Beyond the hugs, open source contributions have considerable benefit. The return is in how open source contributions are valued. There’s a ratio really that can be used. It derives from the amount of people who find value in the open source project in comparison to the revenues and overall value the open source company receives from community interaction, says Sensu's Matthew Broberg in this episode of The New Stack Makers.

Broberg, vice president of community at Sensu, has a humanistic and business perspective that defines his views about the way community management provides value back to the business and the individuals who are consuming open source. Overall contributions and open source users who find value in the platform does not always mean these individuals will use the commercial version of the monitoring platform that Sensu offers. But if a percentage of those open source users are using the Sensu product then that’s a healthy sign.