Awesome Open Company

Category: Themed Directories
Tags: awesome-lists, open-companies, transparency
Website: https://github.com/opencompany/awesome-open-company#readme

Overview

Awesome Open Company is a community‑curated directory of for‑profit organizations that operate with high levels of openness and transparency in their operations, finances, and culture. It follows the "awesome list" format popular on GitHub and focuses specifically on documenting and encouraging open company practices.

Definition of an Open Company

For this directory, an open company is a for‑profit organization whose core practices are guided by:

• Openness
• Transparency
• Interoperability

This philosophy is summarized as:

Share as much as possible, charge as little as possible.

The definition is inspired by the original formulation from Gittip (now Gratipay) and further elaborated through linked background resources in the repository.

Features

• Community‑Curated Awesome List

  • Follows the GitHub "awesome" list pattern.
  • Maintained as a public README in a GitHub repository.

• Directory of Open Companies

  • Provides a growing table of companies identified as "open companies".
  • Each entry typically includes:
    • Company name and website.
    • Links to an openness pledge or values statement.
    • Links to open product repositories (e.g., GitHub projects).
    • Optional public openness statements.
    • Optional open finance resources where available.

• Structured Openness Criteria

  • Uses specific columns to describe how a company is open:
    • Openness Pledge – links to pages describing company values, openness, or transparency commitments.
    • Open Product – points to open‑source or publicly accessible products and code.
    • Statement – references explicit statements about openness/transparency.
    • Open Finance – indicates whether the company publicly shares financial information.

• Concept Documentation

  • Includes a section explaining what an open company is and how the concept evolved.
  • Links to external articles and resources that give deeper background on open companies.

• Contribution Workflow

  • Anyone can propose additions or changes by editing README.md and submitting a pull request.
  • Contributions are governed by published Inclusion Guidelines in the repository wiki.
  • Encourages community‑driven maintenance and vetting of entries.

• GitHub‑Native Format

  • Entire directory is maintained as Markdown in a GitHub repository.
  • Benefits from GitHub features such as history, pull requests, issues, and code review.

Content Structure

• README.md as main directory containing:
  • Table of contents.
  • Definition and explanation of open companies.
  • Main companies list table with multiple openness attributes.
• Wiki / Guidelines: Inclusion guidelines that define how companies can be added and what qualifies as an open company.

Use Cases

• Discover companies that prioritize transparency and openness.
• Research examples of open‑source business models and open finance practices.
• Find reference material for defining or adopting open company principles.
• Contribute new companies that meet the openness criteria.

Pricing

• The Awesome Open Company list itself is a public, GitHub‑hosted directory and is free to access and contribute to. No pricing or paid plans are associated with the list.