The community behind Opensource.com is hard at work on something entirely new, signaling a major evolution for the long-running publication as it prepares to resolve a long-standing structural challenge within a month.
Visitors to Opensource.com may have recently noticed a distinct period of quiet on the platform. Behind that digital stillness lies a major developmental effort. A brand-new project is currently in the works, and while specific operational details and announcements remain sparse for the time being, there is already a substantial amount to discuss regarding the philosophy, history, and future of the platform. And what better way to start examining a network than by looking at the entire internet itself?
The Internet, and Top-Level Domains
To understand where Opensource.com is heading, it helps to revisit how the foundational layers of the internet were constructed. As most technology professionals know, the internet is fundamentally a network. By definition, a network is a group of interconnected connections. In fact, the very term "internet" is a portmanteau combining the words "interconnected" and "network."
In its earliest iterations, the internet consisted primarily of two distinct networks: a military network and an academic network. As the digital age progressed and the internet expanded in popularity far beyond those initial, specialized groups, it quickly became apparent that different designations were urgently needed. Society required a system to clearly differentiate between a commercial entity, a charitable organization, a university, or a governmental department.
These critical designations are formally known as top-level domains, commonly abbreviated as TLDs. Today, internet users can choose from a vast and diverse ecosystem of TLD extensions. However, for a very long time, there was only a small handful of available options. Those original TLDs remain exceptionally popular and culturally ingrained in daily web browsing. 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 directs them to a non-profit organization.
Open Source Is a Network
Beyond technical infrastructure, open source represents a multifaceted concept. It can take many different forms depending on its application and participants. Open source can be commercial, non-profit, academic, or cultural. Regardless of the specific form it ultimately takes, open source is always, at its core, a network.
Sometimes that network is composed of physical computers and servers, but most importantly, it is always a network of people. Whether individuals are gathering in person at a major software conference, catching up at a local pub, or collaborating in real-time within an online chat room, the open source movement is defined by its 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 resources necessary to build a globally recognized platform for open source advocacy and storytelling. However, the people who actually comprise the Opensource.com community—the writers, editors, advocates, contributors, and readers—are not commercial entities. They are individual human beings collaborating around shared values of openness, collaboration, and shared knowledge.
In exactly one month, Opensource.com is going to resolve that fundamental misalignment and embark on its next chapter. Stay tuned as the community reveals what is next.
