In 2018, while the Open Source Initiative was on its 20th Anniversary World Tour, some faux open source licenses started emerging, most notably the Commons Clause and the Server Side Public License. OSI and its partners, with the support from the open source community, were able to successfully organize over 100 activities across 40 events worldwide to celebrate its anniversary and defend the open source definition. At the end of the tour, several OSI affiliates signed the Affirmation of the Open Source Definition.
As we reach 2021, the battle over the open source definition continues. Recently, Elastic published a blog post entitled "Doubling down on open, part II" where it announced the upcoming changes to the popular Elasticsearch and Kibana software to a proprietary license. Nonetheless, the blog post used the word "open" about 40 times, "free" about 30 times, and specifically the term "open source" 20 times. Many members of the open source community quickly called out Elastic's attempt to confuse readers, and the OSI published a public statement condemning Elastic's deceptive wording.
Recently, we also witness the founding of the Organization for Ethical Source (OES), with the goal of ensuring that free software is being used for social good and in service of human rights. The adoption of ethical licenses have stumbled so far, as critics question the enforceability of such licenses, among other issues. One approach that is succeeding is building additional layers on top the Open Source Definition and the Four Freedoms, instead of trying to redefine them. For example, the adoption of the Contributor Covenant code of conduct has been a major success (it was even adopted by the Linux kernel in 2018). It's also worth noting the work being developed by CHAOSS (Community Health Analytics Open Source Software), a Linux Foundation project focused on creating analytics and metrics to help define community health, addressing many of the issues faced by open source communities, including leadership, governance, ethics, sustainability, burnout, diversity, and inclusiveness. Lastly, it's worth recognizing creative approaches like Open Invention Network, which in its 15-year history has successfully created the largest patent non-aggression consortium to support freedom of action in Linux as a key element of open source software (even Microsoft eventually agreed to join, also in 2018).
Open Source Timeline
The Open Source timeline is live at:
Also, be sure to check out the Free Software timeline, as both the open source and free software movements have a shared history:
https://anniv.co/free-software
Open Source Activities
- February 5: The EU Open Source Policy Summit 2021, by OpenForum Europe
- February 6-7: FOSDEM 2021
- February 10-12: FOSS Backstage 2021
- February 18-21: DevConf.CZ 2021 (community track)
Open Source Books
- The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary, Eric S. Raymond
- Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software, Sam Williams
- Free Software, Free Society, Richard Stallman
- Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution, Chris diBona, Sam Ockman, Mark Stone
- Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary by Linus Torvalds
- For Fun and Profit: A History of the Free and Open Source Software Revolution, Christopher Tozzi
- In the Beginning... Was the Command Line, Neal Stephenson
- Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution, Stephen Levy
- Rebel Code. Linux and the open source revolution, Glyn Moody
- The Daemon, The Gnu and the Penguin, Peter H. Salus
- Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Software, Christopher M. Kelty
- Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project, Karl Fogel
- Forge Your Future with Open Source, VM (Vicky) Brasseur
- Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software, Nadia Eghbal
Open Source Press Coverage
- Doubling down on open, Part II, Elastic
- The SSPL is Not an Open Source License, Open Source Initiative
- Stepping up for a truly open source Elasticsearch, AWS Open Source Blog
- Truly Doubling Down on Open Source, Logz.io
- CrateDB Doubling Down on Permissive Licensing and the Elasticsearch Lockdown
- ElasticPress.io Service Considers Next Move after Elasticsearch Abandons Open Source Licensing
- Elasticsearch and Kibana are now business risks, VM (Vicky) Brasseur
- The Rights-Ratchet Model, Meshed Insights
- Policy Distractions, Meshed Insights
- A Bit of a Stretch, Meshed Insights
- Is Elastic Stretching the Truth in Its Spat With AWS Over Elasticsearch License? DataCenterKnowledge
- What I learned from the Server Side Public License, TideLift
- Keeping Open Source Open, or, Why Open is Better, Percona
- And just like that, Amazon Web Services forked Elasticsearch, Kibana. Was that part of the plan, Elastic? The Register
- We need a new way to think about open source, InfoWorld
- Who gets credit for open source success?, InfoWorld
- What happens when you open source everything, InfoWorld
- Elastic changes open-source license to monetize cloud-service use, ZDNet
- AWS, as predicted, is forking Elasticsearch, ZDNet
- Are open source databases dead? ZDNet
- Elastic Changes Licences for Elasticsearch and Kibana: AWS Forks Both, InfoQ
- Amazon responds to Elastic changing its open-source software license, SDTimes
- Not So Open Any More: Elasticsearch Relicensing and Implications for Open Source Search, CMSWire
- This Week in Programming: Elasticsearch Turns AWS into an Open Source Champion, TheNewStack
- Amazon Creates ALv2-Licensed Fork of Elasticsearch, FOSSlife
- Ethical-source movement opens new open-source organization, ZDNet
- Organization for Ethical Source Empowers Developers To Use Their Tech Talents For Social Good, TFIR
Other Key Anniversaries
- Python celebrates its 30th Anniversary this February. PyCon US 2021 will host a virtual celebration in May 12-18, 2021.
- VideoLan celebrates its 20th Anniversary
- D3.js celebrates its 10th Anniversary