Tag: open source

How is open source software good for business?

In the late 1970s, staff programmers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sparked a movement. Little did they know that a jammed printer would lead to the beginning of an era: the free software movement. 

If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “free as in freedom, not beer,” this is what it means:

“Free software” means software that respects users’ freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. 

The GNU Project and Free Software Foundation

The WordPress Foundation’s philosophy requires that all projects and software we support be licensed under the GNU Public License, a free, copyleft license—this is intentional. If you mistakenly think open source has no place in business purely because there’s no monetary value attached to the software, we urge you to think again.

The path to innovation and progress

Open source software offers a low-cost entry to the market and paves an efficient way for innovation. These projects harness the power of diverse knowledge, skills, and community to create the best software. But what does this mean for businesses? 

“Companies who wish to create wealth are always interested in productivity. Productivity includes being able to innovate effectively […] Effective innovation is not merely being able to invent and improve, but also being able to determine what to invent and how to improve,” said Richard P. Gabriel and Ron Goldman. 

Most individuals recognize Apple as an innovative and successful technology company. However, few people outside the developer community may know MacOS X was based on Darwin, an open source project. Many of Apple’s platforms draw inspiration from open source, and plenty of other companies have done the same.

With open source software, organizations have access to the latest updates and bug fixes, thanks to frequent and reliable releases. Put simply, building on that existing work rather than reinventing the wheel puts them on the fastest path to creating a better product for their customers. 

Moreover, business strategies based on open source can level the playing field. Small organizations that rely on open source projects for their products can leverage ubiquity to build brand equity, as Gabriel and Goldman explain. This makes the companies more trustworthy to the customer, allowing them to compete fairly with organizations with extensive resources. There’s also a low risk of the software being discontinued and affecting the business. Even if the original programmers leave the project, the maintenance and development of open source software will go on.

We’re only scratching the surface of how open source software is good for business. The reality is that the work done in open source projects benefits the society at large—they help create a better world through technology. The best way businesses can support that future is by adopting open source technologies and contributing to such projects. 

What is the WordPress Foundation and Why Does it Exist?

The WordPress Foundation is a non-profit organization with the mission to democratize publishing through open source, General Public License (GPL) software. Established in January 2010, the Foundation strives to ensure free access, in perpetuity, to the software projects we support.

The WordPress Foundation has a unique history. While it’s true that the organization is eponymously named, our work extends beyond the WordPress project. In this article, we’ll cover just that: what the WordPress Foundation stands for and why our mission matters.

The heart of the matter: open source

“If you believe (as I do) that software constitutes at once some of the core tools and core rules for the future of how human beings work together to create wealth, beauty, new ideas, and solutions to problems, then understanding how open source can change those processes is very important,” says Steven Weber in The Success of Open Source.

Imagine if you couldn’t use the various software that is fundamental to technology right now, be it WordPress, Linux, Android, or something else. Many of the tools we use may not be as commonly available without open source, as intellectual property rights could restrict that access.

But open source challenges the idea of property, as Weber explains in his book:

“The conventional notion of property is, of course, the right to exclude you from using something that belongs to me. Property in open source is configured fundamentally around the right to distribute, not the right to exclude. If that sentence feels awkward on first reading, that is a testimony to just how deeply embedded in our intuitions and institutions the exclusion view of property really is.”

At its core, open source is based on the power of community and collaboration. By bringing people together, these projects leverage the combined perspectives and knowledge to create something more remarkable—and available to everyone—than what we can achieve individually. 

The WordPress Foundation is here to ensure that open source software is part of the future. Human beings may have limited life spans, but our efforts don’t have to. Our organization wants to ensure that the source code for projects like WordPress will survive beyond the current contributor base, so we may create a stable web publishing platform for generations to come.

If you want a future where open source exists, you can help. Donate to the WordPress Foundation.

Looking back at 2021

As 2021 is coming to an end, it is time to look back at the year that was. 2021 was a challenging year for the world due to the continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite all the challenges, the WordPress Foundation was able to make excellent progress in its mission of educating the public about open source software and serving the public good – thanks to our global team of spirited volunteers and contributors.

