Open Source Knitting

I've been thinking about free knitting (as in speech, not really beer, but that too,) and I have a couple of thinking points:

• Is there a layer of information that goes into knitting design and documentation that isn't typically exposed in "closed"/conventional publications? (that would be equivalent in role to source code)?
• The role of editors and communities and the sometimes very "conventional" development models that "open" projects use.
• The way GPL/GFDL knitting projects can be used commercially.
• Technological methods of attending to such a project.
• ...