What is it?
“Open Source” is a philosophy and business practice that allows all users to see and participate in development of any product. First developed as freeware or shareware, the open-source approach allows any interested user to offer comment and input on making the product better. In this case, our product is one or more models of farm animal welfare assessment.
To be open source, the process has to be completely transparent and open to all. This does not mean that all inputs will end up in the models. Any input in the FAAA process must be vetted by scientists to be sure the input stands the test of being science-based. Even though the core model is science-based, collaborators can suggest value-laden inputs (e. g., animals being outdoors). End users can then assign different weights to model components so as to be consistent with their particular values. Any and all input is welcome.
Three criteria are used for participating.
First, agreed-upon, science-based model components may not be changed unless new scientific evidence emerges.
Second, any improvements in the model by second-party users must be given back to FAAA for presentation in an open-source manner.
Third, the core models are the intellectual property of FAAA. Governmental or commercial users are restricted in their use of these open-source models and must be approved by Farm Animal Assessment Associates
