Ken Starks and the text-to-speech dilemma

I do believe that the open source model is best adapted for certain kinds of problems. Specifically those that are common and have a low barrier to entry to begin making progress with. That increases the likelyhood that among all the people that are affected by that problem, there are some that have the ability and time to begin solving it. These first visible steps usually attract other problem solvers so that a project can start to take off.