Open Source

Open source projects support a collaborative development model whereby developers from multiple organizations can read, modify, and redistribute the source code. In the process of doing this the software evolves as people improve it, adapt it, and fix bugs. Proponents of the open source development model claim that, in many ways, it is superior to the closed source approach. An active open source development community can develop software with superior stability, reliability, and security to that developed using other development models. This collaborative development model can also be particularly attractive to the scientific community where scientific advances are often the result of the combined efforts of researchers in many different organizations.

The Reuse Working Group has identified traditional software licensing mechanisms as a potential barrier to software reuse. Traditional licensing typically requires the reuser to negotiate usage terms and conditions with the intellectual property owner every time that they want to reuse something. This can often be a time very consuming and arduous process. Greater use of open source licensing will help simplify the dissemination of software to the scientific community and promote a more collaborative development model for scientific software.

We recognize that open source licensing is not appropriate for all software. For example, the presence of proprietary code or export control restrictions may be valid reasons for choosing not to go open source. However, where proprietary technology or other intellectual property considerations preclude open source licensing, we would encourage you to make software available for reuse by the community using some other licensing mechanism that does not necessarily expose the source code.

For more information:

• NASA Open Source Links
• Non-NASA Open Source Links

NASA Open Source Agreement