Open source movement
Encyclopedia
The open source movement is a broad-reaching movement of individuals who feel that software should be produced altruistically. Open source software is made available for anybody to use or modify, as its source code is made available. The software use is subject only to the stipulation that any enhancements or changes are just as freely available to the public. Open source software promotes learning and understanding through the dissemination of understanding.
The main difference between open-source and traditional proprietary software is in user and property rights, the conditions of use imposed on the user by the software license, as opposed to differences in the programming code. With open source software, users are granted the right to both the program's functionality and methodology. With proprietary software programs, such as Microsoft Office
, users only have the rights to functionality.
Programmers who support the open source movement philosophy contribute to the open source
community by voluntarily writing and exchanging programming code for software development
. The term “open source” requires that no one can discriminate against a group in not sharing the edited code or hinder others from editing their already edited work. This approach to software development allows anyone to obtain and modify open source code. These modifications are distributed back to the developers within the open source community of people who are working with the software. In this way, the identities of all individuals participating in code modification are disclosed and the transformation of the code is documented over time. This method makes it difficult to establish ownership of a particular bit of code but is in keeping with the open source movement philosophy. These goals promote the production of “high quality programs” as well as “working cooperatively with other similarly minded people” to improve open source technologies.
On the US West coast, the Computer Science Research Group (CSRG) of the University of California at Berkeley was improving the Unix system, and developing many applications which quickly became "BSD Unix". These efforts were funded mainly by DARPA contracts , and a dense network of Unix hackers around the world helped to debug, maintain and improve the system. During 1991–1992, two very exciting events took place:
In 1993, both GNU/Linux and 386BSD were reasonably stable platforms. Since then, 386BSD has evolved into a family of BSD-based operating systems (NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD), while the Linux kernel is used in many GNU/Linux distributions such as Slackware, Debian, Red Hat, SUSE, Mandrake, and many more. Stallman coined the term “copyleft
” for these types of licenses. It is the copyright of the GPL and rather than taking away freedom, gives the freedom to change the software.
The Open Source Initiative
, or OSI, created in 1998, essentially came up with the term "open source" to change the perception of existing free software. “OSI was formed as an educational, advocacy, and stewardship organization at a cusp moment in the history of that culture.” How the term "open source" is understood today is in part due to the creation of OSI.
The term "open-source" was formulated by a number of open-source users and chosen over the already existing terms of freeware
and shareware
. The term was decided upon for a good reason, in that "the [advantage] of using the term open source [is] that the business world usually tries to keep free technologies from being installed."
The Open Source Movement is branched from the free software movement
which began in the late 80s with the launching of the GNU/Linux project by Richard Stallman
. Stallman is regarded within the open source community as sharing a key role in the conceptualization of freely shared source code for software development. The term “free software
” in the free software movement is meant to imply freedom of software exchange and modification. The term does not refer to any monetary freedom. Both the free software movement and the open source movement share this view of free exchange of programming code
, and this is often why both of the movements are sometimes referenced in literature as part of the FOSS
or “Free and Open Software” or FLOSS
“Free/Libre Open Source” communities.
These movements share fundamental differences in the view on open software. The main, factionalizing difference between the groups is the relationship between open source and propriety software. Often makers of proprietary software
, such as Microsoft
, may make efforts to support open source software to remain competitive. Members of the open source community are willing to coexist with the makers of propriety software and feel that the issue of whether software is open source is a matter of practicality.
In contrast, members of the free software community maintain the vision that all software is a part of freedom of speech and that proprietary software is unethical and unjust. The free software movement openly champions this belief through talks that denounce propriety software. As a whole the community refuses to support propriety software. It also is suggested there are external motivations exist for these developers. One motivation is when a programmer fixes a bug or makes a program it benefits others in an open source environment. Another motivation is that a programmer can work on multiple projects at the same time doing something they enjoy. Also, programming in the open source world can lead to commercial job offers or entrance into the venture capital community. These are just a few reasons why open source programmers continue to create and advance.
While cognizant of the fact that both it and the open source movement share similarities in practical recommendations regarding open source, the free software movement fervently continues to distinguish themselves from the open source movement entirely. The free software movement maintains that it has fundamentally different attitudes towards the relationship between open source and propriety software. The free software community does not view the open source community as their target grievance, however. Their target grievance is propriety software itself.
