Open-source software advocacy is the practice of attempting to increase the awareness and improve the perception of open-source software. In some cases, this may be in opposition to proprietary software or

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, c ...

concepts (e.g.

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

and

copyrights A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

as a whole). Leading open-source advocates include

Brian Behlendorf Brian Behlendorf (born March 30, 1973) is an American technologist, executive, computer programmer and leading figure in the open-source software movement. He was a primary developer of the Apache Web server, the most popular web server software ...

, Tim O'Reilly,

Eric Raymond The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

, Linus Torvalds,

Mitch Kapor Mitchell David Kapor ( ; born November 1, 1950) is an American entrepreneur best known for his work as an application developer in the early days of the personal computer software industry, later founding Lotus, where he was instrumental in deve ...

Jim Jagielski Jim Jagielski (born March 11, 1961) is an American software engineer, who specializes in web, cloud and open source technologies. Biography Jagielski graduated from the Johns Hopkins University in 1983 with a BES in Electrical/Computer En ...

and

Paul Vixie Paul Vixie is an American computer scientist whose technical contributions include Domain Name System (DNS) protocol design and procedure, mechanisms to achieve operational robustness of DNS implementations, and significant contributions to open s ...

. Others that advocate the related free software movement include

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman (; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

, Alan Cox, Jimmy Wales and Eben Moglen.

Bruce Perens Bruce Perens (born around 1958) is an American computer programmer and advocate in the free software movement. He created The Open Source Definition and published the first formal announcement and manifesto of open source. He co-founded the Ope ...

is a prominent figure who works to promote both terms. There are even broadcast and

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

radio shows whose sole subject is open source advocacy. Gutsy Geeks and

Open Source (radio show) ''Open Source'' is an American public radio show hosted by Christopher Lydon, former New York Times journalist and original host of '' The Connection''. The show focuses on the arts, literature, and foreign affairs. History In May 2005, Christoph ...

are but two examples.

See also

External links

Further reading