Educating the Open Source Community about Cooperative Values

Hi all,

I recently signed the proposal about educating cooperatives about open source, and have been reading through the discussion that led up to writing it. One thing I don't see much of is discussion of the related problem in the other direction: while open source is frequently developed in a more cooperative manner than closed source, proprietary software open source folks often don't know anything about cooperatives or the cooperative values and default to a top-down approach such as the popular "Benevolent dictator for life" (BDFL) model, effectively mirroring the hierarchical workplaces that most contributors likely come from.

We've got a proposal to teach the ICA and other bodies about open source, this thread is to brainstorm how we can go the other way and teach open source products how they can be developed more cooperatively. I've written a few blog posts [1, 2] on the topic where I attempt to define "cooperative software" and what it would look like, but I think this would be a much more valuable discussion to have as a group. How can we move towards a future where more of the open source infrastructure and projects we rely upon every day are developed in a more cooperative manner?

P.S. I really don't like Loomio and have a hard time following threads here, so my apologies if I put this in the wrong place or if it's the wrong kind of discussion or thread or what not, or if I just don't end up replying much from being unable to follow the discussion. Feel free to correct me if I've messed anything up.