WHAT IS OPEN SOURCE?

The term Open Source describes the concept of free sharing of ideas, technologies or anything else and developing them in a open and free collaboration. It is probably impossible to find a general definition of open source. The term open source implies the accessibility to the “source” of a product, a social movement, a methodology, and/or perhaps some sort of common values. A example of collaboration is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, built collaboratively from the people and for the people. The Open Source Initiative defines open source as much more than just the access to the source code of a particular software.

But, what is source code?
To keep it simple, source code is basically text, written in programming language. This code is translated into a machine-readable version by a so-called “compiler”. After this compilation, a machine is able to understand the code and execute its orders. Proprietary software is mostly delivered only in a machine-readable way, which means the buyer or “owner” of the software is not able to see what the software actually does, because he is not able to read this language. This means that the buyer of the software only buys a sort of license that allows him or her to use the software under certain conditions. These conditions are mostly very limited in many aspects. Richard Stallman (Founder of GNU’s not UNIX and the General Public License) stated that: “Proprietary software keeps users helpless and dependent on the producer of the software.” ( Proprietary Software keeps users helpless – Tech Radar, available at URL: http://www.techradar.com/news/software/-proprietary-software-keeps-users..., accessed on 08.10.2011)

The core idea of open source is rooted in this limitation. People who wanted to change minor functions of software were not able to do so, because of its limited access and license. From there, the demand to be able to access the source code became popular. The term open source itself refers to the human-readable code of software.

“The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation with global scope formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community”.(The Open Source Definition – Open Source Initiative, available at URL: http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd, accessed on 08.10.2011). Its definition includes 10 points, including:

  • Free Redistribution
  • Integrity of the Author's Source Code
  • No Discrimination against Persons or Groups
  • No Discrimination against Fields of Endeavor
  • License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
  • License Must Not Restrict Other Software
  • License Must Be Technology-Neutral

Richard Stallman is talking about the concept of the term he created called “free software”. He defined four freedoms of software that allow the user to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. The four freedoms are:

  • The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
  • The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1).
  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
  • The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). (The Free Software Definition – GNU Operating System, available at URL: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html, accessed on 08.10.2011)

All these freedoms are only possible if the source code is open and available. Open source is a precondition for free software.

Given these preconditions, many successful open source software projects have arisen in the last 20–30 years. The range of software covers almost every application imaginable, including operating systems like Linux, which is probably one of the most stable.
One of the most popular examples of open source success stories is the web browser Firefox promoted by the Mozilla Foundation. Its market share is around 25% and many web developers love this browser because of the given freedom to add whatever little program or function you need (Desktop Browser Market Share – NETMARKETSHARE.COM, available at URL: http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustom..., accessed on 08.10.2011). Other examples are Open Office, the Apache Server and open source content management systems (CMS), like Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal.

One of the main characteristics of open source projects is that they are not driven by money or profit. People collaborate, contribute and share because they are motivated by other reasons. There is no external immediate reward. People are passionate with what they are doing.

There is also no “classical hierarchy” in open source projects. People self-organize in small working groups or teams and organize their contribution to the whole, bigger product. This way of working is much more flexible than in strict hierarchical structures. This methodology also fosters much more creativity and flexibility, as many studies in the past have proven. This goes beyond nation-states, continents and cultures, since open source communities are mostly acting worldwide.

What is open source hardware?
Open Source Hardware could be seen as the second generation of open source, because the idea is basically the same. The only difference is the product, which is hardware. The hardware layout and design (i.e. manufacturing drawings, mechanical drawings, bill of materials, schematics, documentation, manuals etc.) is all released with the approach to share it. By sharing and collaborating products could be improved easily and everyone is able to contribute in the best manner he is able to do so.