Red Hat® Center Mission Statement

Red Hat Center was founded to advance the concepts underlying the open source movement - the betterment of society through the free and robust exchange of information, and the development of technology that is publicly accessible and comprehensible. We term this technology "transparent." Transparent technology [ http://www.rhcenter.org/transparent.html ] enables individuals to see, use, and adapt technology to meet their needs and forms the core of the open source movement. It can empower society in new and inventive ways because it helps satisfy, not control, societal preferences and change.

Transparency, or openness, has always been a critical value in a free society. It has been central to progress in law, politics, health, science, and education. As technology increasingly affects all aspects of our culture, individuals need to become a part of its development and future direction in order to cultivate transparency throughout other sectors of society. Technology that encourages and supports public participation accomplishes two important tasks: it accelerates progress, and it secures society's investment in the process and the outcome. Red Hat Center is committed to supporting projects that advance the values of open and transparent technology and projects that apply the concept of transparency to other areas of inquiry. Consistent with our non-profit status, we will provide funding [ http://www.rhcenter.org/grantmaking/ ] to the science, engineering, health, education, public policy, social science and law communities in support of these basic initiatives:

1. Increase public awareness [ http://www.rhcenter.org/initiatives/public_awareness.html ] of the value of transparent technology and its relationship to the traditional ideals of a free society
2. Support public policy [ http://www.rhcenter.org/initiatives/public_policy.html ] that promotes and safeguards the concepts of free exchange, collaboration, and transparent technology
3. Support academic and educational programs [ http://www.rhcenter.org/initiatives/academic.html ] that apply and expand the values of free exchange and transparent technology
4. Strengthen research [ http://www.rhcenter.org/initiatives/research.html ] efforts to broaden the application of open source principles in the fields of science, technology, social science, public policy, law, and the humanities

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