Getting LOR from mentor at an open source organisation I have been involved with a particular open source organisation that works in the area that I'm interested in pursuing my PhD. Almost all my works at this organisation could be demonstrated as research works since research &amp; developlment is one of key focus areas at this organisation.

However, my mentor has never met me in person. It has always been communication through emails or on IRC. 


How would the admission committee look at such a guidance?
How much importance would the admission committee give to my mentor who is from an open source organisation?
Full disclosure: I am not a faculty member.

To answer your first question - does it matter if you've never met your mentor in person? - the answer is: probably not, so long as you've worked together long enough or closely enough where they can still write a strong letter. It's unusual, perhaps, but so long as the letter itself is strong, I can't imagine there being an issue.

As for the second question - how much importance does the admission committee give to recommenders from open-source organization? - the answer is likely: no more than they'd give to any other recommender. Granted, if you're applying to a computer science program and have a recommendation from Richard Stallman, it probably looks better than a random developer on the internet.

But that gets to a much more important consideration: what qualifications does your mentor have? Admissions committees (to my knowledge) give more weight to recommendations from highly-qualified sources, such as another faculty member or an experienced professional. If your mentor is just a random developer on the internet working on an unknown project, there letter may not be considered as important as a letter from a faculty member who, while perhaps relatively unknown, at least has some publications.