{ "model": { "rank": 4821, "code": "thing-q39162", "model_id": "vr.tr.open-source", "name": "open source", "purpose": "Let an agent explain open source, relay definitions, licences, governance, business models and debates from OSI, FSF and software engineering sources with positions attributed, flag instance aliases, and distinguish open source from free software as a philosophy, freeware, source-available licences, public domain and open standards.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q39162/", "tier": 2, "score": 72, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "open-source Unicode typeface", "open-source typeface", "open-source car", "cm-super", "Latin Modern", "Nimbus Roman No. 9 L", "TIPA", "International SignWriting Alphabet 2010", "Baloo" ], "aliasCount": 9, "merged": 9, "knownIn": 72, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q39162", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q39162", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-14T00:01:21Z", "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": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q39162", "registryId": "vr.tr.open-source", "name": "open source", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q39162/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.open-source", "name": "open source", "purpose": "Let an agent explain open source, relay definitions, licences, governance, business models and debates from OSI, FSF and software engineering sources with positions attributed, flag instance aliases, and distinguish open source from free software as a philosophy, freeware, source-available licences, public domain and open standards.", "definition": "A model of development and distribution in which source code or designs are made available under licences that let anyone use, study, modify and share them, defined for software by the Open Source Initiative s Open Source Definition of 1998, related to but philosophically distinct from the free software movement founded by Richard Stallman, and extended to hardware, data and designs; the registry aliases name open-source typefaces and font families such as Latin Modern, cm-super and Nimbus Roman No. 9 L, which are instances, and open-source cars, vehicle designs shared openly. Licences range from permissive, such as MIT and Apache, to copyleft, such as the GPL, and compliance matters for organisations.", "what_it_is_for": "Collaborative, openly licensed development.", "affordances": [ "explain definitions and licences", "relay governance and business models", "present debates with attribution", "flag instance aliases" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Access to source", "Permission to modify and share", "Community governance", "Licence obligations" ], "appearance": "Not a physical object; seen in public repositories, licence files and community projects.", "visual_identification": [ "Openly licensed development model", "Open-source Unicode typeface, open-source typeface, open-source car, cm-super, Latin Modern, Nimbus Roman No. 9 L", "Free software stresses user freedom; freeware is free of charge only; source-available licences restrict use; public domain has no copyright; open standards are specifications" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "Open Source Definition", "typical_range": "1998", "unit": "year", "note": "OSI" }, { "quantity": "GNU Project announced", "typical_range": "1983", "unit": "year", "note": "Richard Stallman" }, { "quantity": "GPL version 3", "typical_range": "2007", "unit": "year", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "open-source software", "open-source hardware", "open fonts", "open data and designs", "permissive and copyleft licensing" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "software development", "why": "in registry terms, model" }, { "relation": "is defined by", "target": "Open Source Initiative", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "free software", "why": "philosophy" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "Latin Modern", "why": "instance" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Open Source Definition", "Licences such as GPL, MIT and Apache 2.0", "EU Cyber Resilience Act provisions on open-source stewards" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Licence non-compliance", "Partisan framing of free versus open debates", "Treating instances as kinds" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What open source is.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is open source, and how does it differ from free software, freeware, source-available licences, public domain and open standards?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about using a project, licence compliance, which may need legal advice, or contributing?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "aliases", "name": "Aliases", "description": "Named aliases.", "findings": [ { "id": "aliases-finding", "name": "Aliases", "description": "Aliases.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are open-source typefaces such as Latin Modern, cm-super and Nimbus Roman No. 9 L, and open-source cars?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific project?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "licensing", "name": "Licensing", "description": "Licences.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "permissive", "name": "Permissive", "description": "Permissive licences.", "findings": [ { "id": "permissive-finding", "name": "Permissive", "description": "Permissive.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do MIT and Apache licences work, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "copyleft", "name": "Copyleft", "description": "Copyleft licences.", "findings": [ { "id": "copyleft-finding", "name": "Copyleft", "description": "Copyleft.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does the GPL require sharing modifications?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "community", "name": "Community", "description": "Governance and business.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "governance", "name": "Governance", "description": "Project governance.", "findings": [ { "id": "governance-finding", "name": "Governance", "description": "Governance.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are open-source projects governed by foundations and maintainers?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Linux Foundation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "debates", "name": "Debates", "description": "Free versus open.", "findings": [ { "id": "debates-finding", "name": "Debates", "description": "Debates.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do FSF and OSI supporters argue about free software and open source, and about relicensing to source-available, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Security and hardware.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "security", "name": "Security", "description": "Supply chain security.", "findings": [ { "id": "security-finding", "name": "Security", "description": "Security.", "questions": [ { "text": "What supply chain risks such as the 2024 xz backdoor affect open source, as reported?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits software supply chain?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "hardware", "name": "Hardware", "description": "Open hardware.", "findings": [ { "id": "hardware-finding", "name": "Hardware", "description": "Hardware.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does open-source hardware licensing work?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits open-source hardware?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "The registry aliases for specific fonts should be split off as instances", "Should open-source hardware be a separate entry?", "How should licence texts 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, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain open source, relay definitions, licences, governance, business models and debates from OSI, FSF and software engineering sources with positions attributed, flag instance aliases, and distinguish open source from free software as a philosophy, freeware, source-available licences, public domain and open standards.", "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: open-source Unicode typeface, open-source typeface, open-source car, cm-super, Latin Modern, Nimbus Roman No. 9 L, TIPA, International SignWriting Alphabet 2010, Baloo.", "9 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 72 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, 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": [ "open-source Unicode typeface", "open-source typeface", "open-source car", "cm-super", "Latin Modern", "Nimbus Roman No. 9 L", "TIPA", "International SignWriting Alphabet 2010", "Baloo" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 9 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 from another, and a open source 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, 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, 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 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, 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, 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a open source, 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, 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 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 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 between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a open source, 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, 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 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, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a open source 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, 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, 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 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a open source, 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a open source, 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, 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 } } } }