Read on to find out about our various programs in 2021.

do_action charity hackathons

One of our focuses this year was to revamp our do_action program. Thanks to our hard work, do_action organizers now have a dedicated location@doaction.org email ID powered by Google Workspace for Non profits, which will help them in their initiatives. We also kick-started discussions to organize a global do_action charity hackathon held fully online, and we are all set to execute this idea in 2022. We also announced the return of in-person do_action hackathons after nearly 18 months of online events!

We had two do_action charity hackathons planned this year: do_action Karnataka and do_action Nigeria. do_action Karnataka was held in August 2021, where 12 volunteers worked hand-in-hand to create websites for three non profits. You can read more about the event here:

do_action Karnataka 2021: A report

While do_action Nigeria had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances, the local WordPress community – led by WordPress Community Deputy Mary Job, is doing a phenomenal job on the ground by uplifting women and children through their own charitable initiatives using WordPress.

Introduction to Open source workshops

Last year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we brought back our Introduction to Open source workshops as a way to re-engage the community and to reinforce our core mission of promoting open source software to the community. At the start of this year, we announced our plans to continue these workshops in 2021.

At the time of writing this post, we have had 11 Global Introduction to Open source workshops, which have had a total of 233 RSVPs so far. We also have our final Introduction to Open source workshop for the year scheduled for tomorrow (December 31) as well!

Learn WordPress

Learn WordPress (learn.wordpress.org) – a cross-team initiative led by the Make WordPress Training team was launched in December 2020. The initiative serves to democratize and support WordPress learning by providing high-quality WordPress learning content in different formats. At the time of publishing this post, the platform had published the following content in 2021 alone:

The contributor teams working on this project have some amazing plans for the project, and the WordPress Foundation will continue to support their work in the best way possible.

Several individuals contributed generously to the WordPress foundation this year. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our donors who supported us in sustaining the foundation this year. Special mention to the following individuals who went above and beyond in supporting us in 2021:

Sustainer – $1000 per year

  • 10up
  • Human Made
  • Jetpack
  • Matt Mullenweg
  • Multidots, Inc
  • Sujay Pawar
  • Wordfence
  • InMotion Hosting

Sustainer – $200 per year

  • Donavon Guyot
  • Eric Kuznacic
  • Ellen and Karl Olinger
  • Pippin Williamson
  • W4
  • René Hermenau / WP Staging

The WordPress Foundation has several ambitious plans for 2022, none of which would be possible without your help. If you would like to support the WordPress Foundation and contribute to our mission of serving the public good and educating the public about open source software, please consider donating to the WordPress Foundation. Your donation goes a long way in keeping the web open. Please use the link below to donate.

Donate

Thank you for your continued support of the WordPress Foundation. Here’s wishing you all an excellent holiday season and a happy 2022!

The Basic principles of Open-source Software

The WordPress Foundation aims to educate the public about WordPress and related open-source software (OSS). Towards that end, the WordPress Foundation created the Introduction to Open-source workshops, which shed more light on the potential of open-source software, particularly in countries where there is less participation in OSS projects. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these workshops have moved online. The WordPress Foundation hopes to see more open-source workshops held online this year to help spread awareness about the importance of open-source software.

What are open-source software and Free Software?

Open-source software is software whose source code is available for anyone to view, modify and enhance. Free software refers to software that complies with “four essential freedoms” – to use, study, modify and distribute software for any purpose without legal restraint. Open-source software is characterized by the public accessibility of its code, while free software focuses on the capabilities for using and sharing the software.

Advantages of Free and Open-source Software over Proprietary software

Proprietary software is distributed in executable files where the source code is encrypted and not available. Free and Open-source software enables users to read and modify the code, thus allowing a host of advantages such as little (or no) cost, faster distribution, greater customization, and easy availability of bugs and security patches, to name a few. 

The Introduction to Open-source workshops cover the difference between different software types, the history of open-source software, its advantages over proprietary software, and how this applies to WordPress. The workshop also explains the differences between free and Open-source software and highlights the different types of software licenses. 

Want to learn more about Free and Open-source software? Participate in an Introduction to Open-source workshop!

There are four ways you can participate in an Introduction to Open-source workshop! 

