The Collaborative Integrity of Open-Source Software

Open-source software is a new order full of transposition and paradox. Copyright licenses promote copying rather than prohibit it. Software teams work better scattered around the world than housed in one place. Free software has higher quality than sold software.

The open-source phenomenon is part ideological triumph and part opportunistic pragmatism. There are many facets to this new phenomenon, many ways to better understand what originated it, sustains it, helps it grow, and what may threaten it.