{ "model": { "rank": 1932, "code": "thing-q341", "model_id": "vr.tr.free-software", "name": "free software", "purpose": "Let an agent explain free software and its four freedoms and licences, distinguish it from open-source and freeware, describe major projects and communities, and support choosing and complying with licences.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q341/", "tier": 2, "score": 121, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Escornabot", "Escornabot Ogaki", "KDE Gear", "GNU ELPA package", "NonGNU ELPA package", "Perl Compatible Regular Expressions 2", "GNU package", "GNU Emacs package", "SkyTemple", "GNU toolchain", "UnxUtils", "Biopragmatics Stack", "GNU womb", "formerly proprietary software", "Nightscout Project", "GNOME Utilities", "open science tool", "Apache Cassandra", "free format", "Java Desktop Integration Components" ], "aliasCount": 20, "merged": 20, "knownIn": 121, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q341", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q341", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T03:49:29Z", "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-Q341", "registryId": "vr.tr.free-software", "name": "free software", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q341/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.free-software", "name": "free software", "purpose": "Let an agent explain free software and its four freedoms and licences, distinguish it from open-source and freeware, describe major projects and communities, and support choosing and complying with licences.", "definition": "Software distributed under licences that grant users the freedom to run, study, modify and redistribute it, with access to source code, as defined by the free software movement and embodied in licences such as the GNU General Public License, and produced by projects from the GNU system and desktop environments such as KDE to libraries such as PCRE2, package archives such as ELPA, and educational robots such as Escornabot; free software overlaps with open-source software but emphasises user freedom as an ethical principle.", "what_it_is_for": "Software granting users freedom to use, study, modify and share.", "affordances": [ "explain freedoms and licences", "distinguish related terms", "describe projects", "support licence compliance" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Four freedoms", "Source availability", "Copyleft option", "Ethical framing" ], "appearance": "Not physical; software and licences.", "visual_identification": [ "Four freedoms with source code", "Copyleft and permissive licences", "Freeware is free of charge but not necessarily free to modify; open source emphasises development method" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "copyleft free software such as GNU projects", "permissively licensed free software", "free desktop environments such as KDE", "free software libraries and tools", "free software in education and hardware projects" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "open-source software", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "freely redistributable software", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "software bug", "why": "defects fixed collaboratively" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "microcomputer", "why": "platforms running free software" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Free software licences and their definitions", "Copyright law underlying licensing", "Public sector open source policies" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Licence non-compliance", "Confusing free software with freeware", "Unmaintained projects" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What free software is.", "rationale": "Computing.", "layers": [ { "id": "freedoms", "name": "Freedoms", "description": "The four freedoms.", "findings": [ { "id": "freedoms-finding", "name": "Freedoms", "description": "Freedoms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the four freedoms, and how do they define free software according to the free software movement?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is free software, open source or freeware meant?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "licences", "name": "Licences", "description": "Licences.", "findings": [ { "id": "licences-finding", "name": "Licences", "description": "Licences.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do copyleft and permissive licences such as the GPL, MIT and Apache licences differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific licence?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "use", "name": "Use", "description": "Using and contributing.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "choose", "name": "Choose", "description": "Choosing free software.", "findings": [ { "id": "choose-finding", "name": "Choose", "description": "Choosing.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which free software projects meet this need, and how are they evaluated for maintenance and security?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific project?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "contribute", "name": "Contribute", "description": "Contributing.", "findings": [ { "id": "contribute-finding", "name": "Contribute", "description": "Contributing.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can someone contribute to free software projects and communities?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits open source development?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "comply", "name": "Comply", "description": "Licensing and compliance.", "rationale": "Law.", "layers": [ { "id": "compliance", "name": "Compliance", "description": "Compliance.", "findings": [ { "id": "compliance-finding", "name": "Compliance", "description": "Compliance.", "questions": [ { "text": "What obligations arise when distributing or modifying free software, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is legal advice needed from a professional?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "business", "name": "Business", "description": "Business and policy.", "findings": [ { "id": "business-finding", "name": "Business", "description": "Business.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do businesses and governments use free software, and what debates exist, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and philosophy.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did the free software movement and the GNU project develop, and how did open source emerge?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "philosophy", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Philosophy and debates.", "findings": [ { "id": "philosophy-finding", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Philosophy.", "questions": [ { "text": "What ethical and practical arguments surround free software, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each licence be a separate entry?", "How should project repositories be linked?", "How should compliance guidance 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 free software, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain free software and its four freedoms and licences, distinguish it from open-source and freeware, describe major projects and communities, and support choosing and complying with licences.", "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: Escornabot, Escornabot Ogaki, KDE Gear, GNU ELPA package, NonGNU ELPA package, Perl Compatible Regular Expressions 2, GNU package, GNU Emacs package, SkyTemple, GNU toolchain, UnxUtils, Biopragmatics Stack.", "20 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 121 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 free 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": [ "Escornabot", "Escornabot Ogaki", "KDE Gear", "GNU ELPA package", "NonGNU ELPA package", "Perl Compatible Regular Expressions 2", "GNU package", "GNU Emacs package", "SkyTemple", "GNU toolchain", "UnxUtils", "Biopragmatics Stack" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 121 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 20 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 free software from another, and a free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free software from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free software between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a free 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 free 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 free 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 free software, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free software contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a free 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 free 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 free 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 free software and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free software and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a free 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 free 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 free 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 free software is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a free 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 free 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 free 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 } } } }