Blog post by:
Michael Hall
This was originally part of my post Distribution is Contribution, but it wasn’t the primary point I wanted to make there, and I realized there was far more I wanted to say about this subject.

http://go.linuxfoundation.org/who-writes-linux-2012
Production
The origin of all value, FOSS or otherwise, is in the production of something. Every other form on contribution, anything else that adds value to FOSS, comes from the refinement, combination, distribution or transformation of this original production. The most common form of production in FOSS is written code. More attention is paid to written code than any other form of production, and contributions are (as stated in the previous post) more commonly measured by the quantity of code that any other metric. Even in other forms of production, in artwork and documentation, the origin of value comes from the production, with other modes of contribution only adding value by the refinement, combination, distribution or transformation of that production.