Open Definition provides criteria for openness in relation to data, content, and software services.
The Open Knowledge Definition (OKD) sets out principles to define ‘openness’ in knowledge – that’s any kind of content or data ‘from sonnets to statistics, genes to geodata’. The definition can be summed up in the statement that “A piece of knowledge is open if you are free to use, reuse, and redistribute it subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and share-alike.”.
The Open Software Service Definition (OSSD) defines ‘openness’ in relation to online (software) services. It can be summed up in the statement that “A service is open if its source code is Free/Open Source Software and non-personal data is open as in the Open Knowledge Definition (OKD).”.
We are currently working on a series of additional guidance documents for material in specific domains – such as open data in science and open government data.
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