I can think of many open source projects that are very tightly controlled by a small number of people. You're describing a situation that is now the default: You put good programmers in a room with a good engineering manager and good engineering practices and whatever else you think makes the magic happen (time, money, tools, etc), and out the other side comes a well-engineered open source project. Nothing I said disputes that chain of events. But if you step back from the individual trees to take in the whole forest, this article is written in a way that suggests the reverse: How to make an open source project look like you have all this engineering sugar hidden on the inside of your company.