Business Success with Open Source

Downstream vs. Upstream

As you work with and in FOSS projects and communities, you’ll regularly hear people referring to “upstream” and “downstream” open source development, but it’s rare that you’ll find anyone explaining it. It’s usually taken as a given that you know where you are in relation to this “stream” everyone’s talking about, and that can be confusing.

To explain it, let’s take that metaphorical stream and describe it in terms of a real one: the Columbia River. OK, so it’s unfair to call the fourth largest river in North America a stream, but the Columbia is secure enough in its identity that it won’t mind. The river starts in British Columbia, Canada, in the Rocky Mountains near the town of Invermere. It then continues through the ...