Project Description

Measuring the Scope and Impact of Open Source Software. NCSES is interested in measuring intangibles in the economy. An intangible is something that creates value but is not measured through market transactions. From a company perspective, examples of intangible assets are goodwill, copyrights, or patents. From the perspective of the economy, examples of intangible assets are open source software, other free content obtained from the internet, and free innovations, e.g. medical devices or other tools that individuals create and share to meet a specific need. These intangibles can be measured through attributes (e.g. counts of downloads).