Introduction
Open source software (OSS) is computer software that has its underlying 'source-code' made available under a licence. This can allow developers and users to adapt and improve it.
The UK Parliament's Office of Science and Technology published a short briefing note about open source software in June 2005. The note provides a good general background to open source software and the issues and factors which are involved.
The Scottish Executive has set up the Open Source Software Working Group to examine the role which open source and free software could play across the Scottish public sector. The work of the group is now complete and it has produced a report of its findings - Free/Libre/Open Source Software: Scottish Policy Statement.