Open-Xchange: Open Source Transparency: The End of FUD

“This position paper will address the question, ‘Can the open
source approach to software development promote transparency and
remove FUD–fear, uncertainty, and doubt?’

“By requiring that the source code is freely available to all,
the open source movement has made transparency and peer review two
of its guiding principles. Transparency undermines FUD because all
users have the ability to see exactly how the software works.
Transparency increases quality by subjecting all aspects of the
code to constant peer review. Transparency and peer review negate
FUD by shifting the debate to the objective ‘what is it’ (or as
Kant said, ‘the thing itself’) from the subjective ‘who is
it…'”

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