> I think you're forgetting the large learning curve to get to that point. Openness in general requires a large learning curve, and I think it's a mistake for

> I think you're forgetting the large learning curve to get to that point. Openness in general requires a large learning curve, and I think it's a mistake for any open source project to be marketing itself as a democratic entity that literally anyone can contribute to. If anything, open source is more like a technocratic government (ergo the "Benevolent Dictator For Life" position in a project). Even Wikipedia is a huge pain in the ass to add to at this point. I've noticed a similar phenomenon with the open science movement, where scientists publicly release their data. Unsurprisingly, few folks from the general public usually work with open data with the necessary assumptions to draw valid conclusions from it. Other scientists, as insiders who've built up decades worth of expertise in statistics and other analytical techniques (at least in theory; in practice not always) are usually the only people who have the ability to fully milk the data for what it's worth. Science, however, is possibly even slower and more political than linux kernel development, although I don't have enough knowledge to make a proper comparison.