5 Ways Open Source is Changing the World

Open Source is about more than just software. In this post, we take a look at 5 ways Open Source is making waves and changing the world.

5 ways Open Source
Open Source

1. Open Education

While education remains free in some parts of the world, in many places it’s becoming increasingly costly, from rising tuition fees to expensive textbooks and resources. Like anything, the more education costs, the more potentially restrictive and inaccessible it is.

Thanks to the Open Source movement, there are now alternative resources out there for students, teachers, and anyone interested in learning something new. With access to the internet and new developments in technology growing by the day, more and more people are able to access education than ever before.

Resources for students:

  • Open OfficeGoogle Docs: There are numerous free word processors out there, but the among the most popular are Open Office and Google Docs. Both offer not just word processors, but alternatives to the majority of the traditional (and considerably more expensive) options offered by Microsoft Office.
  • Open Textbook LibraryThis is just one of a growing number of websites dedicated to providing access to complete textbooks, freely available to download.
  • Future LearnOnline courses from universities and specialist organisations around the world. Learn from experts and access course material – all for free.
  • SourceForgeSourceForge is a portal to find, create or publish Open Source software for free. For students looking for software to help them with their latest projects, it’s the ideal place to begin.

Resources for teachers:

  • Open Educational Resources Resource RoundupThis masterpost of links to online resources, curriculum-sharing websites, sources for lesson plans and activities and more is your one stop shop to start incorporating open education resources into your teaching.
  • Guide to free and open source educationLearn more about the benefits of Open Source education and explore more resources collected by opensource.com.

2. Open Business

Open Source is making waves in the business world, from startups and small organizations to the enterprise.

Whereas in the past mentioning Open Source Software (OSS) would have induced some raised eyebrows and security worries, the 2014 Future of Open Source survey revealed that 50% of enterprise respondents are now contributing to and using OSS, citing quality and technical capabilities as major factors.

With Git just one example of how Open Source tools are the rising stars of the enterprise, Open Source is transforming the way businesses operate.

  • Security. This is, naturally, a high priority for all businesses, especially those dealing with sensitive and confidential data. For a long time, the enterprise was wary of OSS because of perceived security weaknesses. But as security threats become increasingly malicious and adaptable, OSS is constantly being refined and adapted by development teams around the world to counter those threats.
  • Improved innovation. Take Joy’s Law: “No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else.” The collaborative nature of Open Source means that businesses are using products that potentially have a much larger developer base – anyone can contribute code to an Open Source project, enabling access to greater innovation.
  • Third Platform applications. As Third Platform (social, mobile, cloud and big data) apps increasingly dominate the market, it’s becoming clear that the proprietary licence model is a bad fit – it leads to buying a lot of licences that are rarely used. Open Source is a much better fit as it means applications can be designed to support high load variability with no cost constraints.
  • Greater transparency. OSS has its source code, design discussions, communities and processes out in the open. This makes it considerably more simple for organizations to decide whether a piece of software is what they’re looking for, saving time and money – and not just because they no longer need proprietary licences! Similarly, a culture of open discussion leads to an increase in visibility and agile working within the business itself.

3. Open Internet

It’s easy to take the internet for granted when your most common problem tends to be a slow connection or temperamental WiFi.

Other people aren’t so lucky. There are many living in considerably more repressive societies where internet access is censored, often restricted to pro-government sites only, and where bloggers and protesters regularly face jail time. But there is some progress being made – there’s an increasing movement to share your internet connection and bring free and open internet to anywhere in the world.

Learn more:

  • uProxyA browser extension developed by the University of Washington and Google Ideas.
  • TorUsed by journalists, activists, and those living in oppressive and censored societies.

4. Open Government

New and improved technology means that government proceedings are no longer only open to those with a direct involvement. The idea of Open Government is visibility, improving accountability and accessibility. Governments are encouraged to use open standards and formats, so all data and services are accessible to citizens, and citizens in turn are encouraged to interact with their governments to improve services for everyone.

Open Government is built around transparency, participation and collaboration – a great recent example is the White House open sourcing USA budget data for the 2016 fiscal year on GitHub.

Examples of Open Government:

5. Open Healthcare

In 2014, healthcare was named as one of the industries most impacted by Open Source. Throughout 2015 Open Healthcare has continued to help communities around the world.

Just a few highlights:

Which Open Source projects most impress you? What have we missed out? Tell us in the comments!


At Clearvision, we’ve long advocated the use of Open Source Software. We offer a variety of training courses on how to best utilise Open Source tools in your organization – if you’d like to find out more, simply get in touch!

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