The exposure effect can work for or against OSS projects

The exposure effect (no, not the one circulating through Hollywood) has a few interesting implications for OSS.

“The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.”
Wikipedia

In effect, it’s the repetition that drills familiarity, comfort, but also bias, into our sub-conscious. Repetition doesn’t make a piece of information true, but it can make us believe it’s true.

Many OSS experts are exposed to particular vendors/products for a number of years during their careers, and in doing so, the exposure effect can build. It can have a subtle bias on vendor selection, whereby the evaluators choose the solution/s they know ahead of the best-fit solution for their organisation. Perhaps having independent vendor selection facilitators who are familiar with many products can help to reduce this bias?

The exposure effect can also appear through sales and marketing efforts. By regularly contacting customers and repetitively promoting their wares, the customer builds a familiarity with the product. In theory it works for OSS products as it does with beer commercials. This can work for or against, depending on the situation.

In the case for, it can help to build a guiding coalition to get a complex, internal OSS project approved and supported through the challenging times that await every OSS project. I’d even go so far as to say, “you should use it to help build a guiding coalition,” rather than, “you can use it to help build a guiding coalition.” Never underestimate the importance of organisational change management on an OSS project.

In the case against, it can again develop a bias towards vendors / products that aren’t best-fit for the organisation. Similarly, if a “best-fit” product doesn’t take the time to develop repetition, they may never even get considered in a selection process, as highlighted in the diagram below.

7 touches of sales
Courtesy of the OnlineMarketingInstitute.

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