The Open Definition is a document published by the Open Knowledge Foundation
Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a global, non-profit network that promotes and shares information at no charge, including both content and data. It was founded by Rufus Pollock
Rufus Pollock (born 1980) is a researcher, activist and social e ...
(OKF) (previously Open Knowledge International) to define openness
Openness is an overarching concept or philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about reason, Metaphysics, existence, Epistemology, knowledge, Ethics, values, Philosophy of mind, mi ...
in relation to data
Data (; ) are individual facts
A fact is something that is truth, true. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability—that is whether it can be demonstrated to correspond to experience. Standard reference works are often used ...
and content
Content or contents may refer to:
Media
* Content (media), information or experience provided to audience or end-users by publishers or media producers
** Content industry, an umbrella term that encompasses companies owning and providing mass m ...
. It specifies what licences for such material may and may not stipulate, in order to be considered open licences. The definition itself was derived from the Open Source Definition
''The Open Source Definition'' is a document published by the Open Source Initiative, to determine whether a software license can be labeled with the Open-source software, open-source certification mark.
The definition was taken from the exact te ...
for software.
OKI summarise the document as:
The latest form of the document, published in November 2015, is version 2.1. The use of language in the document is conformant with RFC 2119.
The document is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which itself meets the Open Definition.
History
* August 2005: Circulation of the first draft of the Open Definition, v0.1. * July 2006: publication of v1.0 * November 2009: publication of v1.1 * October 2014: publication of v2.0 * November 2015: publication of v2.1See also
*Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and HumanitiesThe Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities is an international statement on open access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online ...
* Budapest Open Access Initiative
The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) is a public statement of principles relating to open access to the Scientific literature, research literature, which was released to the public February 14, 2002. It arose from a conference convened in Bud ...
*Definition of Free Cultural Works
The Definition of Free Cultural Works is a definition of free content
Free content, libre content, or free information is any kind of functional work, work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art obje ...
* UNESCO 2012 Paris OER Declaration
References
External links
* *Why the Open Definition Matters for Open Data
', September 2014 blog post by
Rufus Pollock
Rufus Pollock (born 1980) is a researcher, activist and social entrepreneur. He has been a leading figure in the global open knowledge and open data movements, starting with his founding in 2004 of the non-profit Open Knowledge Foundation
Open ...
, founder and president of OKI
{{Open navbox
Open data
Open content
2005 documents