{ "model": { "rank": 4714, "code": "thing-q1130645", "model_id": "vr.tr.open-source-software", "name": "open-source software", "purpose": "Let an agent explain open-source software and its licences, help find, evaluate and use open-source projects, describe contribution and governance, and support compliance.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q1130645/", "tier": 2, "score": 73, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "32blit", "Open Source Geospatial Software", "NLTK", "PySentence-Similarity", "PyTextRank", "Open Source Library System", "deck.js", "CodeceptJS", "commercial open-source software", "PrePoMax", "UniGetUi", "Calabash (acceptance testing framework)", "Swiftfox", "go", "free and open-source software", "copylefted software", "free and open-source video game", "GFOSS", "Fastfetch", "final open source release of a now-proprietary program", "OpenWolf", "chatgpt.js", "GNOME Core Applications", "Unity Desktop Environment" ], "aliasCount": 24, "merged": 24, "knownIn": 73, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q1130645", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1130645", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T21:19:23Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q1130645", "registryId": "vr.tr.open-source-software", "name": "open-source software", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1130645/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.open-source-software", "name": "open-source software", "purpose": "Let an agent explain open-source software and its licences, help find, evaluate and use open-source projects, describe contribution and governance, and support compliance.", "definition": "Software released under a licence that grants users the rights to use, study, modify and redistribute its source code, as defined by the Open Source Definition, including operating systems, libraries such as NLTK, tools, games and applications developed by communities, companies and foundations; open-source software underpins most modern computing and is governed by licences, community norms and foundations.", "what_it_is_for": "Software with freely available and modifiable source.", "affordances": [ "explain open-source licences and definitions", "find and evaluate projects", "explain contribution and governance", "support licence compliance" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Open licence", "Source access", "Community development", "Redistributable" ], "appearance": "Not physical; code repositories, licences and communities.", "visual_identification": [ "Source code available under an approved licence", "Rights to modify and redistribute", "Source-available software may restrict use" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "permissively licensed software", "copyleft licensed software", "open-source operating systems and infrastructure", "open-source libraries and tools", "open-source applications and games" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "open content", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "freely redistributable software", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "free software", "why": "overlapping movement" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "software license", "why": "legal basis" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Open Source Definition and OSI-approved licences", "Software bill of materials and compliance practices", "Export and security regulations" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Licence non-compliance", "Unmaintained dependencies and supply chain risk", "Confusing open source with free of charge" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What open source is.", "rationale": "Definitions.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition and licences.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What makes software open source, and how do permissive and copyleft licences differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How does it relate to free software and source-available software?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "project", "name": "Project", "description": "A specific project.", "findings": [ { "id": "project-finding", "name": "Project", "description": "Specific project.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is this open-source project, who maintains it, and under which licence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "use", "name": "Use", "description": "Using open source.", "rationale": "Evaluation.", "layers": [ { "id": "evaluate", "name": "Evaluate", "description": "Evaluating projects.", "findings": [ { "id": "evaluate-finding", "name": "Evaluate", "description": "Evaluation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can the health, security and maintenance of an open-source project be assessed?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which alternatives exist for this need?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "comply", "name": "Comply", "description": "Licence compliance.", "findings": [ { "id": "comply-finding", "name": "Comply", "description": "Compliance.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which obligations does this licence impose on redistribution or modification?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for legal advice on their own product?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "contribute", "name": "Contribute", "description": "Contributing.", "rationale": "Community.", "layers": [ { "id": "start", "name": "Start", "description": "Getting started.", "findings": [ { "id": "start-finding", "name": "Start", "description": "Getting started.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can someone start contributing to this project, and which norms apply?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "What is a contributor licence agreement?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "govern", "name": "Govern", "description": "Governance.", "findings": [ { "id": "govern-finding", "name": "Govern", "description": "Governance.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are open-source projects governed and funded, from foundations to single maintainers?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What are documented sustainability challenges?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "History and impact.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History of open source.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did open source develop from the free software movement, and who defined it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which projects were milestones?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "impact", "name": "Impact", "description": "Economic and social impact.", "findings": [ { "id": "impact-finding", "name": "Impact", "description": "Impact.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the documented economic and social impact of open-source software?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which policy initiatives support it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each major project be a separate entry?", "How should licence databases be linked?", "How should security advisories be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a open-source software, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain open-source software and its licences, help find, evaluate and use open-source projects, describe contribution and governance, and support compliance.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: 32blit, Open Source Geospatial Software, NLTK, PySentence-Similarity, PyTextRank, Open Source Library System, deck.js, CodeceptJS, commercial open-source software, PrePoMax, UniGetUi, Calabash (acceptance testing framework).", "24 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 73 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a open-source software, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "32blit", "Open Source Geospatial Software", "NLTK", "PySentence-Similarity", "PyTextRank", "Open Source Library System", "deck.js", "CodeceptJS", "commercial open-source software", "PrePoMax", "UniGetUi", "Calabash (acceptance testing framework)" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 73 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 24 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one open-source software from another, and a open-source software from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a open-source software sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a open-source software from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a open-source software passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a open-source software between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a open-source software, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a open-source software is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a open-source software says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a open-source software contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a open-source software and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What open-source software studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does open-source software take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does open-source software establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where open-source software is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark open-source software as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place open-source software, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a open-source software came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a open-source software and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a open-source software is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a open-source software, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a open-source software, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a open-source software is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }