Open source religion

Open-source religions employ open-source methods for the sharing, construction, and adaptation of religious belief systems, content, and practice. In comparison to religions utilizing proprietary, authoritarian, hierarchical, and change-resistant structures, open-source religions emphasize sharing in a cultural Commons, participation, self-determination, decentralization, and evolution. They apply principles used in organizing communities developing open-source software for organizing group efforts innovating with human culture. New open-source religions may develop their rituals, praxes, or systems of beliefs through a continuous process of refinement and dialogue among participating practitioners. Organizers and participants often see themselves as part of a more generalized open-source and free-culture movement.

In 1994, with his essay, "The Holy War: Mac vs. DOS," the scholar and novelist Umberto Eco popularized the use of religious metaphors in comparing operating system design and user experience. By the late 1990s, the term "open-source religion" began appearing in technology magazines as a reference to the open-source Linux operating system's organizing principle and as an analogy for highlighting the philosophical differences between advocates of open-source vs. proprietary software . In 2001, Daniel Kriegman began describing a religion he invented called Ozacua (later Yoism) as "the world's first opensource religion." The concept of an "open source religion" was further expanded upon by the media theorist, Douglas Rushkoff in his book, Nothing's Sacred: The Truth about Judaism (2003), where he offered the following description as an introduction to Open Source Judaism:

Before the coinage of the term open-source in 1998 or even the birth of the Free Software movement, the Principia Discordia, a Discordian religious text written by Greg Hill with Kerry Wendell Thornley, included the following Copyright disclaimer in its 4th edition (1970), "Ⓚ ALL RIGHTS REVERSED – Reprint what you like." By the summer of 1970, the implications of the disclaimer were being discussed in other underground publications.

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