The global open source community is currently hard at work on something entirely new. Visitors to Opensource.com may have recently noticed a noticeable quietness across the platform. That hush is not a sign of winding down, but rather the opposite: a deliberate pause while a major new project is actively being built behind the scenes. While specific details regarding the exact nature, scope, and technical makeup of this upcoming initiative are still under wraps, there is already plenty to discuss as the community looks forward to its next evolutionary chapter. And what better way to begin framing this major transition than by reflecting on the very fabric of the internet itself, the foundational structures of modern communication, and the human networks that have sustained the open source movement for more than a decade?
The Internet, and Top-Level Domains
To understand where the community is heading, it helps to examine where the digital world began. Most internet users know that the internet is, fundamentally, a network. By definition, a network is a group of interconnected connections—a concept neatly summarized by the term "internet," which is a portmanteau of the words "interconnected" and "network."
In its earliest days, the internet was a much smaller, more specialized environment consisting primarily of two distinct networks: the military network and the academic network. As computers evolved and digital connectivity gradually expanded beyond those heavily restricted institutional groups into the public consciousness, a practical logistical problem arose. It quickly became apparent that different organizational designations were desperately needed to differentiate between various types of entities inhabiting the digital space. For example, the system needed a way to cleanly separate a commercial business entity from a charitable organization, a university from a research laboratory, or a governmental department from a public institution.
These vital designations are formally known as top-level domains, or TLDs. Today, internet users can choose from a vast, sprawling landscape of TLDs covering everything from specific geographic regions to niche hobbyist categories. However, for a very long time, the Domain Name System operated with only a handful of original extensions. These foundational TLDs remain deeply popular, universally recognized, and culturally significant across the globe. Most internet users instinctively understand that when they type a .com address into their browser’s URL bar, they are visiting a commercial website meant for business. Conversely, when they navigate to a .org address, they recognize that they are engaging with a non-profit organization dedicated to a public mission or cause. These suffixes act as digital signposts, immediately communicating the intent, governance, and structural nature of the organization behind the screen.
Open Source Is a Network
Just as the internet relies on an intricate web of interconnected technical infrastructure, the open source movement relies entirely on human connection. Open source can manifest in many different forms, serving countless diverse purposes across global society. It can be commercial, driving enterprise software solutions and cloud infrastructure. It can be non-profit, stewarded by foundations dedicated to keeping core technologies free and accessible. It can be academic, fostering foundational computer science research and student collaboration. It can even be purely cultural, preserving shared artistic works, documentation, and digital heritage.
Yet, no matter what form open source takes, or what industry it happens to disrupt, it is fundamentally always a network. Sometimes, that network consists of computers communicating over distributed protocols, sharing code repositories, and running continuous integration pipelines. But most importantly, and most powerfully, it is a network of people.
Whether contributors, maintainers, and enthusiasts are gathering physically at a bustling international conference, casually catching up at a local pub during a community meetup, or collaborating asynchronously in an online chat room, open source is, at its core, a vibrant community of human beings working together toward common goals.
For the past 12 years, the prominent publication Opensource.com has been proudly supported by a commercial entity, acting as a steady megaphone and gathering place for stories about collaborative creation and shared technology. However, the people—the human beings represented by every reader, writer, contributor, and maintainer—who actually make up the Opensource.com community are not commercial entities. They are individual people with shared values, passions, and a collective dedication to the open philosophy.
That fundamental disconnect between corporate support structures and community-driven human identity is precisely what is being addressed. In one month, Opensource.com is going to resolve that long-standing bug and step into a renewed future. Stay tuned for further announcements as the community prepares to pull back the curtain on its next chapter.
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