Open Source Is One of techs' greatest strengths — So Why Don’t More Developers Contribute?

Almost every developer depends on open source software every single day. Your frameworks, libraries, containers, security tools, machine learning stacks, and even operating systems are built on code shared openly by developers around the world. Modern software simply wouldn’t exist without open source. Yet there’s a paradox: Most developers consume open source, but very few actively contribute back. So the real discussion isn’t whether open source matters — it clearly does. The discussion is: What responsibility, if any, do we have toward the projects we rely on? Open Source Is More Than “Free Code” Open source isn’t just software you don’t pay for. It represents: Global collaboration Shared innovation Public learning resources Community-driven problem solving Faster technological progress A developer anywhere in the world can improve tools used globally. Few industries allow this level of cooperation across borders. But Participation Is Uneven Most successful projects follow the same