Open innovation is taking over in many areas, and open source plays an important role especially in software sequential innovation, where each successive invention builds in an essential way on its predecessors. Foremost, for the most of us before anything else software (open source included) is a tool towards a goal.
Hi Si,
good to hear back from you. I think the experience you gained with Opentaps in this respect might be enlightening for others. Let me know if you are open to tell your story, I’d be glad to write about it.
Is there a blueprint/roadmap for newbies to follow?
Capture creativity - the video webchat series organized by the American Embassy in Rome to learn from success stories of first generation entrepreneurs – today at 3 PM will be presenting the last webchat, featuring Marco Marinucci (Google, “Mind the Bridge” founder).
Roberto Galoppini, 
Hi Roberto,
I think your comment about “standing on the shoulder of giants” is a really good one. A lot of people just think that an open source solution is a cheaper alternative. In fact, though, the greatest value of open source is the accumulated knowledge from all the users and developers on how software SHOULD be built (and also SHOULD NOT 🙂 ). This becomes a very valuable template for companies who want to build and extend a product/service based on open source software.