The importance of community in open source

I found I was looking back at myself today when I had a nose at  www.opensource.com, with my mugshot on the homepage in their “contributor spotlight” slot.  Whilst it was nice to be recognised for the time I spend reading and commenting on the excellent articles and discusion there, it got me thinking about the community’s role in Open Source. I think it serves as a fantastic example of how open source software and open culture works: I have invested my time in reading, rating and commenting on the content published and now this contribution has been recognised.  This...