Key facts from the working paper " The Value of Open Source Software " [^PDF, 42 pages] by Manuel Hoffmann, Frank Nagle, and Yanuo Zhou (Working Paper 24-038, January 1, 2024): The paper aims to measure the economic and social value of open source software (OSS) , a global public good critical to the modern economy but challenging to quantify due to its free nature and lack of centralized usage tracking. Despite its value, OSS generally shows up as zero in direct economic measurement since prices equal zero and quantity is hard to track. This paradox highlights a flaw in traditional economics, making the paper’s valuation effort a wake-up call. OSS is one of the most successful and impactful modern examples of 'the commons,' at risk of underinvestment without proper valuation. Framing OSS as a digital "commons" ties it to historical economic concepts, emphasizing the need to protect it from a "tragedy of the commons." It uses two complementary dat...
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