"At its best Open Source software is about accelerating the pace of innovation by enabling unconnected groups to collaborate across organisational borders. It is a software development process that allows people to freely share ideas and implementations among a community of peers while still focusing on their own local needs and business drivers.
"To gain the maximum benefit from this development process it is necessary for participants to relax their grip on the software they produce. There can be no single individual or organisation that owns the code since ownership implies control and unnecessary control limits innovation in a community led project
"For many however, the concept of community owned software presents a problem. Community management and collaboration is usually seen as a slow process. For many collaboration is a luxury that is only appropriate when time is available. Unfortunately this misunderstanding prevents a full engagement with open source. In some cases open source is avoided entirely. In others the code is forked and any local customisations are kept local, which result s in higher maintenance costs in the long term"
