Open Source’s Connection to the Past

Abstract

Open source grew out of specific aspects of the computer industry, but it’s also tied to how companies have collaborated—and innovation has taken place—historically. Information, intellectual property, has long been informally shared even absent a formal, or sanctioned, process. Researchers have also studied how communication takes place and how people are motivated long before there was such a thing as open source software. But open source both benefits from such research and provides fodder for expanding on these topics going forward.