The usefulness of some projects will be immediately recognized by those in the field of biblical studies. Some, however, will not. Some projects will focus on the technological benefit of a project, but those who are not technologically savvy may not recognize the true value of the work being done. In such cases a demonstration of how the work would be beneficial might be in order so as to stir up participation.
Take, for example, the OSIS project. The project was started to define a set of xml standards that could be used by those in the field of biblical studies. I use xml on a daily basis. I immediately knew the potential value of the work they are doing. But few people in biblical studies will use xml on a daily basis or know the benefits of a common markup standard. Because of this, the more this OSIS group can show how this is beneficial to the average person in the field the more they will be able to get support.
This will be the case on a number of projects that will be started in the future. For that reason we ought to keep in mind what we can do to make the value of our work clear to everyone.