For example, the scope of “implied license” conjecture remains unclear and can compromise an enterprise’s ability to patent productions made with open source software. Another example is the case of companies offering add-ons for purchase; licensees who make additions to the open-source code that are similar to those for purchase may have immunity from patent suits.
In the court case "Jacobsen v Katzer", the plaintiff sued the defendant for failing to put the required attribution notices in his modified version of the software, thereby violating license. The defendant claimed Artistic License in not adhering to the conditions of the software’s use, but the wording of the attribution notice decided that this was not the case. "Jacobsen v Katzer" established open source software’s equality to for-profit software in the eyes of the law.
In a court case accusing Microsoft of being a monopoly, Linux and open source software was introduced in court to prove that Microsoft had valid competitors and was grouped in with Apple.
There are resources available for those involved open source projects in need of legal advice. The Software Freedom Legal Center features a primer on open source legal issues. International Free and Open Source Software Law Review offers peer-reviewed information for lawyers on free software issues.
(OSI), an organization formed to market software “as something more amenable to commercial business use” The OSI owns the trademark “Open Source
”
The main tool they adopted for this was the Open Source Definition
Overall, the software developments that have come out of the open source movement have not been unique to the computer science field, but they have been successful in developing alternatives to propriety software. Members of the open source community improve upon code and write programs that can rival much of the propriety software that is already available.
Members of the Open Source Movement stress the importance of differentiating between “open source” software and “free software”. Although the two issues are related, they are quite different. Although the groups agree on the overall practical recommendations, they disagree on the basic principles. A major advantage to open source code is the ability for a variety of different people to edit and fix problems and errors that have occurred. Naturally because there are more people who can edit the material there are more people who can help make the information more credible and reliable.
The open source mission statement promises better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. They stress the importance of maintaining the Open Source Definition. This trademark creates a trusted group that connects all users and developers together. To fully understand the Open Source Definition, one must understand certain terms: Free redistribution means that there is no restriction on any party to sell or give away the software to third parties. Source Code means that the program must efficiently publicize the means of obtaining the source code. Derived works means that the program must allow certain works to be distributed under the same terms. There must be a promise of no discriminating against any certain persons or groups. All of these factors allow for the open source movement to become available to all and easy to access, which is there overall mission.
The latest updates from the Open Source Institution took place on January 19, 2011: The OSI collaborated with the Free Software Foundation and together they updated a version of the request that they have sent to the US Department of Justice.
Economic motivations behind the Open Source Movement include:
Although a majority of OSS is volunteer-based, there are many factors that cause software programmers to participate in the Open Software Movement. A programmer can be motivated by personal goals, such as creating a tool better suited for his or herself. They can also be influenced by community obligation, or a need for a software. Although the Open Source Movement is heavily publicized as a completely volunteer experience, there are firms that offer the possibility of payment in exchange for software writing. Long-term motivational factors can include career opportunities, and practice or improvement of programming skills. Some programmers may also provide potential employers examples of their programming abilities through the contribution of coding.
The following are events and applications that have been developed via the open source community as and echo the ideologies of the open source movement.
OpenCourseWare Consortium — an organization composed of various colleges that support open source and share some of their material online. This organization, headed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, was established to aid in the exchange of open source educational materials.
Wikipedia
— user-generated online encyclopedia with sister projects in academic areas, such as Wikiversity
— a community dedicated to the creation and exchange of learning materials
Project Gutenberg
— prior to the existence of Google Scholar
Beta, this was the first supplier of electronic books
and the very first free library project
Google
— this search engine has led the way in transformation of Web-based applications, such as books, scholarly journals
, that are based primarily on open source software. Google continues to make applications based on open software. Recently, in November 2009, Google announced that it would be “enabling people everywhere to find, and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state districts, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar”
Government agencies and infrastructure software — Government Agencies are utilizing open source infrastructure software, like the Linux operating system and the Apache Web-server into software, to manage information. In 2005, a new government lobby was launched under the name National Center for Open Source Policy and Research (NCOSPR) “a non-profit organization promoting the use of open source software solutions within government IT enterprises."
Synthetic Biology- Synthetic Biology is considered the feasibility of the open source movement. This new technology is important and exciting because it promises to enable cheap, lifesaving new drugs as well as helping to yield biofuels that may help to solve our energy problem. Although synthetic biology has not yet come out of its "lab" stage, it has great potential to become industrialized in the near future. In order to industrialize open source science, there are some scientists who are trying to build their own brand of it.
