Objective

The term "open" has become popularly used to describe a variety of objects; software and technology, educational resources, education, etc. Ambiguity exists in the meaning of open. For example, open education, where anyone can enroll with only the requirement of a fee and no education, versus being available to anyone without cost. In addition to the ambiguity of open and what it enables, also lies ambiguity with the openness of  organizations.

The "Openness Index" attempts to define open attributes while assessing the type of openness within the community of practice who's responsible for the design, development, and distribution of the open artifact.

Importantly, the "Openness Index" is not designed to assess the openness of any artifact, e.g. an object, software, OER, etc. claimed to be open—there are plenty of licenses that can be used to assess the openness of an object—but rather an the organization or community that creates and manages these artifacts.

Open Maturity Model:

Martin Fowler offers, "A maturity model is a tool that helps people assess the current effectiveness of a group, and supports figuring out what capabilities they need to acquire next in order to improve their performance" (martinfowler.com). Richard Caralli et. al. of Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, defines maturity models more formally, "In its simplest form, a maturity model is a set of characteristics, attributes, indicators, or patterns that represent progression and achievement in a particular domain or discipline" (Maturity Models 101).

Building on this definition, the Openness Index attempts to assess an organization's current capabilities for developing open resources, and a road-map for continuous improvement in their particular discipline (e.g. open source software).  The higher the maturity, the higher the probability that incidents or errors will lead to improvements (and greater discipline across the organization), either in the quality of the artifacts or processes employed to develop those artifacts.

A popular example, the "Capability Maturity Model," describes a five-level evolutionary path of increasingly organized and systematically more mature processes. The Openness Index uses the same framework to access the maturity of an open project along a continuum from "initial" to "optimized".

1. Initial/ Aware : (chaotic, ad hoc, individual heroics) - the starting point for use of a new or undocumented open project.
2. Repeatable - openness is at least documented sufficiently such that repeating the same steps toward openness may be attempted.
3. Defined - openness is defined/confirmed as a standard business process, and decomposed to levels 0, 1 and 2 (the latter being Work Instructions).
4. Managed - openness is quantitatively managed in accordance with agreed-upon metrics (those of the OMM)
5. Optimizing - openness management includes deliberate principle/process/practice optimization/improvement.

Causality

Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is the natural or worldly agency or efficacy that connects one process (the cause) with another process or state (the effect), where the first is partly responsible for the second, and the second is partly dependent on the first.

The Openness Index includes the application of causality, that is, conditions for maturing organizations. These include:

• Necessary & sufficient cause: antecedent condition that is wholly and solely capable of producing an effect.  If and only if, x is a necessary cause of y, then the presence of y necessarily implies the presence of x. The presence of x, however, does not imply that y will occur. For example, we might say that gender is a cause of necessary cause of pregnancy in that you must be female in order to become pregnant. It is not a sufficient cause, however, since you can be female without being pregnant.
• Sufficient cause: If x is a sufficient cause of y, then the presence of x necessarily implies the presence of y.
• Necessary cause: If x is a necessary cause of y, then the presence of x alone does not imply the presence of y.
• Contributory cause: If x is a contributory cause of y, then the existence of x contributed to the existence of y but alone does not imply the presence of y. Another cause, perhaps z, could have contributed to y. The presence of x, however, does not imply that y will occur.

Openness Values

Courage

'Courage is a sufficient cause for 'Participation'

Courage is sufficient to participate in openness, however participants may be motivated by other causes, such as: a condition of employment; direction from a supervisor; peer pressure; or, a hidden agenda—perhaps to influence (or sabotage) direction.

Participation

'Participation' is a necessary cause for 'Honesty' to emerge.

Participation is necessary in order to be honest. While there is no guarantee of honesty among those who participate, one must participate in order to be honest.

