Did open source culture become mainstream without us knowing it?

“Openness” is becoming mainstream in culture and policies:
It somehow started with open data initiatives done by international organizations and governments in EU, US, UN, WorldBank, ITU, etc…Then somehow came in “Open Education” in lead universities like Harvard, Yale, Caltech.
Open Education became available through websites like Academic Earth and Khan Academy to name just two and not to mention the “topic specific” learning websites.
Soon enough government and big organizations joined the same spirit of “Open Education” by using a slightly different word: “Open Knowledge”.
Under “Open Knowledge” – research papers, processes, best practices that sat on dusty shelves became available on the internet.

If the “Open source” keep going that way, new grounds are being prepared for open budgets (Netherlands, worldbank is opening up their budgets in what seems to be a first step to start bullying countries to do the same)
Open budget simply sets the ground for open development, which in other terms democratizes economy or attempts to.

This is all hip and cool – but what does it have to do with my tech blog?

I was thinking about “when was the first time we saw openess in design and delivery/implementation/feedback? which industry?”

As hard as I thought – only one answer came to mind: Open source software development…Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review, transparency of process to create community driven and shareable/free to use and re-use/morph software.

In all the above we see tech as a main component in delivering open data, open knowledge , open budget…Also the same mechanisms, processes and patterns are being re-used but with a different terminology. It is far more than a coincidence if you look at it.

From the looks of it, by connecting the above dots in “openness” history – open-stuff is a spin off of the open source culture/cult – it first started with code, then data (nerdy natural thing to become open) and moved to education/learning (which is what actually open source is about) – now it is being applied to other business and governance processes.

I know i am probably biased and applying my tech perspective to life – but as I seriously ponder again on examples of open design/license/development – i fail to find it in medicine or manufacturing for example… the only other exception I could find is: cooking.
Cooking is the earliest form of “open source” (designing a meal and sharing it via recipes – taking the pride in it)
Who knew our geekness could be a spinoff from mum’s kitchen?
and have we – the open source geeks – started that butterfly effect that might change or at least twist the world and not noticed it?

I was tasked to shortlist and test different types of ICT tools that can be used in governance. Since mobile penetration is really high worldwide – I started investigating SMS polling and survey tools. mobile (85.5%) vs internet (32.35%) – worldwide graphs – ITU
After some research – here is the shortlist I ended up with – I made sure to diversify the tools. I didn’t want to end up with list of stuff that do the same thing but under different logos. Other factors were that those tools had to be robust enough for big implementations… easy to use, open source, can be extended etc. I know that probably there are some amazing software that i skipped – this is a shortlist after all – not an extensive one – so feel free to share in the comments your favorite tool… I could have missed it and if it is awesome, I will re-add it. In each review I will share:

• Background info on the tool, how it started, why, by whom, links to their sites or social media or further readings.
• Where it was used and by whom.
• Ease of use, installing experience, personal feedback.
• Scenario based recommendations – comparaison vs other tools.