Overview
Community source projects are based on the belief that collaboration around source code promotes innovation. The developer community is invited to participate in this collaboration through the many projects that Microsoft developers maintain on Codeplex. Today, many of these projects published under OSI approved licenses.
Getting Started
Developers can get started with Microsoft’s community source offerings by navigating to CodePlex and joining an existing project. Codeplex provides a project directory to help navigate projects. In particular, participating and accessing Microsoft projects help the community grow and benefit developers by:
Providing working examples of useful tools and applications
Promoting interoperability by opening source code for modification by the community
Promoting customization by allowing developers to modify source code to meet their individual needs and the needs of their customers
Allowing developers to redistribute modified source code for commercial purposes in accordance with the accompanying license
Allowing developers to offer source-code-level feedback so that Microsoft can better meet their needs in the future
About Codeplex Project Hosting
CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. You can use CodePlex to create new projects to share with the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on this site and provide feedback.
Projects include tools for developers, web applications for business, and utilities for helping schools take advantage of technology.
In the first 18 months of launching Codeplex, Microsoft has created over 200 community projects.
Customer Commitment
In exchange for obtaining access to Microsoft’s source code, Microsoft requests that developers honor our intellectual property and choose to use the source code in accordance with the terms of the license.
Questions
If you have additional questions regarding community source, please e-mail the Shared Source Initiative.