Open Source Initiative

Open Source Initiative
Open Source Initiative
large green "C" rotated 90 degrees clockwise to form a sort of key hole marked with small "TM" and the words "open source" beneath
standard OSI logo
Formation February 1998
Headquarters San Francisco, CA
President Michael Tiemann
Website opensource.org

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) 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. Later, in August 1998 the organization added a board of directors.

Raymond was president from its founding until February 2005. The current president is Michael Tiemann.

Contents

Relations with the free software movement

Although born from the same history of Unix, Internet free software, and the hacker culture as the free software movement launched by Richard Stallman and his Free Software Foundation, the Open Source Initiative was formed and chose the term open source, in Michael Tiemann's words, to "dump the moralizing and confrontational attitude that had been associated with 'free software' in the past and sell the idea strictly on the same pragmatic, business-case grounds that had motivated Netscape."[1]

Stallman counter-charges that OSI's pragmatic focus on a model for software development and marketing ignores what he considers to be the central "ethical imperative" and the focus on "freedom" that underlies free software, as he defines it, and blurs the distinction with semi-free or wholly proprietary software.[2] To Stallman, the important, fundamental difference is philosophical. Nevertheless, he describes his free software movement and the Open Source Initiative as separate camps within the same free software community. According to Stallman, "We disagree with the open source camp on the basic goals and values, but their views and ours lead in many cases to the same practical behavior—such as developing free software. As a result, people from the free software movement and the open source camp often work together on practical projects such as software development."[2]

History

The movement was launched in 1998 by Jon "maddog" Hall, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, and others.[3][4]

The group adopted the Open Source Definition for open-source software, based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines. They also established the Open Source Initiative (OSI) as a steward organization for the movement. However, they were unsuccessful in their attempt to secure a trademark for 'open source' to control the use of the term[5]. Despite this, the OSI developed considerable influence[citation needed] in the corporate sphere and has been able to hold abuse of the term to a tolerable minimum. With the Free Software Foundation (FSF), it has become one of the hacker community's two principal advocacy organizations[citation needed].

The early period of the open-source movement coincided with and partly drove[original research?] the dot-com boom of 1998─2000, and saw a large growth in the popularity of Linux and the formation of many open-source-friendly companies[citation needed]. The movement also caught the attention of the mainstream software industry, leading to open-source software offerings by established software companies such as Corel (Corel Linux), Sun Microsystems (OpenOffice.org), and IBM (OpenAFS)[citation needed]. By the time the dot-com boom busted in 2001, many of the early hopes of open-source advocates had already borne fruit, and the movement continued from strength to strength in the cost-cutting climate of the 2001─2003 recession[original research?].

In 2009, the organization was temporarily suspended from operation as a California corporation, apparently in response to a complaint concerning tax paperwork from earlier years.[6][clarification needed] Its current status is "Active".[7]

Board members

The current Open Source Initiative board is [8]:

Past board members include:

Open-source-related movements

See also

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Open Source Initiative — Open Source Initiative,   OSI …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Open-Source-Initiative — Die Open Source Initiative ist eine Organisation, die sich der Förderung von Open Source Software widmet. Sie wurde im Februar 1998 von Bruce Perens und Eric S. Raymond gegründet. OSI Logo Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Geschichtliches …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Open Source Initiative — Die Open Source Initiative ist eine Organisation, die sich der Förderung von Open Source Software widmet. Sie wurde im Februar 1998 von Bruce Perens und Eric S. Raymond gegründet. OSI Logo Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Open Source Initiative — Logo de l Open Source Initiative L’Open Source Initiative est une organisation dévouée à la promotion du logiciel Open Source. Elle a été créée en 1998 à Palo Alto par Todd Anderson, Chris Peterson, John maddog Hall, Larry Augustin, Sam Ockm …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Open Source Initiative — Logotipo de la Open Source Initiative. La Open Source Initiative (OSI) es una organización dedicada a la promoción del código abierto. Fue fundada en febrero de 1998 por Bruce Perens y Eric S. Raymond. Contenido …   Wikipedia Español

  • Open Source Initiative — Логотип OSI Open Source Initiative (OSI)  организация, посвящённая продвижению открытого программного обеспечения (ОПО): она предоставляет техническую поддержку ОПО …   Википедия

  • Open Source Initiative — La Open Source Initiative es una organización dedicada a la promoción del software abierto. Fue fundada en febrero de 1998 por Bruce Perens y Eric S. Raymond …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • NonProfit Open Source Initiative — The Non Profit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) is a group, founded in 2001, coordinating the work of various other groups supporting the adoption of Open source software in non profit organizations. They ve published a manual, Choosing and Using… …   Wikipedia

  • Open source software — (OSS) began as a marketing campaign for free software [cite web archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20060423094434/www.opensource.org/advocacy/faq.html title=Frequently Asked Questions |publisher=Open Source Initiative archivedate=2006 04 23… …   Wikipedia

  • Open-Source — [ˈoʊpən sɔːɹs] (engl.) bzw. quelloffen ist eine Palette von Lizenzen für Software, deren Quelltext öffentlich zugänglich ist und durch die Lizenz Weiterentwicklungen fördert. Open Source Software steht unter einer von der Open Source Initiative… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”