Open source is changing the rules about how software is designed, created and distributed. But leadership isn't always nearly as innovative. Esther Schindler spoke with Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth and two of the dudes who run SourceForge, and discussed some of the lessons the open source community could bear to learn.

Some projects-in IT, open source, or the world at large-become major successes. Others fail or (more painfully) they almost succeed; the projects or products survive, but never reach their potential. Sometimes the difference is luck, sometimes it's technology... but we all know instinctively that successful endeavors generally are the result of people working together to make the right decisions.

The O'Reilly Open Source Convention has barely started, yet I've already had two mind-expanding conversations which have touched on leadership and management skill. One conversation was with Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Project, and the other was with Jon Sobel, SourceForge group president and Ross Turk, community manager for SourceForge.net. Now that open source is no longer a novelty and isn't merely the province of techies, these guys (and others) are thinking hard about how to keep the momentum going, how to promote developer involvement and what tools and technologies are necessary to promote innovation and collaboration in the community.

These are not concerns peculiar to open source, as anyone who runs a project knows. What comes next? What people-processes can we put in place to help people on that path, not hinder them? Where can technology improve things? What might screw us up?

One aspect of this issue that fascinates me (and probably can inspire several blog posts) is organizational culture. I've long believed that the leadership at the top of any organization defines the culture, for good or ill. I remember early Microsoft employees adopting Gates' phrases and attitudes (such as, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" and rocking during meetings... which was a little strange); certainly the ethical decisions that inform employee behavior come from the folks who run the joint. That's no surprise; when you admire someone, you want to emulate them.

This is as true for volunteer organizations (including open source development communities) as it it for corporate entities. In fact, it's probably more important when money is not the primary motivation. I haven't figured out how exactly to measure this, but my non-scientific evaluation is that most successful open source projects have a benevolent dictator who acts as an arbiter and decision-maker. He or she also sets the volunteer version of "corporate culture," by creating an environment where, say, new members feel welcome, or the community presents itself as a clique. (Hey, isn't a clique the sound a French camera makes?) Examples, besides the obvious Linus Torvalds and Shuttleworth himself, include Guido von Rossum for Python and Alexander Limi for Plone.

The SourceForge folks gave me some data that fits in here.

I dare say you're familiar with SourceForge, which hosts some ungodly number of open source projects (the site says 182,599, if you're in a counting mood). You can download a project's executable files or source code, find a project to match your need, get in touch with the contributors in its forums, and so on.