  1. You can attend the Introduction to WordPress workshop from the comfort of your home! Learn WordPress now features an Introduction to Open-source video workshop that you can watch at your convenience. 
  2. Community members can also now host or participate in Introduction to Open-source workshop discussion groups in the Learn WordPress meetup group for a global audience. Sign-ups are now open for the following two discussion groups:

If you would like to host an Introduction to Open-source discussion group for a global audience, please apply to become a discussion group facilitator. 

  1. WordPress Meetup groups worldwide are also encouraged to organize an Introduction to WordPress watch party + discussion group (based on the Learn WordPress workshop on Introduction to Open-source) as part of their meetup (it does not need any prior approval). 
  2. Lesson plans for the Introduction to Open-source workshops are available! Meetup group organizers can plan their live open-source workshop based on the lesson plans. 

The WordPress Foundation invites community members across the world to join these open-source workshops and to organize workshops and discussion groups in their communities to help spread our mission of serving the public good with the help of Open-source software.

Meetup groups organizing Introduction to Open-source workshops will be featured on this website. All you need to do is to reach out to us with a brief write-up about your workshop along with pictures, and we’ll publish them here!

Open Source Workshops: November 2020 report

The WordPress Foundation has been organizing Introduction to Open Source workshops, as part of our continuing efforts to educate the public about WordPress and related open-source software (OSS). In 2019, as part of our goal of organizing workshops in parts of the world with less participation in open source, we held four successful workshops in India, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Thimphu. 

By March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had engulfed the world, forcing community organizers to cancel all in-person events. Unfazed by these challenges, our community organizers pivoted to online events by organizing four successful online charity hackathons in Japan, South Africa, India, and Nigeria, so far. The Introduction to Open Source workshops have also moved online. The workshop is now available online as part of Learn WordPress, which is a brand new initiative from WordPress contributor teams to help people learn how to use, build for, and contribute to WordPress. Community members across the world can now learn about Open-Source safely from the comfort of their homes and test their knowledge using the embedded quiz. The workshops are also followed by discussion groups, where participants can discuss their learnings in real-time and find answers to their questions.  

As of November 2020, the Introduction to Open-source workshop video has been viewed 757 times. Three online discussion group events with over 152 RSVPs were also held successfully. Sign-ups are open for two more discussion groups that are listed below:

You can watch the workshop video and participate in these discussion groups to learn about open-source software and find answers to your questions on open-source.

In addition to these scheduled discussion groups, community organizers can organize their own online discussion groups (based on the lesson plan)or hold online watch parties for the Introduction to Open-Source workshop. 

Given the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, WordPress Foundation events are likely to be held online in 2021. We will be announcing our plans for 2021 events later this year.

Call for Organizers: Introduction to Open Source

To further the WordPress Foundation’s charter to educate the public about WordPress and related open source software (OSS), we want to sponsor a new series of workshops/training events introducing people to open source.

Specifically, we want to shine more light on the potential of open source software in countries where there is less participation in OSS projects. To help spread the word about the potential that open source has to offer, we’d like to provide financial support for two educational events this year, to be organized in parts of the world with less participation in open source: Latin and South America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia*. Here’s what we have in mind:

Event title: Introduction to Open Source

Event description: What do people mean when they use the term Open Source when referring to software? This workshop will cover that question as well as what the GPL software license provides, why WordPress is an open-source project, and how this is important for both the users of WordPress and the contributors to WordPress.

Event purpose: Spread knowledge and understanding of the open web and open source through two-hour training events, staffed and organized by local communities, and financially supported by the WordPress Foundation, using training materials here: https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/user-lessons/what-is-open-source/ and https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/user-lessons/what-can-you-do-with-wordpress/

Financial support: up to $500 USD per event, available to defray costs associated with event venue, refreshments, and/or videography.

Expectations for organizers: Event should be free of cost, open to anyone, and organized/held in 2017. Strong preference will be given to organizers who are already members of a community group that is part of the WordPress open source project’s meetup chapter program, but has not yet organized a WordCamp. Organizers should not need to solicit additional event sponsorship. Financial support will be provided via Paypal or wire transfer, and will require documentation.

Interested in organizing an event like this? Fill out this 10-question application!

We’ll close applications on August 21, and notify the successful applicants no later than September 8, 2017.

*According to a recent study, the majority of Github participation in OSS projects is centered in North America and Western and Northern Europe.