OpenCola - Definition and Overview

OpenCola is a brand of cola unique in that the instructions for making it are freely available and modifiable. Anybody can make the drink, and anyone can modify and improve on the recipe as long as they, too, license their recipe under the GNU General Public License.

Although originally intended as a promotional tool to explain open source software, the drink has taken on a life of its own - so far 150,000 cans have been sold. The Toronto-based Opencola company has become better known for the drink than the software it was supposed to promote. Laird Brown, the company's senior strategist, attributes its success to a widespread mistrust of big corporations and the "proprietary nature of almost everything". The company's marketing strategy has since taken a different turn and they no longer promote the soft drink on their web page.

External links

• OpenCola soft drink (http://www.colawp.com/colas/400/cola467_recipe.html)

PDF File

• OpenCola's soft drink formula (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/OpenCola_soft_drink_recipe.pdf) (Right-click to save)
  • For copyright information: Image:OpenCola_soft_drink_recipe.pdf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:OpenCola_soft_drink_recipe.pdf)