Open Source Movement in the Military- Open source movement has potential to help in the military. The open source software allows anyone to make changes that will improve it. This is a form of invitation for people to put their minds together to grow a software in a cost efficient manner. The reason the military is so interested is because it is possible that this software can increase speed and flexibility. Although there are security setbacks to this idea due to the fact that anyone has access to change the software, the advantages can outweigh the disadvantages. The fact that the open- source programs can be modified quickly is crucial.
A support group was formed to test these theories. It was called The Military Open Source Software Working Group, was organized in 2009 and held over 120 military members. Their purpose was to bring together software developers and contractors from the military to discover new ideas for reuse and collaboration. Overall, open-source software in the military is an intriguing idea that has potential drawbacks but they are not enough to offset the advantages.
Open Source in Education- Colleges and organizations use software predominantly online to educate their students. Open source technology is being adopted by many institutions because it can save these institutions from paying companies to provide them with these administrative software systems. One of the first major colleges to adopt an open source system was Colorado State University in 2009 with many others following after that. Colorado State Universities system was produced by the Kuali Foundation
who has become a major player in open source administrative systems. The Kuali Foundation defines itself as a group of organizations that aims to "build and sustain open source software for higher education, by higher education." There are many other examples of open source instruments being used in education other than the Kuali Foundation as well.
The free culture movement
is a movement that seeks to achieve a culture in that engages in collective freedom via freedom of expression, free public access to knowledge and information, full demonstration of creativity and innovation in various arenas and promotion of citizen liberties.
Creative Commons is an organization that “develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.” It encourages the use of protected properties online for research, education, and creative purposes in pursuit of a universal access. Creative Commons provides an infrastructure through a set of copyright licenses and tools that creates a better balance within the realm of “all rights reserved” properties. The Creative Commons license offers a slightly more lenient alternative to “all rights reserved” copyrights for those who do not wish to exclude the use of their material.
The main difference between open-source and traditional proprietary software is in user and property rights, the conditions of use imposed on the user by the software license, as opposed to differences in the programming code. With open source software, users are granted the right to both the program's functionality and methodology. With proprietary software programs, such as Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
, users only have the rights to functionality.
Programmers who support the open source movement philosophy contribute to the open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
community by voluntarily writing and exchanging programming code for software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
. The term “open source” requires that no one can discriminate against a group in not sharing the edited code or hinder others from editing their already edited work. This approach to software development allows anyone to obtain and modify open source code. These modifications are distributed back to the developers within the open source community of people who are working with the software. In this way, the identities of all individuals participating in code modification are disclosed and the transformation of the code is documented over time. This method makes it difficult to establish ownership of a particular bit of code but is in keeping with the open source movement philosophy. These goals promote the production of “high quality programs” as well as “working cooperatively with other similarly minded people” to improve open source technologies.
Brief history
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, two different groups were establishing the roots of the current open source software movement. On the east coast, Richard Stallman, formerly of the MIT AI lab, created the GNU project and the Free Software Foundation. The GNU was aimed to create a free operating system. The GNU General Public License (GPL) was one of the open source licenses that served as a prohibitory of control over software codes. This specific license allowed users to not only modify, but also redistribute people’s own versions of the software. This not only allows, but also requires that anyone operating under the Linux GPL agree to the terms of the original kernel and makes the edit available to everyone.On the US West coast, the Computer Science Research Group (CSRG) of the University of California at Berkeley was improving the Unix system, and developing many applications which quickly became "BSD Unix". These efforts were funded mainly by DARPA contracts , and a dense network of Unix hackers around the world helped to debug, maintain and improve the system. During 1991–1992, two very exciting events took place:
- In California, Bill Jolitz completed the Net/2 distribution, until it was ready to run on i386-class machines. Net/2 was the result of the effort of the CSRG to make an version of BSD Unix free of AT&T-copyrighted code. He called his work 386BSD, and it quickly became appreciated within the BSD and Unix communities. It included not only a kernel, but also many utilities, making a complete operating system.
- In Finland, Linus Torvalds, a computer science student, unhappy with Tanenbaum's Minix , implemented the first versions of the Linux kernel. Soon, many people were collaborating to make that kernel more and more usable, and added many utilities to make GNU/Linux a real operating system. The Linux kernel, and the GNU applications used on top of it, are covered by GPL.
