SourceForge.Net

Web 2.0: SourceForge.net
By Marcello Arcucci-Dedina

SourceForge is the number one Open Source software development website. It provides free hosting and a communication platform for over 100.000 projects. The model is entirely participatory as users are the ones developing the projects hosted by SourceForge. Users registered on the site can participate in several projects, while finding a similar interface and code of conduct in all the sites hosted, therefore allowing users to easily go from one project to another. The interface is clear and light.
SourceForge provides a series of services (list available here: http://sourceforge.net/docs/B02/en/#top) that users can activate and manage on their own. From donations to statistics, everything is integrated in the same environment.
Although services to Open Source projects are free, VA Software has developed SourceForge Enterprise Edition. This offers the strengths of SourceForge.net in terms of accessibility, High-End technologies featuring Open Source, reactive bug correction and constant feature development. The main differences are due to the built from the ground strategy, with enterprise integration in mind from the beginning, SourceForge Enterprise Edition therefore includes platform-independent J2EE architecture, Modular Web services-oriented architecture and fully documented and open SOAP XML web services API.

Interestingly, the parent company that owns SourceForge, OSTG Inc (Open Source Technology Group) also owns, amongst others, Slashdot and ThinkGeek. Other sites that are based on the same values of participatory development, the whole OSTG, from the fields it targets (open source development, user-tagged information...) is at the peak of web 2.0