From 0f3e8f2a0612dd46eb4a4a0676d9d16108823b59 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ildiko Vancsa Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:41:20 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Polish the Introduction of the Four Opens book The purpose of this patch is to edit the 'Introduction' section of the Four Opens book. It is the first change of a series that will go through the entire book to make the text read more neutral and cohesive to make it ready to publish. Change-Id: I7829fdfa3cca374032cc99cac4cc3479e694b877 Signed-off-by: Ildiko Vancsa --- doc/source/introduction.rst | 105 +++++++++++++++++++++++------------- 1 file changed, 69 insertions(+), 36 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/source/introduction.rst b/doc/source/introduction.rst index 0e90ba1..031588b 100644 --- a/doc/source/introduction.rst +++ b/doc/source/introduction.rst @@ -2,21 +2,51 @@ Introduction ============ -Where do the Four Opens originate from? They came from a need to do things -differently. + +This book is for the lost souls to guide them through the intricacies, +challenges and joys of building, maintaining, supporting and participating in +well balanced and sustainable open source communities. + +Open source has become a loaded term over the past few decades while many +people still associate it with free software. While the access to source code +is directly implied in the term, under various license options that this book +will not discuss, the focus is shifting towards how the software gets created +by communities that are formed by a group of individuals who need to be able +to work together in an open environment while they often employed by companies +that are competitors. + +What is the key to success to make open collaboration successful? How can you +participate in a community and help make it thrive? What are the most +important principles to follow during your journey? + +This book will give you answers to these questions by describing a set of +guiding principles called The Four Opens that was originally defined by the +OpenStack community and helped them as well as other projects to thrive in the +open source ecosystem. + + +History +------- + +Before jumping in the middle of The Four Opens let’s have a short tour in +history to understand where the need and the ideas came from. Originally, they +came from a need to do things differently. Free software started in the 80’s by defining four (initially three) freedoms [#fourfreedoms]_ that any free software should grant its -users. Freedom -0 was the freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose. Freedom 1 -was the freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your -computing as you wish. Freedom 2 was the freedom to redistribute copies so you -can help your neighbor. Freedom 3 was the freedom to distribute copies of your -modified versions to others. Those freedoms made you free to improve the -program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole -community benefits. But free software did not mandate anything about how the -software was to be built to actually encourage this collaboration across -boundaries that would result in benefiting the whole community. +users: + +* Freedom 0: freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose +* Freedom 1: freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does + your computing as you wish +* Freedom 2: freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor +* Freedom 3: freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others + +These freedoms made the participants free to improve the program, and release +their improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. But +free software did not mandate anything about how the software was to be built +to actually encourage this collaboration across boundaries that would result +in benefiting the whole community. When open source was defined in 1998, it focused on a specific angle (the one that mattered the most to businesses), which is the availability and @@ -41,39 +71,42 @@ improvement (like security or scalability) that the controlling entity would prefer to keep for its Enterprise edition. All this control ultimately hurts the adoption and the success of the software. -OpenStack was started with the belief that a community of equals, working -together in an open collaboration, would produce better software, more aligned -to the needs of its users and more largely adopted. It was therefore started -from day 0 as an open collaboration willing to include as many individuals and -organizations as possible, on a level playing field, with everyone involved in -designing the solution. This was relatively novel: while a few venerable -projects like the Linux kernel were set up and perdured as truly open -collaborations, most new projects in 2010 were just owned by a "main sponsor" -This is why it was pretty important for us to state in a very concise way what -we really meant by Open. It was also important to clearly distinguish ourselves -from prevalent open core solutions like Eucalyptus, which was then the only -open source cloud infrastructure platform available. +OpenStack is an open source community that was started with the belief that a +community of equals, working together in an open collaboration, would produce +better software, more aligned to the needs of its users and more largely +adopted. It was therefore started from the first day as an open collaboration +willing to include as many individuals and organizations as possible, on a +level playing field, with everyone involved in designing and developing the +solution. + +This was relatively novel: while a few venerable projects like the Linux kernel +were set up and perdured as truly open collaborations, most new projects in +2010 were just owned by a "main sponsor". This is why it was pretty important +for the individuals who participated in the OpenStack community to state in a +very concise way what they really meant by 'open'. It was also important to +clearly distinguish themselves from prevalent open core solutions like +Eucalyptus, which was then the only open source cloud infrastructure platform +available. It was from these conditions that "The Four Opens" were born. The first public mention of them was posted on the then-nascent OpenStack Wiki on June 28, 2010 [#fouropenswiki]_, before OpenStack was even publicly discussed or -announced. The titles of the Four Opens (Open source, Open Design, Open +announced. The titles of the Four Opens (Open Source, Open Design, Open Development, Open Community) were set from that day. The content evolved a bit over time on the Wiki, as implementation details rolled in (for example: public code reviews, design summits, technical committee, lazy and consensus). The Four Opens description is now maintained officially in the OpenStack governance -web-site [#fouropens]_. +website [#fouropens]_ and followed by several projects in the open source +ecosystem. -After eight years, the Four Opens proved pretty resilient, consistently -managing to capture the "OpenStack Way" of doing upstream open source -development. Under their rule, the OpenStack community grew from tens of -contributors to thousands. They were instrumental in the success, the quality -and the visibility of the OpenStack software. As this book will show, they also -proved applicable to downstream activities such as user feedback gathering, -marketing, or event management. As the OpenStack Foundation turns to more -generally support Open Infrastructure, the Four Opens will grow beyond -OpenStack. Let's apply them to other nascent open source projects with the same -success. +They were instrumental in the success, the quality and the visibility of the +OpenStack software as well as the growth of the community from tens of +contributors to thousands over the course of a few years. + +As this book will show how The Four Opens transform open source into open +collaboration that is essential to create open source software and other +artifacts by a group of individuals and organizations who have a set of common +goals and challenges they choose to solve together. .. [#fourfreedoms] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html .. [#fouropenswiki] https://wiki.openstack.org/w/index.php?title=Open&oldid=9628