Motivations in Open-Source Development: A Quantitative Study on Drupal in Academia

As a recent Ph.D. graduate from Capella University, I wrote my graduation thesis on Drupal, titled “Motivations in Open-Source Development: A Quantitative Study on Drupal in Academia”. I graduated with distinction (highest honors), 4.0 GPA.

After careful research, I am the first person in history to publish an academic study on motivations for Drupal developers to contribute to the Drupal community specifically within the realm of academia. In addition, no other published academic research study has focused solely on Drupal in relation to motivations for open source contribution. As such, I would like to present this study to the whole of the Drupal community, including the original purpose of the study, details as to its execution, and the resulting findings of my study to the general Drupal community. The study has been published to the Capella Research Journal and ProQuest Dissertation Publishing, and copies have been sent and filed with the United States Library of Congress.

This study was conducted online, with a total of 145 total participants. The results showed a correlation between Drupal open source contribution and the desire to increase reputation within the Drupal community. There were other ad-hoc data components collected that shed light on the demographic makeup of the study population, including nuances related to age and gender of participants as well.