Fostering cooperation on the Internet: social exchange processes in ...

significance of what individuals have ‘gained’ from the community. Thus, whether individualsfeel obligated to return depends on the amount of personal gain.“I got involved with hacking on perl and with documenting perl because I feel an enormousdebt of gratitude to the open source community. I think that it is only fair to give somethingback to the community that has given so much to me.” (contributor).“I use free software almost exclusively and feel obligated to return what I can.” (contributor)The vast majority of answers referred to the equity principle of reciprocation as well as tothe wish to help others. Although seemingly different constructs, respondents very oftenmention both, the wish to give back and help others. In people's minds there exists noincongruence between helping behavior and the rule of equity. In general, pure gift givingis exceptional. However, community members give and help because they have beenhelped or because they know that there will be some return in the future. Returning thefavor to the community is the strongest social norm especially within the big group ofcontributors, and keeps the generalized exchange system in balance. Answers reflect anattitude of fairness, ‘balancing the sheet’ and applying the social norms observed, ratherthan injunctive norms of what they should do in the sense of moral obligation.“I felt it only fair to give back to the community.” (contributor)“After all, others have done that for me before, so returning the favor is the geek thing to do!”(contributor)Even more respondents, especially in the main contributors group state that they want or like tohelp others. The culture of the core developers group seems to be slightly different from the restof the community. Despite of the fact that they constitute the expert group and, thus, are the main'givers' by definition, they nevertheless refrain from exerting their expert power. Instead, theirideological background and attitude is more altruistic, they like giving gifts.“First, I like to help people. When someone would be better off with an application thatdoesn’t exist yet, or a new feature added to an existing application, it is my pleasure to22