To promote and protect open source...

As a global non-profit, The Open Source Initiative (OSI) protects and promotes open source software, development and communities, championing software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure, stewarding the Open Source Definition (OSD), and preventing abuse of the ideals and ethos inherent to the open source movement. See our about and history pages for more.

Open source software is software that can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. Open source software is made by many people, and distributed under licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition.

News

US Gov't Releases Draft Open Source Policy for Public Comment

The US Federal Government is one of the world's largest buyers of software, much of which is custom developed by government contractors in response to RfP's and sole source procurements. Not only is the original development of this software expensive, but the Government must often negotiate follow-on sole source contracts with the same vendor for support and enhancement. Beyond that, many of these contractors are incapable of building complex systems.

OSI Director Paul Tagliamonte's Testimony to NYC Council Contracts Committee

Aidan Feldman of 18F; David Moore, creator of CouncilMatic; NYC Council Member Ben Kallos; John Sullivan, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, and; Paul Tagliamonte, Board Director of the Open Source Initiative at New York City Hall.