How about: how many companies actively contribute to the project?
I think this is pretty interesting metric and should show the difference between true community efforts (maybe Linux, GCC?) and those where opening the source is just a way of selling more.
Yes, the number of contributing companies to the project is a good metric too. One more thing is their depth and significance of the contribution, though it might be very difficult to measure.
I think this is pretty interesting metric and should show the difference between true community efforts (maybe Linux, GCC?) and those where opening the source is just a way of selling more.