thearchivist.funOpen source becomes an organizing label
The Open Source Initiative formed around a new public framing for collaborative software development in 1998.
Context and provenance
The phrase open source was adopted as a software-development label in 1998, in the context of Netscape's decision to release browser source code. The Open Source Initiative emerged to promote the approach and explain the conditions under which a license qualifies as open source. The history did not begin with that phrase: communities had already been sharing and developing software under free-software and other collaborative traditions. The new label helped communicate a particular case for participation, development, and practical adoption. Distinguishing the label from the older practices avoids treating a change in vocabulary as the invention of all collaborative software production.
Why it matters
Editorial perspective: Naming can change which audiences an idea reaches. A new label can make an established practice easier to discuss in business or public institutions, while also shifting attention toward some values and away from others.