Open Source

"Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in", (Open Source Initiative). As pointed out by the above definition, open source is much more then pure access to a source code written by someone else. It is a a way of developing products, making decisions about it on collective or individual bases, adjusting and improving it in a decentralized manner, and in the end achieving higher flexibility and reliability.

Norwegian Center for Telemedicine has several ongoing projects that take aim at developing software that will be freely available to the medical technology community. This is in accordance with NST's spirit of sharing research results and tools with the wide audience for the purpose of promoting telemedical services. Depending on the nature of the software and its application area, different open source licenses might be used, and this will be determined on the project bases.