http://www.opensym.org/about-us/definition/">Definition of Open Collaboration</a>
<p>OpenSym (formerly WikiSym) is the premier research and practitioner conference on open collaboration.</p>
<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Open collaboration</strong> is collaboration that is </p>
  <ul>
    <li>egalitarian (everyone can join, no principled or artificial barriers to participation exist),</li>
    <li>meritocratic (decisions and status are merit-based rather than imposed) and</li>
    <li>self-organizing (processes adapt to people rather than people adapt to pre-defined processes).</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>Prime places to find open collaboration are wikis, Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects, open source projects, open data and open government initiatives, open educational resources, and so on.</p>
<p>The open collaboration definition <a href="http://www.wikisym.org/2012/09/28/definition-of-open-collaboration/">was agreed-upon by the WikiSym steering committee in 2012</a> (after <a href="/2009/03/03/name-change-wikis-and-open-collaboration/">adding “open collaboration” to the conference title in 2009</a>).</p>