Honesty

'Honesty' is necessary and sufficient cause for 'Maturity'

Honesty requires sincerity, directness and specificity, where actions and statements are free from bias or dogma and motivated to
achieve the goals and objectives of the initiative. Reflection (assessment) of one's ideas and self can only be genuine if one is honest.
Individual: Participants engage directly (i.e. straightforwardly), truthfully and authentically with the organization.Initial:
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Organizational: The organization engages directly (i.e. straightforwardly), truthfully and authentically with the participants.
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Reflection: Knowing one's limits or failures is fundamental to acknowledging them, however recognizing one's limitations does not mean one
would admit to them or correct them. Humility accepts that current ideas, drivers, approaches, expectations, values might change and readily
accepts those.
Individual: Participants reflect on, assess and reconsider, both their own and others, current and previous engagements.
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Organizational: The Organization reflects on, assesses and reconsiders, both their own and others, current and previous engagements.
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Humility: The scope of competency and capacity.
Individual: The individual understands how they canand cannotcontribute to a project and what that contribution provides them.
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Organizational: The organization understands how it canand cannotcontribute to an objective and what that contribution provides them.
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Principles
Communication: Communication is necessary for transparency in openness. While some individuals/organizations may provide communication,
this may be promotional, marketing or spin rather than actual policies, processes and practices. Yet in order for transparency to exist at all in
openness, some form of communication must take place that conveys information and exposes organizational artifacts.
Individual: Participants actively share information with the organization.
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Transparency: Transparency, or access to and discover-ability, of information, contributes to the development of affinity groups (self-organizing,
self-interested, self-motivated, self-directed). If an organization provides access to information, individuals can find topics of interest and others
who share those interests. Groups cannot effectively organize or contribute without knowing organizational details.
Individual: Information created by or managed by participants is discoverable by the organization.
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Organizational: Information created by or managed by the organization is discoverable by participants.
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Self-organization: A group of at least two people is sufficient for collaboration in openness. However collaboration can occur outside of
self-organizing groups, such as committees, departments, etc. who collaborate as part of their jobs or who may have been appointed, rather than
based on an affinity for the topic.
Participation, roles and direction is based on personal or professional affinity
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Collaboration: Collaboration contributes to evidence-based decision-making but is not necessary. Individuals can use evidence in governance.
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What this organization might look like...Evidence-based decision-making: Evidence-based decision making provides a rationale for organisational investment in, and the prioritisation
of actions and behaviours (initiatives). The effect(iveness) of evidence-based decision making is in part a function of communication and
transparency, without which organisational participants may not undertand why or how a variety of decisions are made reducing their ability
to effectively participate. The notion of evidence-based decision making is tied closely to outcomes monitoring and analysis, and underpins the
organisation's ability to function as a meritocracy.
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Meritocracy: Meritocracy allows the separation of title, role and other personal and professional trappings from ideas. The individual,
under particular circumstances is measured by the merit of their idea, and the idea is judged by the circumstances under which is is being
considered. It is virtually impossible to achieve this form of meritocracy without an organisational culture that values humility.
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Objectives
Simplicity: Simplicity refers to the state of an organisation and the practice of selecting processes, language, and outcomes that have the lowest
concept, administration, and work burdon that meet requirements. Simplicity reduces barriers to understanding and overhead costs, allowing
more resources to be invested in the goals of the community.
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What this organization might look like...Emergence: From
simplicity emerges complexity. Emergence is the creation of outcomes that are irreducible to its
constituant parts - that is, it is the creation of something new and more complex that the constituents without a
formal externally imposed plan. Through emergence, organisations can expect:
radical novelty through the appearance of characteristics and qualities that were not previously observed in the organisation;
coherence or correlation, providing stable and integrated wholes that maintain themselves over some period of time;
the benefits of evolutionary dynamic processes and outcomes that by definition are suited to and a reflection of their
environment;
the benefits of supervenience, is which the nature of emergent outcomes are influenced by the organisational culture, but are
not reducible. (reference to Emergence as a Construct: History and Issues , by Jeffrey Goldstein : http://www.anecdote.com.au/papers/Emergen
ceAsAConsutructIssue1_1_3.pdf )
Through emergence, the organisation can enjoy the complexity of sophisticated outcomes, while managing simplicity.
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Incremental Development: Engaging in discovery, design, and creation of any artefact, pattern, or idea in simple discreet iterative cycles, such
that mesurable outcomes may be assessed at a reasonably small level of granularity. As such, incremental development allows
for adjustments to desired outcomes, expectations, prioritisation, processes, and workload at a level that
promotes organisational effectiveness and efficiency.
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Rapid Feedback: Rapid feedback is essential to incremental development and allows for relevant, timely, and working products, which
enhances productivity, a sense of clear direction, and improves alignment with changing requirements.
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Continuous Feedback: Continuous feedback supports continuous improvement and enhances the likelihood that requirements are met as
they evolve with low relative investments in rework.
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