Targeted Networking Sites are Cool, Exhibit A

Just read about Ohloh today.  Great writeup here.  One of the drawbacks of open source software is that it can be difficult to find out who is actually actively working on a project.  Sure, the code is open, but all of the work that is done by the development crew can be buried in murky interpersonal relationships.  A site like this shows you who is working on what project, and also what else they’re working on… which means you can actually learn quite a bit about who is actually writing that software that you depend on daily.

There’s a million different open source projects out there, but if you’re looking to decide on an editor (for example), you might be interested to know who’s working on that editor, and what other projects they’re working on.  It’s a truism of open source projects that the features that the developers want in the next version are more likely to be implemented than the features requested by people who don’t actually contribute, so if you want a feature, find a software package that has a good developer who is likely to want the same feature you do…