Free and open-source software is becoming increasingly prominent in the world of software development - Firefox, Apache, OpenOffice and Linux being some high profile examples. Perhaps not counting the field of science, this where the concept of
commons-based peer production originated. Networks of people connected by the internet collaborate to evolve software and make it freely available to others. Not only is the product free to use, but so are the workings of the software known as the
source code. Anyone is free to customise or help improve open-source software and making these changes available to others encourages rapid development times, robustness and reduces duplication of effort.
