To promote and protect open source software and communities...

For over 20 years the Open Source Initiative (OSI) has worked to raise awareness and adoption of open source software, and build bridges between open source communities of practice. As a global non-profit, the OSI champions software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure, stewarding the Open Source Definition (OSD), and preventing abuse of the ideals and ethos inherent to the open source movement.

Open source software is made by many people and distributed under an OSD-compliant license which grants all the rights to use, study, change, and share the software in modified and unmodified form. Software freedom is essential to enabling community development of open source software.

News

What does Copilot Mean for Open Source?

Submitted by administrator on Tue, 2021-07-20 07:15

Everyone’s been talking about GitHub’s recently announced Copilot tool, a new AI-powered code assistant. So, we started by asking ourselves, “Is this tool a net positive for the open source community?”

 

The answer is “Maybe” but with some caveats. In addition to their significant community of pragmatic collaborators (many of whom fail to specify any license let alone an open source one), GitHub has become in many ways the default place where open source communities work together. That unique position comes with some inherent responsibility. 

 

Practical Open Source Needs You!

Submitted by administrator on Fri, 2021-07-09 11:43

Our CFP for Practical Open Source Information (POSI) has been open for about a month and we’re planning a unique, half-day event targeting organizations and individuals often left out in community programming that are looking for ‘nuts-and-bolts’ information about what using open source means in practice, from speakers with extensive experience in the field.

 

This is the first such event we’ve planned, so to get the word out, we’ve been reaching out directly to a wide array of open source community members of all stripes -- strategists, activists, lawyers, developers -- to spread the word about our Call for Speakers, which closed on July 15th, 8:00 EDT.  We want this event to be a place where folks can find an accessible entry point into open source practices, learning from community members about best practices, common mistakes, and answers to topics as deceptively simple as choosing the right license for a project, so if that’s something you know about, we want to hear from you!

FOSS for the Future: Welcoming Teckids as an Affiliate Member

Submitted by Deb Nicholson on Wed, 2021-06-23 08:40
We're excited to announce that Teckids e.V. is joining OSI as an Affiliate Member. Teckids is an educational organisation based in Germany that focuses on providing Free Software resources and tools for students and educators. Teckids involves children and young people at all levels — from workshop preparation to website management, social media and the charity’s board. Teckids also holds events and workshops to raise awareness for teamwork and democracy.
 

Practical Open Source Information: New Event, CFP Open Today!

Submitted by Deb Nicholson on Fri, 2021-06-04 13:04

The Open Source Initiative will be holding a half-day virtual event on September 16th to discuss Practical Open Source Information (POSI). Our audience for this series is companies, nonprofits and academic institutions that are interested in using more open source. By hearing from current practitioners, new adopters will be able to get up to speed more quickly and (hopefully) avoid some of the mistakes others have made.

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