The Delightful commons initiative is an example of a crowdsourced ‘collector of value’ that exists within the commons. And is presented for the benefit of other people in the commons, to help discover and benefit from the value, add their own additional 2 cents.
Then there are a gazillion commercial parties who do the same. These parties take, enrich, but do not give back, or not enough. Recording this topic as yet another example. SX stakeholder feedback. 
Showcase: Outsystems Forge
I was triggered to write this topic by reading the word “Forge” in a toot by Erik Albers, a mutual on the fediverse, saying the following:
Do you know Outsystems? It is a proprietary “low-code” platform with prominent use by public administrations to develop and maintain applications and technical procedures.
Interestingly, they offer a “Forge”, a “repository that enables community users to share and collaborate in software projects.” following an Open Source publishing model.
Meaning that users / institutions who develop applications, pipelines etc to be used by the underlying outsystems can be shared in the “Forge” with other Outsystems user through an open source licensing model (BSD if not stated otherwise).
It also goes the other way round: Users /institutions can use “Forge” to share external OS libraries they discovered to be re-used by the - still proprietary - Outsystems, with or without adaption.
I’m just starting thinking it through. It basically means Outsystems develops a proprietary platform that engages users to share their own works under OS licenses with other users to further improve the usage of Outsystems by drastically extending its adaptability, scope and use-cases.
But the platform stays proprietary and any contributions stay dependent on the platform.
While I on one hand appreciate that Outsystems encourages its community to share developments through OS licenses, on the other hand it might only serve to increase dependency on its proprietary roots.
Open source community building as a sweetener for monopolistic dependencies?
What do you think?
Here’s a snapshot of Outsystems Forge as it looks today:
The Forge has similarities to AlternativeTo.com, but does not need to live off of ads.