Christine Peterson - DeveloPassion

# Christine Peterson ![[50 Resources/51 Attachments/51.03 Public/2026-02-08 Christine Peterson.jpg|400]] Christine Peterson is an American futurist and nanotechnology advocate who coined the term [[Open Source]] in 1998. At a strategy session following the Netscape browser source code release, she proposed the term as a more business-friendly alternative to [[Richard Stallman]]'s "[[Free Software]]"; avoiding the ambiguity of "free" (which could mean "no cost" rather than "freedom"). Peterson is co-founder and past president of the Foresight Institute, a nonprofit focused on nanotechnology and emerging technologies. While not a programmer herself, her contribution to naming the [[Open Source]] movement proved pivotal in its mainstream adoption, as the term resonated better with corporations wary of "free software" terminology. ## Key Contributions - **"Open Source" term** (1998): Coined the phrase at a strategy meeting - **Foresight Institute**: Co-founded organization promoting nanotechnology - **Open source advocacy**: Helped bridge free software and business communities ## The Naming Story In February 1998, after Netscape announced it would release its browser source code, a group met in Palo Alto to discuss strategy. Peterson suggested "open source" to: - Avoid confusion with "free" (as in no cost) - Appeal to business users - Emphasize practical benefits over ideology [[Eric S. Raymond]] and [[Bruce Perens]] then popularized the term and founded the [[Open Source Initiative (OSI)]]. ## References - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Peterson - https://opensource.com/article/18/2/coining-term-open-source-software ## Related - [[Open Source]] - [[Open Source Initiative (OSI)]] - [[Eric S. Raymond]] - [[Bruce Perens]] - [[Richard Stallman]] - [[Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)]] - [[Free Software]] ## Quotes  ## Books