Why do open innovation and open development work? It has to do with giving. As Jonathan Opp notes, 'open source communities are often compared to gift economies. You participate. You solve shared problems. Others do the same.' He quotes Chris Brogan, author of Trust Agents: 'Humans understand how favors work. Doing and trading favors is woven into the fabric of our culture. When people are recipients of a favor, it's in their nature to want to pay it back. Doing nice things does make people feel good, but there's neurology behind it, too. We want to pay people back because it is in the nature of a community to do so; it keeps communities strong and protected against the outside world.'