Duplicate Efforts are a Waste...

So instead of re-implementing many already-completed efforts on Ubuntu, how about making more efforts to utilize more work from other distros and integrating it, maybe cleaning-up and improving on its code to contribute-back, and creating more cooperation between teams...? There's much already done that could simply be taken and suitably modified...even the spin-offs of Ubuntu often have something to offer yet why isn't it considered? Or why not drop-in such work until better examples of it become available? How about another information category about how to go about being more participatory and cooperative in the Open Source community? Why not extend the launchpad to integrate with other systems and projects to facilitate more code-sharing? : )