@theSource: Welcome.

Abstract

This inaugural article sets the stage and scope for a new department in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications: @theSource. In this department, we set out to address the questions, "How have open source projects and open Standards driven graphics innovations and applications?" and "What can we learn from them?" Thus, we are broadly concerned with how open communities and ecosystems have (and are) impacting computer graphics. The intent is to highlight: open source software (such as architectures, engines, frameworks, libraries, services); open Standards and open source data and models; and applications as well as the impacts of open graphics technologies. We also consider historical and summative reviews on the cultural and economic aspects of open source and open Standards graphics ecosystems, such as visualization and mixed reality.