The beta testing forum of of Kitkat (#software:fp1-beta-testing) has been opened several months ago to the general audience. Everyone can read there about the current open issues, the discussion surrounding them and what is currently blocking development,
There has also been an Ask Me Anything session with the developer where anyone could ask questions and have them answered live by @jftr
If it is too long, I summarized the AMA and added any new news about KitKat to a topic which includes all the latest news with their date stamps. The link to the topic was posted several times on our Twitter and Facebook account to inform people about the status.
The information about why we can’t release the source was promptly given after the first person asked about it here on the forum. Apart from @wolf, nobody asked so far and I think we got the information to him as fast as we could.