In 1993, both GNU/Linux and 386BSD were reasonably stable platforms. Since then, 386BSD has evolved into a family of BSD-based operating systems (NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD), while the Linux kernel is used in many GNU/Linux distributions such as Slackware, Debian, Red Hat, SUSE, Mandrake, and many more. Stallman coined the term “copyleft
Copyleft
Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
” for these types of licenses. It is the copyright of the GPL and rather than taking away freedom, gives the freedom to change the software.
The Open Source Initiative
Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product...
, or OSI, created in 1998, essentially came up with the term "open source" to change the perception of existing free software. “OSI was formed as an educational, advocacy, and stewardship organization at a cusp moment in the history of that culture.” How the term "open source" is understood today is in part due to the creation of OSI.
The term "open-source" was formulated by a number of open-source users and chosen over the already existing terms of freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
and shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
. The term was decided upon for a good reason, in that "the [advantage] of using the term open source [is] that the business world usually tries to keep free technologies from being installed."
Evolution
Any technological advance needs a reason to be introduced into society. In the beginning, a difference between hardware and software did not exist. The user and programmer of a computer were one and the same. When the first commercial electronic computer was introduced by IBM in 1952, the machine was hard to maintain and expensive. Putting the price of the machine aside it was the software that caused the problem when owning one of these computers. Then in 1952, a collaboration of all the owners of the computer got together and created a set of tools. The collaboration of people were in a group called PACT (The Project for the Advancement of Coding techniques). After passing this hurdle, in 1956, the Eisenhower administration decided to put restrictions on the types of sales AT&T could make. This did not stop the inventors from developing new ideas of how to bring the computer to the mass population. The next step was making the computer more affordable which slowly developed through different companies. Then they had to develop a software which would host multiple users. MIT computation center developed one of the first systems, CTSS (Compatible Time-Sharing System). This lay the foundation for many more systems to come and what we now call the Open Source Movement.The Open Source Movement is branched from the free software movement
Free software movement
The free software movement is a social and political movement with the goal of ensuring software users' four basic freedoms: the freedom to run their software, to study and change their software, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. The alternative terms "software libre", "open...
which began in the late 80s with the launching of the GNU/Linux project by Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
. Stallman is regarded within the open source community as sharing a key role in the conceptualization of freely shared source code for software development. The term “free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
” in the free software movement is meant to imply freedom of software exchange and modification. The term does not refer to any monetary freedom. Both the free software movement and the open source movement share this view of free exchange of programming code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
, and this is often why both of the movements are sometimes referenced in literature as part of the FOSS
Foss
Foss may refer toPeople*Foss , people with the last name Foss*Foss Shanahan , New Zealand diplomat*Foss Westcott , English bishop...
or “Free and Open Software” or FLOSS
Floss
Floss may refer to:* Dental floss, used to clean teeth* Embroidery thread, machine or hand-spun yarn for embroidery* Fairy floss or candyfloss, alternative names for cotton candy* Rousong, i.e. meat floss-Computing:...
“Free/Libre Open Source” communities.
These movements share fundamental differences in the view on open software. The main, factionalizing difference between the groups is the relationship between open source and propriety software. Often makers of proprietary software
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
, such as Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, may make efforts to support open source software to remain competitive. Members of the open source community are willing to coexist with the makers of propriety software and feel that the issue of whether software is open source is a matter of practicality.
In contrast, members of the free software community maintain the vision that all software is a part of freedom of speech and that proprietary software is unethical and unjust. The free software movement openly champions this belief through talks that denounce propriety software. As a whole the community refuses to support propriety software. It also is suggested there are external motivations exist for these developers. One motivation is when a programmer fixes a bug or makes a program it benefits others in an open source environment. Another motivation is that a programmer can work on multiple projects at the same time doing something they enjoy. Also, programming in the open source world can lead to commercial job offers or entrance into the venture capital community. These are just a few reasons why open source programmers continue to create and advance.
While cognizant of the fact that both it and the open source movement share similarities in practical recommendations regarding open source, the free software movement fervently continues to distinguish themselves from the open source movement entirely. The free software movement maintains that it has fundamentally different attitudes towards the relationship between open source and propriety software. The free software community does not view the open source community as their target grievance, however. Their target grievance is propriety software itself.
