Do commercial open source projects need an office?

It had to do with his desire for a central office. "When we got our whole team, in the same room, I would see amazing things happen," he said. Off-hand conversations and even non-verbal communications, which the online world cannot yet replicate, are real growth accelerants.

Built into the open source model is the idea that we can work from anywhere, at any time, and we don't need to be locked into the same physical space and time. But I do recall how last year HP, which pioneered telecommuting, decided to cut back on it.

A balance may be needed, between working alone and working together. Open source companies can lead the effort to find that balance. Most already are dispersed, and face major costs (not to mention employee headaches) in bringing people together.

By starting from that place and working inward, I think open source companies may be better able to find the proper balance, the point at which group productivity is maximized, than can a company that simply orders everyone into cubes and ignores the resulting costs to its people.