The inception of OpenPhoto was a desire to liberate our photos and take back control. Like you, our photos are the most valuable digital files we have. Also like you, we've used Flickr, Picasa and Smugmug and wound up with our photos scattered across numerous sites on the web.
We knew there had to be a better way to take, share and archive photos while retaining ownership. It didn't seem like anyone else was going to build it so we took it upon ourselves to solve this problem for everyone. The project has been open source on Github since the first line of code was written because like your photos, OpenPhoto doesn't belong to us.
Even if you're not an open source junkie it's important to understand why being free and open source is so important. It means anyone can use the software any way they like. Much of the greatest software available today is open source or based off open source software.
Open sourcing OpenPhoto means that the community is in control of their own destination. Sub communities can even embark on a new path to a different destination. Imagine a professional photographer taking OpenPhoto and catering it to the needs of their colleague. Or a group of mothers using OpenPhoto to tell the stories of their children as they grow up.