“Open Community” embodies the key difference with single-vendor-controlled open source projects. It is about ensuring that the community is a cohesive, inclusive, level playing ground where all the voices are heard and anyone can rise to leadership positions.
To build a truly open community, you need to balance the three forces: developers, users and ecosystem. It’s easy to think simply in terms of upstream and downstream, but communities are complex organisms, and the reality is much more dynamic. It’s important to establish common goals and build strong connections between the forces, because operating in silos will dilute the power of the community. Each force affects the others, and they have to be working in harmony to achieve anything.