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What Is Open Source?

Open source is about software source code, licenses, communities, culture, and distributed software development. Although open-source projects can provide plenty of benefits for companies who use it, open source is not something to do on a whim. Open source is based at least in part on a phenomenon called the gift economy, which on the surface seems at odds with corporate practices.

Nevertheless, marketing and innovation benefits, as well as clearly separating commodity efforts from value-enhancing ones, can make all the difference in a business climate that values carefully thought-out innovation.