OUR PERSPECTIVE OF OPEN
OUR PERSPECTIVE OF OPEN
To better understand the meaning of “open source” from our point of view, it is better to start by the definition of this terminology.
OPEN
Open underlies the concept of uninterrupted accessibility by everyone. In other words, everyone should be able to access everything equally. Therefore, OLOS advocates this philosophy of openness towards anyone willing to participate in the creation of common goods based on sharing, collaboration and participation to a community.
SOURCE
Source code is that part of software unknown to most users. The ability to inspect the source allows us to go beyond the graphical aspect of the programme, allowing anyone to contribute to the development and improvement of the software itself.
OPEN SOURCE
Promoting open source softwares means to submit a given application to peer reviews several times. For this reason it is possible to work on bottom-up user-centered models of a community giving life or developing softwares. This kind of approach based on the definitions of “open” and “source” defines the open source philosophy. This way of thinking states that open source software can only be defined as such it respects the four freedoms of free software:
FREEDOM 0
USE
the freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
FREEDOM 1
STUDY
the freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does the computing as the user wishes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
FREEDOM 2
SHARE
the freedom to redistribute copies so users can help others.
FREEDOM 3
IMPROVE
the freedom to distribute copies of modified versions to others. By doing this, the whole community has a chance to benefit from changes made by other users. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
Another important pillar of free software is the copyleft concept. Copyleft is not the offset of the copyright, as many people would consider. Actually copyleft is a way to use the copyright allowing softwares to maintain their openness without having the possibility to get prioritized.
In this perspective, OLOS aims to promote open source softwares: giving the possibility to anyone to share, collaborate and participate to the innovation and the development of free software.
HACKABILITY
Hackability is a term composed of two words “hack” (cut, dismantle), and “ability” (capacity, skill). Often the term is read in a negative light, but it must be seen in another way. Hackability is the ability to go beyond, to use technology consciously learning its potentials overcoming the limitation often imposed by mediated use.
"FREE SOFTWARE" or "OPEN SOURCE"?
“Free software” and “Open Source” are two philosophies that indicate the same concept, but in different ways. Therefore many observatories uses the acronym F(L)OSS – Free (Libre) and Open Source Software – to not to deal with terminological clarifications.
(from S. Aliprandi, Software Licensing & Data Governance, Tutelare e gestire le creazioni tecnologiche, Apogeo 2020)
OPENNESS
The adjective “open” beyond its terminological and ideological meaning has undoubtedly been very successful. This adjective, over time, has extended its semantic scope and is now used to identify a new cultural approach, a new movement, what we now consider the philosophy of Openness.
(from S. Aliprandi, Software Licensing & Data Governance, Tutelare e gestire le creazioni tecnologiche, Apogeo 2020)