Writing "open source"

During the drafting of some of the material in this website, we noticed we did not have an established policy on how to write "open source" in different contexts. After a bit of research, here it is, with some references to justify our choices:

• As a noun, we never hyphenate "open source". Examples:

  • "Open source is a phenomenon..."
  • "The good thing about open source is..."
  • References:
    • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/a-z-word-list-term-collections/o/open-source

• As a noun, we do not capitalise "open source" unless it is part of a proper noun. Examples:

  • "CERN's Open Source Program Office (OSPO)"
  • "The steward is the Open Source Initiative (OSI)."
  • References:
    • https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/comms/style-guide

• We hyphenate "open-source" when it's an adjective coming before a noun. Examples:

  • "it's an open-source program"
  • "open-source software"
  • "open-source hardware"
  • References:
    • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/a-z-word-list-term-collections/o/open-source

• We do not hyphenate "open source" in cases where it is an adjective that does not come before a noun. Examples:

  • "The software is open source".
  • References:
    • https://www.grammarly.com/blog/hyphen/
    • https://www.editorgroup.com/editing/to-hyphenate-or-not-to-hyphenate/
    • https://www.stcloudstate.edu/writeplace/_files/documents/grammar-punctuation/hyphen-rules.pdf

• We hyphenate "open-source" when it's a verb in any tense. Examples:

  • "I want to open-source this software. Yes, I agree open-sourcing it is the way to go"
  • References:
    • https://www.capstoneediting.com/blog/how-to-hyphenate-compound-verbs-and-adverbs