Secondly, the last paragraph reminds me of goal setting theory. This is one of *the* most respected theories in the realm of Industrial-Organizational Psychology and has been shown to be extremely relevant and applicable. Here is a link that explains goal setting theory in easy language:

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_87.htm

If you want more detail and scientific explanation, this article is a good introduction:

Latham, G. & Edwin Locke, (2002) “Building A Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation,” American Psychologist, (57) 9:705-17.

Wikipedia explains well why goals affect performance (which I think can be relevant to attracting and retaining volunteers for projects like Gnome):

Goals can affect performance in three ways:

1. goals narrow attention and direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable and goal-irrelevant actions
2. goals can lead to more effort; for example, if one typically produces 4 widgets an hour, and has the goal of producing 6, one may work more intensely than one would otherwise in order to reach the goal
3. goals influence persistence. One becomes more prone to work through setbacks or to work harder if pursuing a goal.

There are 4 factors affecting the goal-directed efforts. Goal difficulty is the level of difficulty to achieve the goal. Goal commitment is the extent to which a person is interested to reach the goal. Goal specificity means the goal should be relatively clarity and precision to the target. Goal acceptance is the extent to which a person adopts a goal as his or her own.

I’ll shut up now.