Hacker community - Definition and Overview

A hacker community is a group of programmers who share code, exchange improvements and teach one another "tricks" or better methods or writing. "Hacking" in this sense does not have anything to do with illegal computer activity; instead it connotes clever and useful solutions to legitimate computer problems. (See: Hacker (Brilliant Programmer))

Probably the most notable hacker community is the community of open source/free software programmers. In this community, Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds are two of the most well-known hackers.

People contribute to such a community for various reasons, like making useful contributions where they can, wanting to replace proprietary software with open code, or being a part of a larger group.

The Internet plays a key role in hacker communities; it allows people from around the world to collaborate on a project.

In a sense, Wikipedia can be viewed as a hacker community.