It may seem controversial that open-source software (OSS), i.e. software created by voluntary contributions that is available to use, change, and distribute for free, can be utilized for business purposes. Yet, for some firms, commercial OSS software products are the primary source of revenue. In this thesis, these companies are referred to as OSS vendors. Although some OSS vendors have existed for more than thirty years, how they conduct their business has not been extensively studied. Business models as a concept has been widely used in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, often when describing firms working with OSS. In that context business models often refer to the offering, i.e. the products the firm offers to its customers and how revenues are collected. However, in academia the business model concept has evolved in a broader sense encompassing several fields and into a rich theoretical field itself. This thesis aims to further the understanding on how OSS vendors conduct their business, by using a business model framework, which has been constructed from business model and management theories. This framework was used to study OSS vendors to investigate the configurations of their business models. A cross-case analysis of four carefully selected OSS vendors searched for generic patterns in these configurations. Furthermore, the cases were also studied regarding sustainability and profitability. Two generic business model configurations were found, community immersion and community utilization. OSS vendors found configured according to the community immersion business model are deeply involved with, but also dependent on, the main community project that provides the software for the offering. OSS vendors found configured according to the community utilization business model are not dependent on the OSS project to provide their commercial offerings. Rather, the communities are used in marketing providing brand benefits, a base for recruitment, and in lesser degree functioned as quality assurance. Two of the four studied companies were found to be profitable and sustainable; one operating according to the community immersion business model and the other according to the community utilization business model. The other two companies studied, observed to operate according to the community utilization business model, did not achieve profitability during the time of the study. The findings should further the understanding of how profitable OSS vendors’ business models could be configured, and thus provide practitioners with an understanding on how different business model configurations can affect their strategies and overall business.

L'objet de ce travail doctoral en management public porte sur des projets de partage des connaissances des institutions publiques et culturelles avec les citoyens. Ces projets sont menés par l'intermédiaire de coopérations avec des communautés en ligne gérant des plateformes web appelées Commons. Le mouvement de mise à disposition en libre-accès des données publiques, plus connu sous le nom d'open data, est un phénomène qui s'est accru avec la généralisation de l'informatique dans les administrations et la mise en réseau des ordinateurs avec Internet. Bien que les textes légaux prévoyaient dès 1978 la réutilisation de ces données par les citoyens, de nombreux usages innovants restent à expérimenter, parmi lesquels ceux portant sur la réutilisation des données culturelles. L'objectif de cette recherche est d'explorer les modalités de collaboration autour de ces données entre les organisations publiques et les communautés open source et open média afin de dégager des principes d'ingénierie de système qui soient applicables à des projets relevant de cette catégorie et ainsi offrir une « carte de navigation » de ce nouveau champ d'expérimentation aux managers publics. La finalité de cette thèse en sciences de gestion est ainsi l'étude de la constitution de communs culturels numériques à partir de plateformes libres de gestion des communs de la connaissance. / The objective of this research is to understand the logic of collective action which contributes to create value through usage for public intangibles goods like cultural intangible heritage and public data. These informational resources are shared today between public institutions and civil society through innovating and unexplored Public-Private partnerships with open source communities. This doctorate project aims to identify the design principles and governance processes of inter-organizational information systems which enhance cooperation between actors and add a usage value to the intangibles hold by the state.

[pt] Capacitar usuários a contribuir proativamente para projetos de Open Source Software (OSS) através de relatos de problemas de Interação Humano-Computador (IHC) não apenas representa uma alternativa para resolver problemas de IHC em projetos de OSS, mas uma que se enquadra nos valores e ideologia da comunidade OSS. Através de referências às experiências comunicadas através de relatos de problemas de IHC, designers em projetos de OSS podem não apenas fazer suas decisões de design de uma maneira aberta transparente, mas também de uma maneira que os usuários finais possam se relacionar com os valores da comunidade. Esse estudo tem como objetivo explorar (a) como relatos de problemas se encaixam e influenciam as atividades de designers em projetos de OSS, (b) quais são as informações necessárias dos designers em projetos de OSS, e (c) como podemos apoiar os usuários na criação de relatos que estejam alinhados com essas informações. Para endereçar as questões (a) e (b), nós realizamos entrevistas com quatro designers contribuindo para projetos de OSS, e avaliamos qualitativamente um conjunto de 547 bugs reportados com palavras-chave relacionadas à IHC. Com esses dados, nós elaboramos um formulário, com base na Engenharia Semiótica, para usuários relatarem problemas de IHC. Para avaliar quão bem esse formulário comunica as informações que designers em projetos de OSS precisam e, então, endereçar a questão (c), nós conduzimos um estudo onde participantes foram convidados a reportar problemas de IHC através do formulário elaborado. / [en] Empowering end users to proactively contribute to OSS by reporting HCI issues not only represents a potential approach to solving HCI problems in OSS projects, but it also fits the Open Source values and ideology. By referring to the end users personal experiences and feedback reports, designers in OSS communities may build their design rationale not only in an open and transparent manner, but also in such a way that end users relate to the values embedded in the community. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature by exploring (a) how issue reports fit and influence OSS designers activities, (b) what the information needs of designers in OSS projects are, and (c) how to support users on the task of creating HCI issues reports that meet those needs. In order to collect data about questions (a) and (b), we conducted interviews with four designers contributing to OSS projects, and qualitatively evaluated a set of 547 bugs reported under HCI-related keywords. Using this data and based on Semiotic Engineering, we designed a form for users to report HCI issues. To investigate how well this form communicates the information needs of OSS designers and address question (c), we performed a study in which participants were invited to report HCI issues through the designed form.