1454
A goldsmith prints the first run of commercial books for the Catholic church
Over the centuries, the principles of openness and knowledge-sharing have shaped how we think, work, innovate, and communicate. From its roots in social activism, open-source software and open standards now play a crucial role in technology. And while we may not be able to see exactly what’s around the corner, we can be pretty confident about one thing: The future is open.
The widespread sharing of information and ideas started long before the first electronic computer was even conceived.
1454
1665
1728
1911
Until this time, all auto makers had to pay a patent fee to the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers. Ford fought for the right of all car manufacturers to share technology freely. The collaborative R&D that transpired rapidly advanced the industry. 7
Software is created and shared by academics, corporate researchers, and user groups.
1953
The A-2 compiler — one of the first instances of translating code into machine language — was released with its source code. Because users could send code improvements to the manufacturer, this is considered the first instance of open-source software. 8
1955
1961
The foundations of modern open standards emerge, paving a path for new innovations.
1969
This OS, created by AT&T’s Bell Labs, was unique because of its portability and multitasking capabilities. Since the system’s inception, a multitude of different UNIX versions have been collaboratively developed — to run workstations, internet servers, and mainframes. Today, UNIX-like systems are still found in almost every computer in the world. 13, 14, 15
1969
Funded by the US Department of Defense, the early packet-switching network ARPANET drove the development of communications protocols which formed and remain today the technical foundations of the Internet. 16
1973
Dr. Dobb’s Journal was first published so programmers could easily share BASIC code. Over the years, its scope broadened to encourage sharing of different programming languages, and discussion of all things microcomputing. Content was sourced from its readers, both hobbyists and professionals, including Steve Wozniak. 17, 18
1974
In 1974, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn — the two pioneering fathers of the internet — shared their design of the Internet openly in the publication IEEE Transactions on Communications. They chose to release TCP/IP as an open protocol to encourage adoption. Today, TCP/IP is the standard way computers interoperate over the internet. 19
In response to tightening software regulations, this social movement promotes the freedom of individuals to share and modify source code.
1983
1989
A copyleft license gives the initial rights of free distribution to all derivative versions of software. Although the term was initially used in a Dr. Dobb’s article in the late 70s, the GNU general public license, written by Stallman, was the first time a general-use copyleft license had been used on a large-scale software project. 22, 23
1989
1991
Linus Torvalds described his kernel project as “just a hobby.” But because the programming language scales so well between platforms, Linux has gone on to be one of the most highly successful software in history. Today, nearly 11,000 lines of new code are added every single day. Among other projects, Linux supports Android and ChromeOS, nearly all of the world’s high performance computing systems, and 90 percent of the world’s stock exchanges. 27, 28, 29, 30
1993
As an early web browser, Mosaic has been credited for popularizing the World Wide Web. Andreessen and his team founded Mosaic Communications Corporations — which later became Netscape Communications Corporation. 31
1994
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is founded with a mission to make the web available to all people. With decisions being made collaboratively by committee, W3C shepherds the development of the Web and offers formal recommendations for best practice. In 2014, the group recommend the web’s core language should be HTML5. Today this independent body continues to set standards for the web with the intention of objectively keeping the internet open and driving continued innovation on the web. 32
Individuals and corporations realize the impact of collaborative development on innovation.
1997
In his essay — and, later, book — “The Cathedral and the Bazaar,” Eric Raymond offered an analysis of different free software models. The work rallied the open-source community by painting a picture of how open-source technology could work in a for-profit environment. Netscape Communications considered Raymond’s thesis a key motivator to open-source their code in 1998. 33
1998
1998
Co-founded by author Eric Raymond and programmer Bruce Perens, the first task of the OSI was to define an agreed-upon meaning of open source and create a list of OSI-approved licenses. 36
1999
The nonprofit group offers support for hundreds of open-source projects, including the world’s most popular web server, Apache HTTP Server. Membership is granted to individuals who demonstrate a commitment to collaborative development. In 2009, California’s then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally recognized the foundation’s contributions to open-source leadership and innovation. 37
2001
Relying on principles of collaboration and information-sharing, the free online encyclopedia allows anyone to edit entries. Within its first year, over 200,000 articles were published. And the pace hasn’t slowed: In May 2016, Wikipedia exceeded 40M articles across all language editions, and this number continues to grow at a rapid rate. 38
2004
2004
Partly in response to what it considered the slow development of W3C, the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) is formed. Promoting principles of collaboration, sharing, and openness, the group focused on pushing HTML-related technologies. Today, W3C and WHATWG are considered the two major standards bodies for the web. 42
2005
2008
Under the Chromium project, Google released its open-source browser project so that developers can contribute to safer, faster browsing experiences. The project was based on WebKit, Apple’s own open-source browser engine. The projects highlight the high rate of innovation afforded by popular open- source projects with passionate contributors. 45, 46, 47
2008
2012
2014
By automating Linux container operations, the open-source platform Kubernetes removed the laborious manual processes involved in deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications. Originally designed by Google for internal use, the software was donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation in 2015. Today, it’s one of the most popular open-source projects on the internet. 52
2015
From C# to Java, GitHub’s chart shows the most popular programming languages used to build the open source ecosystem. Significantly, it shows that programming languages associated with proprietary efforts now play a prominent role in open-source projects. 53
2015
For years, deep learning researchers have shared ideas to more rapidly advance this burgeoning field. Google followed in their footsteps by releasing the Machine Learning software TensorFlow as an open-source platform. 54
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