There is a wealth of open source software in use across scientific communities but the value of its contribution to science is under-estimated, under-utilised and often poorly coordinated. Some websites such as ohloh (http://www.ohloh.net/) offer directories that attempt to rate the quality and impact of open source software projects, but currently lack the means of attracting developers and users from academic communities and harvesting a large enough body of essential data to make their results meaningful for the scientific research environments.