The OGC declaration in Iron Heroes is precisely the reason why I've begun taking this idea seriously.
In theory, the OGL should've sparked a renaissance in creativity and innovation. Publisher A produces sub-system X, that fan B improves and puts on his web site, that publisher C sees, takes, improves, and uses. As you cycle a set of rules through this process, it slowly improves. It'll likely shot off in various directions (Here's a rules heavy version of X, here's a rules light version, here's one for SF gaming, etc), but in the end the gaming and design communities have more, better options.
In reality, everyone just kept reinventing the wheel. The old, outmoded methods persisted. Nobody in the industry ever really grasped the power of open gaming content.
I'm convinced that, had this happened 4 years ago, we'd have noticably better gaming products and a significantly better educated pool of d20 designers.
In an ideal world, a community similar to the Forge would emerge and begin running through interations, improvements, and expansions to the core body of d20 material.
At GenCon, I had a short discussion with a would-be RPG designer. There were two other professionals there. The designer talked about the RPG he was working on, and he wanted advice on how to improve his game. I asked to look at what he had written so far, and there was a very funny reaction.
He, and both industry pros, were taken aback that I expected him to just show me his mechanical work. They were very ardent about it, too. That was utterly alien to me. Tn that moment, it was clear that the Forge way of doing things - rabid sharing, comparing, debating - was still isolated in one corner.
I believe it's no coincidence that that corner also happens to be where all the interesting, innovative, and exciting games are coming from.
A massive, interactive, community-based repository of OGC is the first step towards building a Forge analog for the "mainstream" of RPG publishing.
