Fully Open Architecture

(from the Libre Endowment Fund)

Fully Open Initiative

to promote and protect open services based on open knowledge

version 002 - 2021-12-28

Founded in 2020, the Fully Open Initiative is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to raise awareness and adoption of Open Services and Fully Open Services.

Open Service is provided under OSD-compliant service agreement which grants all the rights to use, study, change and provide the service in modified and unmodified form, while at the same time acknowledging the essential role of manpower and knowledge required to operate the service. 

Fully Open Service is an Open Service which relies on Open Works, Open Hardware and other Open Services.

The Open Service Definition

A service is Open Service if the services users have the four essential freedoms:

  • The freedom to use the service as they wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
  • The freedom to study how the service is provided (freedom 1). Full access to the service operation procedures, management documentation, bill of materials, list of outsourcers and ability to audit service operation are a precondition for this.
  • The freedom to copy the service operation procedures, management documentation, bill of materials and list of outsourcers to help others (freedom 2).
  • The freedom to operate modified or unmodified service and provide it to other (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Ability to purchase the same materials and same outsourced services is a precondition for this.

A service is open service if it gives users adequately all of these freedoms. Otherwise, it is non open. 

The Open Service Definition was initially derived from the Free Software Definition. Richard Stallman was the first to push the ideals of software freedom which we continue.

The Fully Open Definition

Hyperopen

A service is Fully Open if it is an Open Service and if its dependencies are open:

All tangible and intangible dependencies of a Fully Open Service should be open. A Fully Open Service must list explicitly all tangible and intangible dependencies which are not open.

All service dependencies of a Fully Open Service should be Fully Open. A Fully Open Service must list explicitly all service dependencies which are not Fully Open, and among these, all service dependencies which are government regulated (ex. electricity).

Workgroups

Open Service is still a new idea but already has two workgroups.  

  • Open Definition Group in charge of finalising definition of open service and fully open service (contact sven (dot) franck (at) nexedi (dot) com)
  • Fully Open Group in charge of Fully Open Cloud and actionable interoperability between cloud services (contact sven (dot) franck (at) nexedi (dot) com)

Open Service Providers

Open Service is still a new idea and has not yet gone through a formal certification procedure definition. The following companies or organisations are providing or may provide services that comply with the open service defitinion.