The open source initiative (OSI) is a nonprofit organization that was purposely formed to advocate for the importance of open source. According to (Werawarana and Weeratunga, 2004), nowadays when software developers come up with new software they provide an access to the source code. Therefore the public can make modifications or alter the model of the source code to suit their preference. The open source software (OSS) is the main backbone of the open source initiative. The OSS is a software owned by a certain individual and they have an open source license to certify their own. Consequently, once they are done with the development of the source code and a suitable end product in the form of a computer software or a mobile phone application is realized the source code is put in the public domain for exploration.
Sometimes the development team may be inquiring on modifications from the public. Evidently, for a project to be successful it must incorporate the needs of every person in the society. This need not be always evident to everyone, furthermore human beings are a complex bunch thus figuring the needs of each and every one may prove to be hard. Hence once the source code is made public, people all over the world get to weigh in and input their preferences, this practice obviously increases the success of the software once it is fully finalized. Therefore OSI positively complements the activities of the software developers. Citing a statistic from the Standish group (2008) the open source saves the public close to 60 billion dollars. Some may look at this as a setback to profits but on a broad perspective, the developers are guaranteed free marketing. A factor worth noting is that open source developers are not in the field for money, most of the developers have day to day jobs and they just create software for self-actualization or motivation. Trivially people will opt to go for a software that they understand and can mutate to their own inclination and more importantly, it is free.
In response to the yes and no answers, I want to reiterate that open sources are free. As explained earlier, it is evident that the source codes are displayed publicly for the public to use, modify and correct. This has been the idea all through. Eric S. Raymond and Bruce Perens in February 1998 formed the OSI to address this issue. According to my research open sources were there since the development of the internet. People tend to relate free things to be of low standards, a point that the founders of the OSI sought to disagree with, hence they invited high software developers in open source to do away with this thought.
Secondly the developers generate the source code for the public’s use. The source code is a set of commands that are used to come up with a program. With the source code being public, people can always distribute it between each other since there are no restrictions against this practice. According to (opensource.org), people tend to think that open source is not secure, and that it is used by hackers. I would want to refute this claim and state that open source is a secure platform. It is a resounding ‘yes’ that all open sources are licensed as shown earlier. The license is known as the open source license which gives the patent holder the right to distribute and invite the public to personalize and make alterations to the source code.
Work Cited
- Johnson. J, Emotions run high, The Standish group, (2013), blog.standishishgroup.com/
- Choosing and using Open Source software : A primer for Nonprofits. S.I : Nonprofit Open
- Open Source Initiative (osi)., internet resource.
- Steve M, Open Source Initiative (OSI), webmaster at opensource.org, (2006), http://www.samurajdata.se/opensource/mirror/
- Weeratunga. J, Weerawarana. S, Open Source in Developing Countries, (Jan, 2004) http://www.eldis.org/fulltext/opensource.pdf