Final Thesis: Episodic Volunteering in Open Source
Abstract: Episodic volunteers work irregularly and very often for only a short time. The frequency of this phenomenon is recently increasing in non-profit organizations. This is a change in volunteer behavior that influences volunteer management. Is this type of volunteering also present in open source organizations? We will show, that episodic volunteers are present in open source projects. Further we shed light on their fields of work, needs and organizational changes they cause. We use an exploratory case study, analyzing interviews with volunteer managers and public data on the topic. Open source organizations need to be aware of the phenomenon and adjust their volunteer management strategy to accommodate episodic volunteers.
Keywords: Episodic volunteering, open source software, community management
PDFs: Bachelor Thesis, Work Description
Reference: Thilo Voigt Episodic Volunteering in Open Source. Bachelor Thesis, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg: 2015.