Legal issues
The Open Source Movement has faced a number of legal challenges. Companies that manage open source products have some difficulty securing their trademarks.For example, the scope of “implied license” conjecture remains unclear and can compromise an enterprise’s ability to patent productions made with open source software. Another example is the case of companies offering add-ons for purchase; licensees who make additions to the open-source code that are similar to those for purchase may have immunity from patent suits.
In the court case "Jacobsen v Katzer", the plaintiff sued the defendant for failing to put the required attribution notices in his modified version of the software, thereby violating license. The defendant claimed Artistic License in not adhering to the conditions of the software’s use, but the wording of the attribution notice decided that this was not the case. "Jacobsen v Katzer" established open source software’s equality to for-profit software in the eyes of the law.
In a court case accusing Microsoft of being a monopoly, Linux and open source software was introduced in court to prove that Microsoft had valid competitors and was grouped in with Apple.
There are resources available for those involved open source projects in need of legal advice. The Software Freedom Legal Center features a primer on open source legal issues. International Free and Open Source Software Law Review offers peer-reviewed information for lawyers on free software issues.
Formalization
In February 1998 the open source movement was adopted, formalized, and spearheaded by the Open Source InitiativeOpen Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product...
(OSI), an organization formed to market software “as something more amenable to commercial business use” The OSI owns the trademark “Open Source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
”
The main tool they adopted for this was the Open Source Definition
Open Source Definition
The Open Source Definition is a document published by the Open Source Initiative, to determine whether or not a software license can be labeled with the open-source certification mark....
Overall, the software developments that have come out of the open source movement have not been unique to the computer science field, but they have been successful in developing alternatives to propriety software. Members of the open source community improve upon code and write programs that can rival much of the propriety software that is already available.
Examples of software that have come out of the open source movement
- LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
– a Unix-Based operating system used predominantly in servers Linux was created by a student in 1991 along with other developers around the world. - ApacheApache HTTP ServerThe Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
— a leading server software and scripting language on the web - MySQLMySQLMySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
— a database management system - PHPPHPPHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
— a widely used open source general-purpose scripting language - BlenderBlender (software)Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, interactive 3D applications or video games. The current release version is 2.60, and was released on October 19, 2011...
— a 3D graphics and animation softwareComputer softwareComputer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it.... - OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
– an office suite software with word processorWord processorA word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
, spreadsheetSpreadsheetA spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
, and presentation capabilities - MozillaMozilla Application SuiteThe Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...
— a web browserWeb browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
and e-mail clientE-mail clientAn email client, email reader, or more formally mail user agent , is a computer program used to manage a user's email.The term can refer to any system capable of accessing the user's email mailbox, regardless of it being a mail user agent, a relaying server, or a human typing on a terminal... - PerlPerlPerl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
— a programming/scripting languageScripting languageA scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the... - WikipediaWikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
— Online encyclopedia open for anyone to update and revise content.
Strengths
- The collaborative nature of the open source community creates software that can offer customizability and, as a result, promotes the adoption of its products.
- The open source community promotes the creation of software that is not proprietary, thus resulting in lower costs.
- The development of open source software within the community is motivated by the individual who has expressed interest in the code and software creation. This differs from proprietary software that is often motivated via monetary means.
- An open source tool puts the system administrator in control of the level of risk assumed in deploying the tool.
- Open source provides a flexibility not available in closed products. The hope is that If you make improvements to an open tool you'll offer them back to the original developer and community at large. The give-and-take of the gift economyGift economyIn the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards . Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community...
benefits everyone.
Members of the Open Source Movement stress the importance of differentiating between “open source” software and “free software”. Although the two issues are related, they are quite different. Although the groups agree on the overall practical recommendations, they disagree on the basic principles. A major advantage to open source code is the ability for a variety of different people to edit and fix problems and errors that have occurred. Naturally because there are more people who can edit the material there are more people who can help make the information more credible and reliable.
The open source mission statement promises better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. They stress the importance of maintaining the Open Source Definition. This trademark creates a trusted group that connects all users and developers together. To fully understand the Open Source Definition, one must understand certain terms: Free redistribution means that there is no restriction on any party to sell or give away the software to third parties. Source Code means that the program must efficiently publicize the means of obtaining the source code. Derived works means that the program must allow certain works to be distributed under the same terms. There must be a promise of no discriminating against any certain persons or groups. All of these factors allow for the open source movement to become available to all and easy to access, which is there overall mission.
