Portland, Oregon builds reputation as software revolution hub. Too many cooks may spoil the broth, but too many programmers just makes software better.

As a kid in the 1980s, Bart Massey spent hours tinkering with computer programs, writing his own source code and then sharing it with friends. He and his buddies comprised a small band of curious computer whizzes with no agenda, and certainly no rules. Over time, that code-sharing would come to be known as open source: "We just didn’t have a name for it then," says Mr. Massey, today a computer science professor at Portland State University.

Too many cooks may spoil the broth, but too many programmers just makes software better. For a multibillion-dollar company that’s spent decades protecting its code with the rigor of Fort Knox, that’s a radical notion. But open source is fast gaining converts, shattering traditional business models, and, in the process, transforming Portland into one of the world’s open source hubs.

Consider the following:

By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore, The Christian Science Monitor

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-11-27-oregon-open-source_x.htm