It seems to me that the term "Open Source Software" has suffered from *semantic diffusion*[1].
This discussion also brings to mind the Free Software Foundation (FSF) article, *"Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software"*.[2] There seems to be a bit more common ground in the use of a similar but more generic term in the education field, "Open Educational Resource" (OER).[3] [1] https://martinfowler.com/bliki/SemanticDiffusion.html [2] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html [3] https://www.unesco.org/en/open-educational-resources --Jody On Mon, May 18, 2026 at 1:41 PM Bryan G. Behrenshausen < [email protected]> wrote: > I note your definition of "open source resources": "digital resources made > publicly available alongside their source files." I believe you've hit on > a > necessary component of a potential definition here, but I don't believe > that > this definition alone is sufficient for account for the phenomenon. It > lacks > the emphasis on _modifiability_ that makes the concept of "open" so > powerful > in the field of open source software. >
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