Free and open-source software/What is the motivation to contribute?

Here are some reasons to 'open-source' a project or contribute to one:

• Find other people to work with you on your project, enable you to do things you couldn’t do alone, or significantly speed things up

• Companies can get help with the evolution of their software and increasing its robustness while making money from offering support packages

• Individuals are contributing to the wider the community that has freely offered software for them to build upon, or simply use no strings attached

• Satisfaction that many other people can potentially benefit from your efforts

• Customise software to work exactly how you, or your company, want it to

• The concept of 'copyleft' changes the way people think about collaborating and giving their time to open projects

• Respect from creating a great software that becomes widely used