From what I've seen in Romania it's actually even simpler than that: money and attitude. We have English proficiency, our internet infrastructure might be the

From what I've seen in Romania it's actually even simpler than that: money and attitude. We have English proficiency, our internet infrastructure might be the best in Europe for home users and we presumably have good CS education. The reason CS students (or professionals) don't think about contributing to open-source is because it's expensive to do it yourself and the employer doesn't ask them to afterwards. Also because they don't think they are able to or because they don't care. Some students do have some 'phase' when they discover open-source, but it rarely lasts enough for them to contribute something meaningful. By the time they are hired, contributions are almost non-existent. I am glad though to see that some companies here do open-source but it's quite rare. So a combination of can-do attitude and money is needed to dare contribute to open-source. If you are from a rich, developed country these are actually a given. But in a poorer country, not so much.