Robin Muilwijk

Very informative post. To stick with the title, and to add some aspects on how open source projects go through great length to aid their developers check out these examples:

http://developer.joomla.org/
http://share.ez.no/get-involved/develop

A lot of documentation is shared such as coding standards, how to file bug reports, pull requests, and information on testing. And of course, the versioning e.g. repository tools are also documented.

All with a purpose to make contributing easy.

Thanks for the reply Jason, especially about the groups and conferences. Helps put it in perspective. Once I've finished your book, I'll have another look at the culture comparison. And.... very curious what you are brewing on with both the community and Cognitive Surplus + culture mash up.