The global open source community is hard at work on something new. Visitors to Opensource.com may have noticed a distinct quietness settling over the platform lately, but this digital hush is far from a sign of inactivity. Instead, it marks the preparatory phase for a brand-new project currently in the works behind the scenes. While organizers and community leaders note that there are not yet many specific fine-grained details to announce to the public, there is already an abundance of foundational topics to discuss as the platform approaches its next major chapter. And what better way to start exploring the future of a collaborative network than by looking at the entire internet itself?
The Internet, and Top-Level Domains
To understand where a digital community is heading, it helps to examine the infrastructure that connects us all. Most people already know that the internet is fundamentally a network. By definition, a network is simply a group of interconnected connections, a concept reflected in the very portmanteau of the word "internet," which fuses "interconnected" and "network."
Historically, the internet began as a network of interconnected networks consisting primarily of two distinct entities: a military network and an academic network. As the digital age progressed and the internet expanded in popularity far beyond those two initial groups, it quickly became apparent that different designations were urgently needed. Society required a system to clearly differentiate between various types of organizations operating in the digital space—distinguishing, for example, a commercial entity from a charitable organization, a university from a governmental department, or an individual creator from a corporate enterprise.
These essential designations are formally known as top-level domains, or TLDs. Today, internet users can choose from a vast and diverse ecosystem of available domain extensions, but for a long time, the digital landscape was defined by only a handful of original options. Those pioneering TLDs remain remarkably popular and culturally embedded in the architecture of the web to this day. Most internet users intuitively recognize that when navigating to an address ending in .com, they are visiting a commercial site, whereas visiting a .org address typically directs them to a non-profit organization dedicated to public service, community advocacy, or charitable causes.
Open Source Is a Network
This structural division of the web brings to light a deeper truth about the nature of open source technology. Open source can manifest in many different forms, serving myriad purposes across global society. It can be commercial, driving massive enterprise software solutions and startup economies. It can be non-profit, fueling public-interest software and digital rights advocacy. It can be academic, supporting research institutions and collaborative scientific discovery. It can also be cultural, preserving digital heritage and empowering independent creators.
Yet, no matter what specific form open source takes, it is always, at its core, a network. Sometimes that network is literal, consisting of computers, servers, repositories, and distributed nodes sharing code across continents. More importantly, however, it is a network of people.
Whether community members are gathering in person at a massive international conference, chatting casually at a local pub after hours, or collaborating synchronously and asynchronously in an online chat room, open source is above all a vibrant community of human beings working toward shared goals.
For the past twelve years, the website Opensource.com has been proudly supported by a commercial entity, acting as a vital publication hub for stories, tutorials, perspectives, and news concerning the open source ecosystem. However, the people—the writers, readers, contributors, maintainers, and advocates who make up the very heartbeat of the Opensource.com community—are not commercial entities. They are human beings, driven by shared values of collaboration, transparency, and peer production.
Now, after more than a decade of serving as a cornerstone for open source journalism and storytelling, that dynamic is shifting. In just one month, Opensource.com is going to resolve that long-standing structural bug, aligning the platform’s digital presence more closely with the human community that powers it. Stay tuned as more details unfold in the coming weeks.
