Sandeep Krishnamurthy did the research that I should have done when I first started looking into open source software.  I’ve been saying for years (see my October 11, 2000 post) that open source software is primarily developed not by large disparate groups, but very small and tightly controlled groups.  In this article, Krishnamurthy describes his research on the top 100 mature projects on SourceForge, and how he arrived at the conclusion that (among other things) “most OSS programs are developed by individuals, rather than communities.”

That’s not his only conclusion, and it’s worth reading his research.  It’s also worth reading (if you can wade through the inevitable crap) the Slashdot thread discussing this article.