Editing Hamakor (section)

== Background and formation ==
Several members of Israel's open-source community, most notably Gilad Ben-Yossef and Doron Ofek, pioneered the idea of forming an official, legally recognized organization. They wanted to counter difficulties with the non-open-source-related bodies and to address the inherently decentralized way open source is developed and advocated. Two main bodies expected to deal with organizations in that respect: [[media of Israel|the media]], which is accustomed to having someone to call to get a comment, and the [[Knesset]], where standing up in front of legislators requires answering the implicit question "who am I and why should you listen to me?". It was felt that, as individuals, the community's ability to make a difference suffered in comparison with an organized body.

The idea matured for some time. The final push to form the actual organization came from a desire by Gilad Ben-Yossef, circa July 2002, to see ''[[Revolution OS]]'' in Israel. It turned out that the only way to see the movie was to rent a cinema hall and to pay the distributor. Gilad decided to open the event to the public and to charge a small fee for entrance to cover costs. The event, labeled "August Penguin", took place on the first Friday of August, 2002. The event proved a financial success, in that an extra 2000 NIS were recorded after expenses. Gilad pledged to use that money to start the official organization. This also affected Hamakor's charter, adding to it the capacity to act as a recognized money-handler on behalf of the community for organizing events or any other monetary activity.