers in real world and having fun
● having fun (98%)
● meeting other hackers and hacker-minded
people (95%)
● contributing to community without
expecting something in return (80%)
● commitment to community (75%)
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11. SW and HW Projects
● Software related: > 55%, Hardware related: > 65%
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12. Small-ish local communities
● Over 40% of spaces have 20-50 members
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13. Peer funded
● Question 'From which sources funding and
resources can/should be obtained?' was added
to 2011 survey.
● Membership fees: over 92%
● Donations from individuals: 88%
● Governmental sources: 60%
● Company donations: around 57%
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14. Peer-production generation
Suggested view to Hacker
generations. Source: Modified
from Taylor (2005). Peer-
production added by the author.
Beginning of peer-production
generation is debatable.
Hackerspaces emerged in small
scale around 1995, but
breakthrough happened around
2001-2002 and after that other
forms of peer-production
emerged.
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15. Peer-production generation
● Motivation: altruism, community commitment,
meeting other hackers in real world and
having fun
● Small-ish local communities (with own space)
● While members value social events, they
value doing/'making' more
● Peer funding (over company or goverment)
● Hackerspaces resemble 'third places' defined
by Oldenburg
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16. Motivation model
● hackerspace communities have a strong ‘social motivation factor’.
Not found significant in other research on open source development
Modified from Martine Aalbers, 2004. “Motivation for participation in an open source software community,”
at http://download.blender.org/documentation/bc2004/Martine_Aalbers/results-summary.pdf
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17. Future research
● Continue annual surveys
● Future (separate) surveys will focus on three
communities to enable more profound results:
● General DIY community (general features of Peer-
production generation)
● DIYbio community ('revolutionary activity')
● 3D Manufacturing community ('revolutionary activity')
● Compare the general Peer production generation to
the two 'revolutionary' communities.
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18. Questions?
● For more information, read
http://surveys.peerproduction.net/
● Email: jarkko.moilanen@uta.fi
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