The success of NPD projects of high-cost, engineering-intensive, and customized development products is largely dependent on information sharing with actors from customers regarding their specific requirements (Von Hippel, 1986). But information sharing is also necessary among actors from...

By an example of the Linux system, I introduce a concept of the Virtual Production Line (VPL) as an extension of an assembly line, brought in by Henry Ford in motor industry a hundred years ago, and demonstrate its usefulness in an analysis of open source software development. The line is...