Open source describes software where the source code is available for anyone to view, use, change, and then share. Making source code publicly available allows others to build on and learn from it, enabling broad collaboration from people around the world.

It's in your phone, your car, your TV, and your wifi-connected light bulbs. Open source components enable engineers to build on the work of a global community of developers to deliver better products faster and at lower cost. Linux, the Apache web server, Android, Firefox, and WordPress are examples of open source projects you may have heard of.

 "open source" as a business-friendly way to talk about free software principles.

 (OSD), maintained by OSI, is the commonly agreed-upon definition of what makes an open source license. It's built on the 

, an earlier set of rules for defining "free software".

Beyond ensuring access to the source code, the OSD includes 10 core principles that further require all open source licenses to include the right to free distribution and the freedom for anyone to create derived works and use the software for any purpose.

 that are designed for different purposes and have been reviewed for compliance with the OSD.

The Digital Public Goods Alliance and many of the big tech companies like Google and many other OSI 

 recognize the OSD as the definition of open source and OSI's 

 as the maintainer of the OSD. Licenses which do not comply with the OSD might still provide access to the source code, but they're not "open source".

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