Group+5A

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According to [|Information Today], “open source refers to software in which the source code is freely available for others to view, amend and adapt.” (Poynder 2001) It allows programmers to change, upgrade and fix. Also, the more eyes that are able to see and use the code there is less of a chance for bugs and viruses. This new model of openness is said to produce better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a few programmers can see the code.====== The [|Open Source Initiative (OSI)] is a non-profit corporation, founded in 1998, that is aimed at educating on the benefits of open source.They have stated, “the promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.” One of the their most important activities is the maintenanceof the [|Open Source Definitions (OSD)], in which they have identified 10 things that open source software must comply with. The 10 criteria include free redistribution, source code, derived works, integrity of the author’s source code, no discrimination against persons or groups, no discrimination against fields of endeavor, distributions license, license must not be specific to a product, license must not restrict other software and license must be technology-neutral. The Open Source Movement came about from the people involved with the free movement software. It has been influenced by the publication of “[|The Cathedral and the Bazaar]” by Eric Raymond in 1997 and Netscape’s announcement of its navigator browser with open-source code. With the formation of the Open Source Initiative in 1998, the open source movement was adopted and formalized. The software that has come out of the open source movement has been successful in developing alternative to [|propriety software] (neither free nor open source). Some examples of software that have come out of the open source movement include [|Linux], [|Apache] and [|Mozilla].

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by Kristin Grant Below are some examples of open source organizations that have advanced over the decades.
 * OPEN SOURCE ORGANIZATIONS AND AFFLIATIONS**

The Free[| Software Foundation]

The Free Software Foundation (FSF), established in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' rights to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of Free Software, particularly the GNU operating system, used widely in its GNU/Linux variant. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues surrounding freedom in the use of software.

[|The Linux Foundation] The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007 by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group, it sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms.

[|The Mozilla Foundation] Established in July, 2003, with start-up funds from the Netscape division of AOL, the Mozilla Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal, and financial support for the Mozilla open-source software project. The Foundation has been incorporated as a California not-for-profit corporation to ensure that the Mozilla project continues to exist beyond the participation of individual volunteers, to enable contributions of intellectual property and funds and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal exposure while participating in open-source software projects.

[|OASIS] OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. The consortium produces more Web services standards than any other organization, along with standards for security, e-business, and standardization efforts in the public sector and for application-specific markets.

[|Python Software Foundation]

The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is a non-profit membership organization devoted to advancing open source technology related to the Python programming language. It qualifies under the US Internal Revenue Code as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) scientific and educational public charity, and conducts its business according to the rules for such organizations.

Fabienne Gueissaz
 * __How Open Sourcing Affects Other Countries__ **

Open sourcing is very beneficial for most countries, even if they are not normally at the forefront of the technology and software production. Even cultures that are technologically savvy are behind the open source movement. For example, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service noted that a few US companies mainly dominated the price of Information Technology specific to their field. If open sourcing was utilized in this situation, they could use a system for free that is open for anyone to utilize (Thibodeau, 2003). Although out sourcing is advantageous to people in countries where off shoring is present, it is also beneficial to engineers in the United States. Because the knowledge and codes they posses are imperative for the continued development of open sourcing, their jobs are not at risk of being shipped overseas. The main problem that is associated with open sourcing is that there are occasionally problems with translations and communications when overseas employees are exposed to new forms of information exchange, (Amant, 2009). However, with a little more work put into clarifying these issues, information exchange between these cultures and western ones can become seamless and beneficial to all cultures and people involved.

**__Open Source Politics and Gov 2.0__**
//Veronica Elliott//

The open source movement has given developers the opportunity to gain access to source codes and make innovative changes to popular software. This openness has now carried over to the political sphere, creating an open government. An open government decentralizes the power of the nation-state and allows citizens to have access to important information about their government while they also become active participants in the decision making process(Lathrop & Ruma, 2010)9. Furthermore, a transparent approach to government can help solve huge global issues such as climate change and HIV/AIDS prevention through the process of collaboration (Duval, 2010)10. If government organizations follow the open source model of free participation, problems that have been facing leaders around the globe for decades could be resolved faster and with less of a burden on tax payers. "Government 2.0" is the term coined for the use of “collaborative technology to better solve collective problems at a city, state, national, and international level” (Lathrop & Ruma, 2010). In Government 2.0 citizens play a more active and participatory role in solving their nations’ problems and in the decision making processes that ultimately affects their own lives. This idea was first developed by former governor of Vermont, Howard Dean during his campaign for president in 2004. Howard Dean set the precedent for social campaigns through his use of Meetup, a Web site that enables followers to meet locally, and was hugely successful in raising money and support for his campaign (Duval, 2010). Barack Obama adopted these ideas in his 2008 campaign where he further expanded the open government idea through blogs where volunteers shared ideas and organized events, an interactive website that allowed supporters to obtain information about his campaign and make donations, and even emails asking supporters to vote on campaign policy decisions (Duval, 2010).

