OpenCola is a brand of open-source cola , where the instructions for making it are freely available and modifiable. Anybody can make the drink, and anyone can modify and improve on the recipe . It was launched in 2001 by free software P2P company Opencola , to promote their open-source software concept. [1]

The original version 1.0 was released on 27 January 2001 by Grad Conn, Cory Doctorow , and John Henson. The current version is 1.1.3. Although originally intended as a promotional tool to explain free and open source software , the drink took on a life of its own and 150,000 cans were sold. [2] The Toronto-based company Opencola founded by Grad Conn, Cory Doctorow , and John Henson became 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". [3]

After mixing up the concentrate to the prescribed recipe (including all recommended safety precautions), the syrup is diluted 5:1 with ("preferably sodium-free") soda water to make the finished drink; at this dilution, the above combination of ingredients will yield approximately 24 litres of OpenCola.

The full recipe also includes instructions for home-made soda water produced from basic ingredients such as yeast and sugar in order to make the entire process open source, otherwise there would be a need to use commercially produced bottled or canned soda, or consumer carbonation machines with commercially manufactured carbon dioxide canisters.[4][5]