Steve Bjorg's favorite movie is "2001: A Space Odyssey," and not just for Stanley Kubrick's artful cinematography, but for being a movie that makes you think. "One of the strong driving forces behind software development is certainly the anthropomorphism of machines. Giving them human characteristics, making them feel more intelligent (our definition of intelligence), taking on more responsibilities."

After learning BASIC from his brother, who went on to study finance, Bjorg took the family's entrepreneurial spirit and focused it on technology. He built up a game development company, but progress was slow and quickly outdated. "We took nearly 2.5 years developing a PC game. Then it had a shelf life of about six months."

Then open source changed the way Bjorg did development and business. "With open source, you rev very fast, you get fast feedback, and you can see immediately if your work has a positive impact."

What Bjorg loves about open source is the ability to quickly build what he envisions. "You take a shot, you asked if the shot was great to the people who it matters to the most, and then you put [their feedback] into the final product. That is something that you don't have in large organizations." His latest business, MindTouch, had its first product "in the hands of initial beta testers within six months of starting the company."

When it comes to making an impact in the open source world, Bjorg says the people still matter most, whether they own a company or run programs out of their home. "It doesn't matter if it's a tool, or utility, or application, or operating system. If you're an active user of an open source project, and you interact with the community behind it, you have a big impact on that project."

Bjorg took inspiration from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs during the PC revolution and from the founders of Google® during the Internet revolution. "People who've shown that with a lot of will and innovative streak—such as Miguel de Icaza, who started at Novell and is the founder of the Mono project—you can bring together a lot of smart people and get a lot done."

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