About us

A dedicated home for open source licensing.

We are a nonprofit initiative focused on collecting licenses, publishing useful guidance, and developing new licensing frameworks.

Why we exist

Open source collaboration depends on clear legal permissions, but license information is often scattered across projects, archives, and organizations. That makes discovery and comparison harder than it should be.

OpenSource.ngo brings that knowledge together. We preserve license texts and provenance, publish accessible guidance, and research new licenses for changing technical and social contexts.

01

Clarity

License information should be understandable without sacrificing accuracy or important context.

02

Completeness

The license commons includes widely used, historical, specialized, and newly developed licenses.

03

Provenance

Reliable records should show where a license came from and preserve its authoritative text.

04

Evolution

Licensing must continue to respond to changes in software, AI, data, and collaborative development.

Our nonprofit home

Independent and mission-led.

OpenSource.ngo is a focused licensing initiative of DigitalPlat Foundation. The Foundation is an independent U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity whose broader work supports Internet Freedom, open infrastructure, digital rights, and access to technology.

EIN: 38-4397252

Founder and maintainer

Edward Hsing is an open source advocate and infrastructure engineer.