Open source software is computer software that allows for open access to it's source code. These programs are released with a license that allows studying, modifying, and distributing to anybody for any reason.
History
Open source software (OSS) began actually as a result of the initial world interest in computing. At the beginning, coders and programmers had to learn from each other how to do certain things when it came to computing, because there wasn't really a precedent on computing. The commercialization of software became extremely important and popular and had thrown open source software to the wayside during the computer wave of the 1980s-200s. Also, another reason the open source software community was shunned by the commercialized software business was because they were constantly pinned as "intellectual property destroyers."
In 1983, the free software movement was launched in efforts to get the corporate world familiarized with this open source software development. They advocated that contrary to popular belief, open-source software development was: safe, affordable, transparent, and flexible.[1]
The Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative is an organization whose goal is to promote the use of open source software. Founded in 1998, the OSI has had ties to the free source movement in its efforts to promote the open source software as "pragmatic, business-case grounds".[2]
Model
There are several ways in which work on an open-source project can start:
An individual who senses the need for a project announces the intent to develop a project in public. A developer working on a limited but working codebase, releases it to the public as the first version of an open-source program. The source code of a mature project is released to the public. A well-established open-source project can be forked by an interested outside party.[3]
The New Media Aspect
Because open source software is a collaborative tool, it is an advance of new media. It is a way for end-users to collaborate and converge their ideas to make a program work better.