open architecture


An architecture whose specifications are public. This includes officially approved standards as well as privately designed architectures whose specifications are made public by the designers. The opposite of open is closed or proprietary.

The great advantage of open architectures is that anyone can design add-on products for it. By making an architecture public, however, a manufacturer allows others to duplicate its product. Linux, for example, is considered open architecture because its source code is available to the public for free. In contrast, DOS, Windows, and the Macintosh architecture and operating system have been predominantly closed. Many lawsuits have been filed over the use of these architectures in clone machines. For example, IBM issued a Cease and Desist order, followed by a battery of lawsuits, when COMPAQ built its first computers.

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    An approach to learning that gives students flexibility and choice over what, when, at what pace, where, and how they learn. Open learning often includes aspects of e-learning.

  • open media

    The term used to describe video, audio, and text that can be freely shared on the Internet. Most open media is distributed under Creative Commons or GPL licenses.

  • open rate

    In e-mail marketing, the open rate is the number of list subscribers who opened the e-mail message. The open rate is a percentage of the total number of e-mails sent.

  • open profile

    When referring to social networking sites (SNS), the term open profile describes a dynamic user profile that can be openly shared on (or exported to) other SNS where the user is a member. Social networking sites that support open profiles would enable users to update their profile on one site and have those changes reflected […]

  • open relay

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