The open source concept confounds a lot of people. When I explain the SugarCRM manufacturing model, I often hear non-tech types ask me questions like “So, wait, these guys just test your product and track bugs, for free?”

It is odd, I guess, when you think about it. But the nice people at Psychology Today were not happy to just say “hey some people like coding.” Instead, they are looking deeper into the psychology behind open source and open wiki contributors.

In a new article, they seem to give three main reasons for people submitting free code to projects:

First, there’s street cred: People want to garner approval from their peers and build their reputation. Second, there’s self-actualization: Working on these projects is enjoyable in and of itself, and it also provides the opportunities to practice your skills, collect feedback, and grow as a geek. Third, there’s pure altruism: Let’s save the world, one squashed bug or “[citation needed]” at a time.

I am inclined to agree, for the most part, but I think there’s more, at least in the SugarCRM case. I would like to think that the 60,000+ members of the community do see their involvement as a give and take. Not only do Community Edition users get a free software system, but ideally the commercial users are active in the community as well - since in the end it results in not only a more stable CRM system, but they can actually help to drive product direction. Everyone wins…hooray!

The comparison to wiki contribution is a little spurious, in my opinion. I think that software coding is inherently and historically more communal than writing (not always of course) so i think the wiki community is its own animal in many ways versus open source development communities.

“Ja ja, sometimes a line of code is just a line of code…”