The latest updates from the Open Source Institution took place on January 19, 2011: The OSI collaborated with the Free Software Foundation and together they updated a version of the request that they have sent to the US Department of Justice.
Motivations
Despite a lack of financial incentive to program software, writing software can be seen as forms of personal satisfaction for programmers.- First, programmers can have a sense of "intellectual gratification” as a result of writing software. This intellectual gratification is similar to the feeling of a scientific discovery. Because the movement itself originates in the academic world, it is only natural that some motivation behind it reflects scientific research. After sharing software with other programmers, some may also receive feedback to improve their work, and also rain recognition and prestige.
- A second form of personal satisfaction comes from the act of writing software as an equivalent to creative self expression – it is almost as equivalent as creating a work of art.
- A third motivational factor can be the rediscovery of creativity, which has been lost through the mass production of commercial software products.
Economic motivations behind the Open Source Movement include:
- Financial Rewards as a result of writing software
- Little to no cost for the opportunity to write or adapt software
- Gaining recognition from others, especially programmers, as a result of writing software
- Possible future career endeavors as a result of recognition of written software
Although a majority of OSS is volunteer-based, there are many factors that cause software programmers to participate in the Open Software Movement. A programmer can be motivated by personal goals, such as creating a tool better suited for his or herself. They can also be influenced by community obligation, or a need for a software. Although the Open Source Movement is heavily publicized as a completely volunteer experience, there are firms that offer the possibility of payment in exchange for software writing. Long-term motivational factors can include career opportunities, and practice or improvement of programming skills. Some programmers may also provide potential employers examples of their programming abilities through the contribution of coding.
Drawbacks
- The structure of the open source community requires that individuals have programming expertise in order to engage in open code modification and exchange. Individuals interested in supporting the open source movement may lack this skill set, but there are many other ways of contributing.
- Programmers and developers comprise a large percentage of the open source community and sought-out technical support and/or documentation may not be useful or clear to open source software lay-users.
- The structure of the open source community is one which involves contributions of multiple developers and programmers; software produced in this fashion may lack standardization and be incompatible with various computer applications and capabilities.
- Production can be very limited. Programmers that create open source software often can turn their attention elsewhere very quickly. This opens the door for many bug filled programs and applications out there. Because no one is being paid to create it, many projects do not get finished.
- The quality of the software in an open source industry is decided by the user. A user has to learn the skills of the software on their own and then make the determination.
- Librarians may not be equipped to take on this new responsibility of technologies.
- There is no guarantee that development will happen. It is unknown if an open source project will become usable, especially when a project is started without significant support from one or more organizations. Even if the project does reach a usable stage, it is possible the project can die if there is not enough funding or interest toward it.
- It is sometimes difficult to know that a project exists, and its current status. Especially for open source projects without significant support, there is not much advertising involved in open source software.
- Not much support exists for open source software. Qualified support essentially does not exist. The available support for open source software is predominantly self-motivated discussions found on the Internet, and since the software is constantly being changed, no manuals or instructions are made.
- No guarantee of updates. Although open source software is available to anyone for free, regular updates are not assured since users do not pay for its use.
- Open source software is not generally designed with human factors in mind and so will often be less "usable".
- Beyond the obvious detriments towards the theoretical success of open source software, there are several factors that contribute to the lack of long-term success in open source projects. One of the most obvious drawback is that without pay or royalty licensing, there is little financial incentive for a programmer to become involved with a project in the first place, or to continue development and support once the initial product is released. This leads to innumerable examples of well-anticipated software being forever condemned to beta versions and unsupported early model products. With donations as the only source of income for a truly open source (and GPL licensed) project, there is almost no certainty in the future of the project simply because of developer abandonment, making it a poor choice for any sort of application in which future versions, support and a long-term plan would be essential, as is the case for most business software.
Evidence of open source adoption
Libraries are using open source software to develop information as well as library services. The purpose of open source is to provide a software that is cheaper, reliable and has better quality. The one feature that makes this software so sought after is that it is free. Libraries in particular benefit from this movement because of the resources it provides. They also promote the same ideas of learning and understanding new information through the resources of other people. Open source allows a sense of community. It is an invitation for anyone to provide information about various topics. The open source tools even allow libraries to create web-based catalogs. According to the IT source there are various library programs that benefit from this.The following are events and applications that have been developed via the open source community as and echo the ideologies of the open source movement.
