Open source. Open access. Open society. Open knowledge. Open government. Even open food. The word “open” has been applied to a wide variety of words to create new terms, some of which make sense, and some not so much.
This essay disambiguates the many meanings of the word “open” as it is used in a wide range of contexts.
URL : http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6360/5460