Open Source

This page describes a concept which is part of our glossary

Open source is a set of principles and practices that promote access to the design and production of goods and knowledge. The term is most commonly applied to the source code of software that is available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions. This allows users to create software content through incremental individual effort or through collaboration.

The word "open" in the phrase "open source" means much more than simply making the source-code available to the public. It involves describing the processes involved in collaborating on the source and in implementing and using the end product. When it comes to "open source business", the "source code" means the business system and requires a complete definition of all operations of the business and must include the ability to collaborate on that system and must allow interested parties to implement and use the same system themselves.

Recommended reading

• What's Wrong With Politics and Can Technology Do Anything To Fix It? - Mitchell Kapor
• What business can learn from Open Source - Paul Graham
• Open Source Democracy - Douglas Rushkoff
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar - Eric S. Raymond
• Why Your Startup Should Be Involved in Open Source - Audrey Watters
• Why Your Next App Should Be Open Sourced - Peter Friese

News

• 2012-06-21: Why companies must adopt the open source way

See also

• Freedom
• Democracy
• Semantic Organisation
• Peer-to-peer
• Libre software
• Free Software Foundation
• Eben Moglen's speech that inspired the Diaspora project - see also Diaspora
• Relentless Advance Of Technology - article on open source democracy at runtogold.com