<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Tuesday, December 09, 2003  

Free/Open Source Research Community
http://opensource.mit.edu/home.html

Free/open source software (F/OSS) is software for which the human-readable source code is made available to the user of the software, who can then modify the code in order to fit the software to the user’s needs. The source code is the set of written instructions that define a program in its original form, and when it’s made fully accessible programmers can read it, modify it, and redistribute it, thereby improving and adapting the software. In this manner the software evolves at a rate unmatched by traditional proprietary software. For many years free/open source software has been building momentum. Beginning amidst the technical cultures that produced the Internet and World Wide Web, it is now causing quite a stir in the commercial world as large software corporations are finding themselves competing against commercially available open source software.

This new demand for free and open source software has piqued interest among scholars in disciplines ranging from sociology to economics to social psychology, and has raised questions in fields of application ranging from innovation processes to strategic management. As an aid to these scholars, they offer the Free / Open Source Research Community. By having visitors contribute to our research databases, they hope to establish a community of information exchange that will lead to a greater understanding of open source and it's applications.

In the spirit of free and open source software (F/OSS), they are attempting to establish a community in which information will be freely exchanged, so that others may further the understanding of open source and its implications outside the realm of software development. They invite researchers to post their papers on open source and free software here, and to add themselves to the research directory, so that their community can become steadily larger and more comprehensive.

posted by Marcus Zillman | 1:06 PM
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