The Open Service Definition

NB: there is a development version of this definition to which anyone can add comments.

Introduction

The Open Service Definition defines 'open' in relation to online services. An online service, also known under the title of Software as a Service (SaaS), is a:

  • "software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates (either independently or through a third-party) the application for use by its customers over the Internet. Customers do not pay for owning the software itself but rather for using it. They use it through an API accessible over the Web and often written using Web Services or REST." (source)

The Definition

An open service is one:

  1. Whose data is open as defined by the open knowledge definition (http://opendefinition.org/1.0/) with the exception that where the data is personal in nature the data need only be made available to the user (i.e. the owner of that account).

  2. Whose source code is:
    1. Free/Open Source Software (that is available under a license in the OSI or FSF approved list -- see note 3).
    2. Made publicly available.

Notes:

  1. The Open Knowledge Definition requires technological openness. Thus, for example, the data shouldn't be restricted by technological means such as access control and should be available in an open format.
  2. The OKD also requires that data should be accessible in some machine automatable manner (e.g. through a standardized open API or via download from a standard specified location).

  3. The OSI approved list is available at: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ and the FSF list is at: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html

  4. APIs: all APIs associated with the service will be assumed to be open (that is their form may be copied freely by others). This would naturally follow from the fact that the code and data underlying any of the APIs are open.

Background

This particular formulation originates from discussions taking place originally on the okfn-discuss mailing list in September and October 2006 (see in particular this post) but owes much to more recent (Summer 2007) discussions precipitated by activities at GUADEC 2007 (see [1], [2], [3], [4]).

  1. We Need an Open Service Definition -- blog post on the OKFN blog by Francis Irving which references a post on Havoc Pennington's blog

  2. Evaluating a Free/Open Service Definition (rough draft) posted by Luis Villa

  3. This ongoing thread on okfn-discuss -- this includes comments from a variety of people including Luis Villa, Mike Linksvayer, Rufus Pollock, Francis Irving and Saul Albert.

  4. Free/Open Services Definition draft/discussion page -- this is a draft definition put together by Luis Villa and posted on the GNOME 'live' wiki. In addition to the definition there is also an excellent listing on existing work and writing on this issue.