By Global Open Source News Service
The community surrounding Opensource.com is hard at work on something new. Visitors to the platform may have recently noticed a distinct quietness across the site’s regular publishing schedule. That hush is not a sign of wind-down, but rather the prelude to a significant transition. A brand-new project is currently in the works behind the scenes. While organizers note that there are not yet many specific fine-grained details to announce publicly, there is already an abundance of foundational topics to discuss as the platform prepares for its next chapter. What better way to start a conversation about community, networks, and the future of open source than by looking at the entire internet itself?
The Internet, and Top-Level Domains
To understand where the Opensource.com community is heading, it helps to examine where the digital world began. Most internet users know that the internet is fundamentally a network. By definition, a network is a group of connected entities sharing information and resources. The very term "internet" is a portmanteau—a linguistic blend—of the words "interconnected" and "network."
In its earliest conceptual and operational stages, the internet consisted primarily of two distinct networks: the military network, designed for secure defense communications, and the academic network, which linked research institutions together. As the technology matured and digital connectivity caught on among the general public, it quickly became apparent that different designations were desperately needed. A system had to be created to easily differentiate, for instance, a commercial entity from a charitable organization, or a university from a governmental department.
These critical designations are formally known as top-level domains, or TLDs. Today, internet users can choose from a vast, sprawling landscape of available extensions, ranging from industry-specific tags to geographic indicators. However, for a long time during the web’s formative years, there were only a handful of original TLDs. Those pioneering designations remain remarkably popular and culturally significant to this day. Most everyday web users instantly recognize that when they navigate to a .com address, they are visiting a commercial site, whereas typing in a .org address generally signals a journey to a non-profit organization, advocacy group, or community initiative. These suffixes are more than just technical routing tools; they carry inherent meanings about the nature, intent, and governance of the entities behind the screens.
Open Source Is a Network
The philosophy and practice of open source can manifest in many different ways. It can be intensely commercial, driving multi-billion-dollar enterprise software ecosystems and cloud infrastructure. It can be strictly non-profit, stewarded by foundations dedicated to keeping digital tools free and accessible. It can be purely academic, born out of university laboratories and student research projects, or it can be cultural, shaping how artists, writers, and creators share their work with the world.
Yet, no matter what form open source takes in any given context, it is always, at its core, a network. Sometimes—though certainly not always—that network is made up of computers, servers, repositories, and distributed codebases. But most importantly and fundamentally, it is a network of people.
Whether contributors, users, and advocates are gathering in person at a massive international conference, chatting over drinks at a local pub meetup, or collaborating asynchronously in an online chat room, the open source movement is, above all else, a vibrant community of human beings.
For the past twelve years, the website Opensource.com has been generously supported by a commercial entity. That corporate backing provided the platform with the resources to grow, publish stories, and foster discussions about collaborative technology over more than a decade. However, the people—the individuals who represent "you and me"—that make up the actual heart and soul of the Opensource.com community are not commercial entities. They are human beings with a shared passion for open collaboration, transparency, and shared knowledge.
Now, after more than a decade of steady publication under its traditional operational model, change is on the horizon. In one month, Opensource.com is going to resolve that structural mismatch, paving the way for a community-centered future. Stay tuned for further announcements as the next evolution of the platform comes into focus.
