Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>As INCOSE also envisions in their recently published vision paper on the future of systems engineering (<jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://www.incose.org/about-systems-engineering/se-vision-2035">https://www.incose.org/about-systems-engineering/se-vision-2035</jats:ext-link>), the future society will experience a level of interconnectedness, interrelatedness and networkedness which was not seen before. The technical reality of the realization of this vision largely depends on how we interpret and implement the notion of openness. In particular, the OpenMBEE initiative represents an industrially backed research and development endeavor towards open systems engineering ecosystems of the future. In the OpenMBEE concept and tool portfolio, the open‐source aspect of openness is emphasized. In this paper, we aim at providing a complex analysis of the organizational, conceptual and technical landscape of open digital engineering ecosystems along the notion of the digital thread, where different, often commercially driven engineering domains, tools and stakeholder perspectives fuse into a single, interconnected digital engineering experience. What could be the role of commercial players in, and attitude towards open digital thread ecosystems? Where do emerging initiatives and standards like SysMLv2 take the systems engineering community from this perspective? The paper provides an in‐depth analysis of openness in digital engineering, as seen from a technological, organizational and techno‐social perspective.</jats:p>