Open Source and Creative Commons Overview

What exactly is “open source”? Open source is material that is freely available for distribution, modification, must allow future modifications, and is not for profit. Hardware and software are both available as open source; this article addresses software. Anyone who uses open source must, in turn, make it freely available.

There are many reasons that individuals create and contribute to open source projects. Many individuals believe in the open source philosophy and sharing knowledge, it promotes involvement in a technological community, it can be a way to advertise personal resumes, and sometimes is a way for a contributor to claim “bragging rights”.

Open source is available as operating systems, software applications, software libraries, photos, graphical images, sounds, videos, and is spreading into any area available through digital media and electronic technologies.

So where can you find open source and what are the “rules”?
Rules for educational institutions and non-profit agencies may be different than commercial enterprises. Etiquette suggests that you include credit for the original author/creator/developer and is sometimes required. In turn, you must freely share any open source material that you have used.

For images, photos, and other digital media, there exists a Creative Commons license; the author grants others the right to copy, distribute, and modify the work, as long as the author is credited. You need to carefully view the Creative Commons license for any media that you use, some licenses are more restrictive than others.

Of course, care should always be taken from downloading anything from the web. Take proper precautions to avoid downloading and/or installing computer viruses.

PLEASE NOTE: the links below are provided for your reference. Northeastern University does not own or manage any of the content on the webpages listed below, and therefore is not liable for any unsupported software.