My current involvement in a research group has helped me notice a difference between someone who has experience with Open Source communities and someone who has not. I'm hoping to claim that I've had experience with Open Source communities. I'm also hoping to state that almost every other person in the research group has not had enough experience with an Open Source community. I hope this because it could offer an easy explanation.
I seem to be the only one who cares about investing in the future of the group - even though everyone has been instructed that investment in the future of the group is encouraged. We have a wiki, mailing list, and forum on the lab server where we have been encouraged to record lab meetings, suggest possible meeting content, and discuss upcoming meeting content, respectively. The inaugural weeks have been dismally low on contribution. In fact, some members of the group have contributed practically nothing.
If Open Source were a religion and an individual could convert, then I'd be wanting to figure out how to convert a select group of individuals. It's sad that conversion to Open Source isn't a requirement of undergraduate study.
Enough involvement in an Open Source community can convert an individual to someone who actively helps those who will follow.
Someone who cares more about sharing.