The Importance of Community in Linux and Open Source

[mandy]

Community has always played a central role in the Open Source landscape, and the term 'community' is bandied around almost as much as 'Web 2.0'. Unfortunately, as with 'Web 2.0', the term 'community' has become a vague descriptor for a collection of principles that represent similar things. As more and more disparate groups and organisations make use of any definition, meaning tends to be blurred by the exceptions to the rule.

It is interesting when you look back over the years at how community has played a role in the business and home consumerisation of Linux and Open Source. Once upon a time when we all had beards and a collection of 40 Slackware floppies, community was really all we had. No-one in the 'real world' had an appreciation of free software and Open Source, and as such the community stuck together to foster its own culture and identity. A key catalyst behind this development were Linux User Groups - these informal gatherings presented an environment in which people could talk to each other about things that most other people either didn't know about or didn't care about. You could meet others with the same priorities, concerns, desires and ambitions as your own, and this was an exciting prospect...

full article: http://oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/9330