Julia Ferraioli | Upstream

Julia Ferraioli

Open source human
Cisco

A social model of open source: all the dynamics that are fit to print

4:30 PM - 5:00 PM EST

Open source software (OSS) in spirit has existed since the 1950s, when researchers and academics shared source code with each other, treating code as a common good. After a court decision rendered code copyrightable in 1984, the Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement started in earnest. Just a few years later, the first license that embodied the spirit of open source was created, though it is debated whether this was the GPL or MIT.

Open source is software where the code is available for anyone to use, integrate, examine, modify, and distribute. Christine Peterson coined the term in 1998, and the Open Source Initiative crafted the commonly accepted open source definition (OSD) shortly thereafter. The OSD adds requirements that prohibit discrimination against people, groups, fields, or technology. Because of the complex legal, technical, and social criteria around open source, most of these are covered by a license attached to the software.

That said, there’s so much more to open source than what fits into a license. It does not cover development philosophies, social structures, governance, or anything else that makes open source the rich ecosystem that it is today.

About Julia Ferraioli

Julia Ferraioli is a member of the open source software community, focused on open source compliance, sustainability, tooling, and research. Her background includes research in machine learning, robotics, HCI, and accessibility. Julia finds energy in developing creative demos, creating beautiful documents, and rainbow sprinkles. She’s also a fierce supporter of LaTeX, the Oxford comma, and small pull requests.