Once President Obama was elected he took open source politics to a whole new level and on December 9, 2009 introduced the Open Government Directive, focused on increasing "the three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration" (Orszag, 2009)11. It is argued by President Obama that the implementation of these three principles will allow American citizens to be more connected to their government, each other, and the whole world (Orszag, 2009).

The Open Government Directive has been widely successful thus far; in July of 2010 the United States Department of State, started a software development project called Apps <4> Africa, which aimed to persuade developers from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania to create open source software to enhance the quality of life and solve problems for citizens of these regions. The applications could be built for any platform but the code was required to have an open source (Otter, 2010)12. Recently, the United States became partners with India in utilizing the Open Government model to combat government corruption, increase accountability of public servants, and giving more power to the citizens (Power, 2010)13. Indians have already embraced the power of open source government and have created the [|ipaidabribe.com] website to publicize the criminal activities happening in their country through videos and personal stories (Power, 2010).

While the open government movement is fairly new, it has already encountered enormous success both in our country and around the World. Adopting its policies from the open source movement, the new government or "Government 2.0" will help citizens become the leaders of their countries and allow the world to become even more connected through software created by new developers focused on catalyzing change.

__**Creative Commons license**__
//Minna Bollstroem//

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Creative Commons (CC) is a nonprofit organization founded in the U.S in 2001, with the main purpose to increase creativity. CC products, free copyright licenses, vary from all rights reserved to no rights reserved. CC licenses are legal in 53 jurisdictions worldwide and hold an estimated 350 million licensed works. Best known users of CC licensing options are Flickr, Al Jazeera, Wikipedia, MIT OpenCourseWare and the Whitehouse.gov according to [|creativecommons.org]. Creative Commons works alongside copyright, so your copyright license terms can be modified to best suit your creative purpose.

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Attribution (by) You may copy, distribute, display, perform and make new works based on it only if you give the author or license the credits.

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Creative Commons is build up on open source software (GNU General Public License) and CC recommends open source software licenses for anybody to use freely. CC licenses cater perfectly to open source products. You can easily create license on CC website with the help of general questions. Creative commons embraces the same idealistic values as open source movement. Creative commons gives people a chance to share and develop together, without giving up all the rights to their creations.======

** __How Open Sourcing is Helping Globalization__ ** Fabienne Gueissaz

Open sourcing allows for people from all over the world to collaborate on new software, no matter where their location. Because of the ability for information to be accessible to anyone, anywhere, knowledge on how to make the product better can come from companies, engineers, or people with a passion for those types of projects. In addition, because of the mass exchange of information and talent, prices drop dramatically for companies because they no longer need a lot of managerial positions, while benefits for employees increase since they can work from home and are in charge of what they produce. Through this, people are able to work with others from all over the world in order to collaborate on international projects.

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1. A Brief History of the Open-Source Movement. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved November 19, 2010, from[] ====== 2. Mission | Open Source Initiative. Open Source Initiative. Retrieved November 20, 2010, from [] 3. Poynder, R. IT Feature: The Open Source Movement. Information Today, Inc.. Retrieved November 20, 2010, from [] 4. Raymond, E. S. The Cathedral and The Bazaar. The Cathedral and The Bazaar. Retrieved November 20, 2010, from [] 5. The Open Source Definition. Open Source Initiative. Retrieved November 20th, 2010, from [] 6. Historical facts [] Retrieved November 16th, 2010 7. Who uses creative commons [|http://creativecommons.org/about/who-uses-cc/]Retrieved November 23rd, 2010. Information verified from companies own web pages. 8. Creative Commons license http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses Retrieved November 16th, 2010

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9. Lathrop, D., & Ruma, L. (2010). Open government; collaboration, transparency, and participation in practice. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media. ======

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">10. Duval, J. (2010). Next generation democracy: what the open-source revolution means for power, politics, and change. New York, NY.: Bloomsbury. ======

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">11. Orszag, P. R. U.S. Open Government Initiative, (2010). Open government directive (M10-06). Washington, DC: Retrieved from [] ======

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">12. Otter, A. (2010, July 15). Software comptetition to encourage east african developers. Tectonic, doi: [] ======

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">13. Power, S. U.S. Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights Department, (2010). A us-india partnership on open government Washington, DC: Retrieved from [] ======