openeer.org 

Tribute to openeers

(open begins with sharing)


Image: Stefano Mortellaro/Flickr                                                 



We dedicate this list to the pioneers and engineers of openability, aka to the openeers.

An openeer is a person or group of unique influence to open philosophy and information sharing, and that has freed ideas, creative works, designs, or inventions.

They sowed seeds advancing the open universe:


(1700s)

Benjamin Franklin

An entrepreneur's refusal to patent inventions he freed, generously, for the public good


Thomas Jefferson

Donated his library collection to help restore the Library of Congress


(1800s)

American Library Association

Providing and extending information, free of censorship, as a public service internationally


Nikola Tesla

Invented for universal reach instead of limiting abundance obsessively


(1900s)

H.P. Lovecraft

Shared freely among other writers his Mythos of Cthulhu horrors


Project Gutenberg

A database of public domain books in a reliably open format and made freely available


('80s)

Richard Stallman

Groundbreaking and ongoing work on freeing software


Tim Berners-Lee

Helped unleash the internet and working to keep it open


('90s)

Human Genome Project

Freed its discoveries to humanity before anybody could deny open access to them


Linus Torvalds

He introduced Linux and has significantly extended/influenced the open-source movement


W3C

Continual work on open standards to accelerate and strengthen the internet globally


Internet Archive

Preserving a history of the internet which current and future generations can browse


Mozilla

Working toward an open internet, driving open standards, and freeing its own technology


(2000s)

Creative Commons

A toolset anyone can use to legally build upon, remix, and share creative works


Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia volunteers

Creating a vast, open repository of knowledge that anyone can freely share and remix


One Laptop Per Child

Empowering children in poverty globally, with an openable computer of durability and connectivity


The RepRap Project

Openable 3D printer increasingly enables people to print material goods at home


Google Summer of Code

Mentoring students who develop and improve open source projects


Blender Foundation

Hires talent to create open 3D media and freely shares access to its 3D technology


Open Content Alliance

Creating an open alternative to Google Books


Musopen

Sets music free and hired an orchestra in order to free classical music masterpieces


Jay Bradner

Freeing research to labs led to making cancer "forget" that it's cancer


Riversimple

Developing an open source car for commercial production that others may freely copy


Bug Labs

Developing open tech to enable rapid prototyping of electronic devices


Open Source Ecology

Its open, do-it-yourself, modular toolset that enables people globally to build small, sustainable civilizations