For those who may not have seen it already, use Perl has an excellent article by Jarkko Hietaniemi (head CPAN librarian). It describes some background on how CPAN came about, what it takes to keep it going, and some comments on "CPANs" for other languages: either add-ons to the existing CPAN or new archives of their own.

All in all, a very interesting read. I found part of the closing very telling:

There is no magic.... Perhaps the most demanding thing is commitment: someone must keep things running.

Just like most other things in the Perl world....