Being a web developer in my day job, where I mostly use open source, I am quite aware of the power that really lurks behind making it possible to tinker with the software that runs on my hardware (I havent really played with open source hardware yet). At any rate the various trends and failed attempts at moving forward from MIDI in a non proprietary way make it even more important that there are people that bring controllers to the masses that are build around open source software like the monome and the ohm64. This might eventually be a good addition once I move on from "just" mixing music to a point where I also want to add samples or even custom drum beats to my setup. For now I am anxiously awaiting my VCI-100 arcade edition, which is unfortunately under going delays due to a stupid supplier who messed up the first shipment of the overlays. The good news however is that I will be able to pick mine up in Berlin from the master himself. Yes, I will be meeting Ean on my up coming trip to Berlin. I guess that's the pay off from involving myself in the maintenance and expansion of the DJTT website.
Update:
Seems like there is also "action" on the software side with pd and more importantly the music world is asking for it too.