I'm coming from small country with no resources, no big industries or capitals (Cuba); but with a big tradition in friendship and solidarity. In my previous institute (surprisingly, a big biotech company) we share openly all of our ideas, we discuss openly our results, thoughts, etc.. without thinking in competition, plagiarism, or someone from collaborator group can take your ideas and results to sell them to others or take them as his owns ideas.
The picture completely changed, after one year abroad, the only big think I learned is that outside my farm and my small country: time, ideas, contacts are gold. In science you have people with you can work and collaborate, because they are open by nature (not only because they source code is in github) but also because they share, they help, they support, and they give their ideas without concern. People, that like to talk about science, they encourage young researchers without fear of others, without fear of being open.
But you have other people, people that always looks for competition, they stealing what is not theirs, looking for ideas to be recognised, looking for contacts, looking for papers, to get citations. The good thing is that I learn, and I can recognise them. I can give them my ideas, my time, because they need it more than me. At the end, the friendly ones, the collaborative ones, the ones that share, open, help, support; we are more and not only the ones that have their code in github.
