Thinking aloud

In 1991 a young Finnish programmer named Linus Torvalds posted a note to a discussion group on the topic of operating systems:

I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby won't be as big and professional like gnu)... I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

This simple message triggered the birth of the operating system Linux.
 
If you look in detail at the message it contains hint's of Linux's future success:

1. He announced that the new project was to be free.
2. He made a plausible request. "help me get this project started"
3. Open to user participation.

The original message got only a few responses.
 
But he left us with a key learning from the new era of peer contributions and collaboration:
 
The number of people who are willing to start something is smaller, much smaller, than the number of people who are willing to contribute once someone else strats something.

Exceprts from "Here comes everybody" by Clay Shirky