A structure of co-creation in an open source software ecosystem: A case study of the eclipse community

In an open source software (OSS) development community supported by spontaneous volunteers, personal interests, technical capabilities, hunger for fame, and the satisfaction of contributing to the public good are said to be motivating factor for participation. In that community, companies always play auxiliary roles, and integrate the result of OSS into their business activities. However, in the Eclipse open source software community, the main role of OSS development activities is taken over by companies. The relationship between individuals and companies is reversed. Therefore, it becomes important to maintain the motivation of the development community, promote innovation and link the activities to the profit of a company. In other words, management of co-creation and competition are being conducted at the same time. This paper tries to clarify a structure of co-creation in an OSS ecosystem led by companies considering the Eclipse community as one particular case. It also constructs a co-creation process model to promote sustainable development for an OSS ecosystem following two axes 1) value sharing and value acquisition, and 2) quantitative development and qualitative development. Some mechanisms that drive this process are embedded everywhere in the Eclipse ecosystem.