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Open-source culture

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Definition of Open Source Culture

“Open source culture” is a term that describes a balance between the free software movement and the notion of intellectual property (and the surrounding ethos of proprietary culture). The words “open source” come from the idea of accessing programming code (see: Open Source Movement), but “culture” gestures in a different direction. It is a term that reflects a new understanding of the shared nature of culture as more domains of contemporary life are affected by underlying structures that computers make possible.

Supporters of the notion of OSC maintain that the experience of culture is influenced by copyright law, which is an expression of the idea of intellectual property. Creators (e.g., authors, artists, programmers, etc.) are understood as having limited ownership over their creations. Current laws are instrumental in maintaining a creator’s economic and moral rights for a limited time, while allowing for exceptions in certain cases pertaining to “fair use.” Legally, copyright obtains to an expression as a "fixation," and licensing becomes the legal way of using copyrighted fixations.

Open Source Culture v. Free Culture

Free culture is a term derived from the free software movement. “Free software” tends to imply a gift economy (at least with respect to the labor of computer programming). The perspective of OSC is compatible with a society that maintains some kind of intellectual property laws to protect workers. It is a more nuanced position than current debate about intellectual property allows. Instead of seeing law as an expression of instrumental rules intended to uphold either natural rights or desirable outcomes, an argument from open source culture takes into account diverse goods and ends.

The Domain of Open Source Culture

OSC applies the principles of open source to the dissemination of knowledge in general.

Appropriation Art

Technology

Open source principles can be applied to technical areas other than computer software, such as digital communication protocols and data storage formats or even open source hardware (for instance the Indian development simputer).

An Intellectual Commons

Proponents of this view have hailed the Open CourseWare project at MIT, Thacker's article on "Open Source DNA", the "Open Source Cultural Database", openwebschool, and the Wikipedia as examples of applying open source outside the realm of computer software. The principle of sharing predates the open source movement; for example, the free sharing of information has been institutionalized in the scientific enterprise since at least the 19th century.

Skepticism

Raymond and other founders of the open source movement have sometimes publicly tried to put the brakes on speculation about applications outside of software, arguing that strong arguments for software openness should not be weakened by overreaching into areas where the story is less compelling. The broader impacts of the open source movement, and the extent of its role in the development of new information sharing procedures, remains to be seen.

See also

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