OpenCourseWare Consortium — an organization composed of various colleges that support open source and share some of their material online. This organization, headed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, was established to aid in the exchange of open source educational materials.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
— user-generated online encyclopedia with sister projects in academic areas, such as Wikiversity
Wikiversity
Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project, which supports learning communities, their learning materials, and resulting activities. It differs from more structured projects such as Wikipedia in that it instead offers a series of tutorials, or courses, for the fostering of learning, rather than...
— a community dedicated to the creation and exchange of learning materials
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
— prior to the existence of Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest...
Beta, this was the first supplier of electronic books
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
and the very first free library project
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
— this search engine has led the way in transformation of Web-based applications, such as books, scholarly journals
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
, that are based primarily on open source software. Google continues to make applications based on open software. Recently, in November 2009, Google announced that it would be “enabling people everywhere to find, and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state districts, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar”
Government agencies and infrastructure software — Government Agencies are utilizing open source infrastructure software, like the Linux operating system and the Apache Web-server into software, to manage information. In 2005, a new government lobby was launched under the name National Center for Open Source Policy and Research (NCOSPR) “a non-profit organization promoting the use of open source software solutions within government IT enterprises."
Synthetic Biology- Synthetic Biology is considered the feasibility of the open source movement. This new technology is important and exciting because it promises to enable cheap, lifesaving new drugs as well as helping to yield biofuels that may help to solve our energy problem. Although synthetic biology has not yet come out of its "lab" stage, it has great potential to become industrialized in the near future. In order to industrialize open source science, there are some scientists who are trying to build their own brand of it.
Open Source Movement in the Military- Open source movement has potential to help in the military. The open source software allows anyone to make changes that will improve it. This is a form of invitation for people to put their minds together to grow a software in a cost efficient manner. The reason the military is so interested is because it is possible that this software can increase speed and flexibility. Although there are security setbacks to this idea due to the fact that anyone has access to change the software, the advantages can outweigh the disadvantages. The fact that the open- source programs can be modified quickly is crucial.
A support group was formed to test these theories. It was called The Military Open Source Software Working Group, was organized in 2009 and held over 120 military members. Their purpose was to bring together software developers and contractors from the military to discover new ideas for reuse and collaboration. Overall, open-source software in the military is an intriguing idea that has potential drawbacks but they are not enough to offset the advantages.
Open Source in Education- Colleges and organizations use software predominantly online to educate their students. Open source technology is being adopted by many institutions because it can save these institutions from paying companies to provide them with these administrative software systems. One of the first major colleges to adopt an open source system was Colorado State University in 2009 with many others following after that. Colorado State Universities system was produced by the Kuali Foundation
Kuali Foundation
The Kuali Foundation is a non-profit, 501 corporation that coordinates the development of free/open source administrative software under the Educational Community License. The name "Kuali" came from the Malaysian word for wok...
who has become a major player in open source administrative systems. The Kuali Foundation defines itself as a group of organizations that aims to "build and sustain open source software for higher education, by higher education." There are many other examples of open source instruments being used in education other than the Kuali Foundation as well.
Ideologically related movements
The open access movement is a movement that is similar in ideology to the open source movement. Members of this movement maintain that academic material should be readily available to provide help with “future research, assist in teaching and aid in academic purposes.” The Open access movement aims to eliminate subscription fees and licensing restrictions of academic materialsThe free culture movement
Free Culture movement
The free culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify creative works in the form of free content by using the Internet and other forms of media....
is a movement that seeks to achieve a culture in that engages in collective freedom via freedom of expression, free public access to knowledge and information, full demonstration of creativity and innovation in various arenas and promotion of citizen liberties.
Creative Commons is an organization that “develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.” It encourages the use of protected properties online for research, education, and creative purposes in pursuit of a universal access. Creative Commons provides an infrastructure through a set of copyright licenses and tools that creates a better balance within the realm of “all rights reserved” properties. The Creative Commons license offers a slightly more lenient alternative to “all rights reserved” copyrights for those who do not wish to exclude the use of their material.