The BerliOS project was founded by FOKUS, a Fraunhofer society institute, to coordinate the different interest groups in the field of open source software (OSS) and to assume a neutral coordinator function. The target groups of BerliOS are developers and users of open source software on the one side and OSS-related companies on the other.

BerliOS is funded by the German government (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit). It consists of several subprojects:

• Developer, a hosting platform for open source projects similar to SourceForge and GNU Savannah
• DocsWell, a database for open source related documentation
• SourceWell, a news service for open source projects
• SourceLines, a "best practice" database for successful open source projects
• SourceBiz, a list of open source companies
• DevCounter, a database of open source developer profiles
• OpenFacts, a wiki-based open source knowledge database (using the Wikipedia software)
• SourceAgency (beta), a platform for coordinating open source funding