Open Future conducted a study to gain a better understanding of the current state of the open movement, as seen through the eyes of people actively involved in its endeavors and leading organizations within the movement. Open Future believes that a shared movement identity and a shared advocacy agenda can make the collective effort stronger. This study aimed to see whether this perspective is shared and whether it can form a basis for building a shared movement agenda for the decades to come.
\nWith this study, Open Future was interested in identifying trends that transform the movement and understanding the challenges and needs of activists and organizations as these changes occur.
\nThey also set out to understand how and whether the open movement can be perceived as a whole. There have been studies and reports focused on a single field of openness, such as Open Access or Open Data, but relatively few attempts to understand this broader activist space. This most recent study focused on a qualitative survey of open movement leaders.
\nThe report, which you can read in its entirety here, can be summarized into sections:
\nSpeaking with open movement leaders
\nMost interviewees reported learning of the open movement through participation in copyright reform activism and policy. Others were introduced through:<\/p>\n
Open Source and Open Hardware activism
\nOpen Knowledge, Open Access, Open Education, or Open Data activism
\nCommunity-building work
\nTheir employers, entering the field with no previous activist background<\/p>\n
Open Activism as a social movement
\nOpen Future proposed the following working definition for the open movement:
\nThe open movement consists of people, communities, and organizations who (1) contribute to shared resources online that are available for everyone to use and reuse, (2) and\/or advocate for non-exclusive access and use of information resources.
\nHowever, although the research project began with the assumption that there is an open movement which can be defined and whose boundaries can be traced, the interviews found that there is little collective sense of such a movement. Moreso, there is a collective sense of the open movement as a loose network, tied together by value alignment.
\nThe open movement, at a turning point as seen by its leaders
\nThis section shows how the movement is shifting. Interviewees have been observing changes, and argue for further change. Open Future analyzed these shifts in four categories:<\/p>\n
The people
\nThe zeitgeist
\nThe world
\nThe sustainability of the open movement<\/p>\n
The need for change
\nFactors both internal and external to the movement were identified in the study. Collectively, the following needs were revealed:<\/p>\n
Need for new voices
\nNeed for new narratives
\nNeed for relevance
\nNeed for maintenance<\/p>\n
Ways forward
\nTo address these needs, those interviewed resonated strongly with two ways forward:<\/p>\n
A shared agenda
\nAdvocacy as a driver for collective action<\/p>\n
You can download a full copy of the report at this link: https:\/\/openfuture.eu\/publication\/shifting-tides\/
\nYou can provide feedback directly in the publication here\u00a0or by writing to Alek Tarkowski at alek@openfuture.eu.
\nImages created by Open Future.
\nThe post <span class=’p-name’>Digital activists and open movement leaders share their perspective with Open Future in new research report, \u201cShifting tides: the open movement at a turning point\u201d<\/span> appeared first on Voices of Open Source.
\n![](\"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Wordpress-2-1024x536-1.png\")
\nSource: opensource.org
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