Systemic Altruism
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Justice & public goodsPreliminary editorial review

Open Source Initiative

Stewards the Open Source Definition and approved-license program, and provides education and advocacy around open software.

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Systemic Altruism practice potential: 86–96/100
90% of weighted axes reviewed. A mechanism hypothesis, not proven effectiveness or a donation recommendation.

Who this work enables

Humanity’s Checklist source match

Gatekeepers — editorial, partial alignment.

Reusable permissions and public standards can widen who may inspect, adapt and build software; this does not certify accessible governance.

Explicit checklist adoption: not verified. A mechanism match is not an affiliation, endorsement, evidence of effectiveness or a scoring bonus. Read the practice.

Focus classification: 2026-10-27. Based on the organization’s dated official sources below; earlier axis-review dates are unchanged.

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The proposed pathway

Open licensing standards and public software rights

Six dimensions, with rationale

Structural depth

4 / 4

Maintains shared licensing standards that shape permissions and coordination across the software ecosystem.

Institutional reach

4 / 4

Definitions and license recognition can be used internationally by developers, institutions and public-interest organizations.

Durability

3 / 4

Published standards and adopted licenses may persist, while stewardship and interpretation require ongoing work.

Scalability

4 / 4

Public definitions and licensing information are reusable at low marginal access cost; compliance and implementation still have costs.

Funding additionality

Unreviewed

Unknown: a current marginal funding gap, counterfactual and delivery capacity have not been audited.

Community agency

Unreviewed

Unknown: participation, open access or stated values do not establish audited consequential decision rights for affected communities.

Evidence and selection

Organization reported; documented official mechanism

Illustrative inclusion to examine this mechanism. Inclusion is not an external recommendation or a verified comparative ranking.

A testable next question

Do the standards improve reliable, rights-respecting reuse and reduce harmful lock-in relative to plausible alternatives without excluding affected communities?

Review confidence: Moderate for documented design; low for systemic attribution. Definition, licensing and education mechanism; not a rating of all software using an approved license.

What remains uncertain

Open-source status is not a guarantee of security, usability, accessible governance or positive impact. Standards influence and actual freedom from vendor lock-in require independent assessment.

Sources to inspect

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Axis review: 2026-10-27 · weighting method v0.2 (2026-10-26) · Method, conflicts and coverage