EDUCAUSE | Contributed by Organizations or Campuses; Articles, Papers, and Reports; and Open Source

Blackboard Customers Consider Alternatives

ckeller — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:57:32 -0500

Open-source software for course management poses market challenge.

Free digital texts begin to challenge costly college textbooks in California

ckeller — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:53:43 -0500

Would-be reformers are trying to beat the high cost -- and, they say, the dumbing down -- of college materials by writing or promoting open-source, no-cost online texts.

A Bridge Between Blackboard and Open Source?

ckeller — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:57:22 -0500

"Blackboard, the dominant player in course management software, has the ability to inspire devotion and, for the more fervid open-source adherents, not a little contempt. So today’s announcement may cause a stir among those more apt to liken Blackboard to the devil than a gentle giant: The company is partnering with Syracuse University to develop a way to integrate Blackboard with Sakai, one of the primary open-source alternatives."

Free and Open Source Options for Creating Database-Driven Subject Guides

ckeller — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:32:39 -0500

This article reviews available cost-effective options libraries have for updating and maintaining pathfinders such as subject guides and course pages. The paper discusses many of the available options, from the standpoint of a mid-sized academic library which is evaluating alternatives to static-HTML subject guides. Static HTML guides, while useful, have proven difficult and time-consuming to maintain. The article includes a discussion of open source database-driven solutions (such as SubjectsPlus, LibData, Research Guide, and Library Course Builder), Wikis, and social tagging sites like del.icio.us. This article discusses both the functionality and the relative strengths and weaknessess of each of these options.

Intellectual Property and Cyberinfrastructure

ckeller — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:47:25 -0500

The development of a new generation of cyberinfrastructure promises to increase and facilitate globally distributed scientific collaboration as well as access to scientific research via computer networks. But the potential for such access and collaboration is subject to concerns regarding the intellectual property rights that will be associated with networked data and with networked collaborative activity. Intellectual property regimes are generally problematic in the practice of science, because scientific research typically assumes practices of openness that may be hampered or obstructed by intellectual property rights. These difficulties are likely to be exacerbated in the context of networked collaboration, where the development and use of intellectual resources will likely be distributed among many researchers in a variety of physical locations, often spanning national boundaries. Such issues may be addressed by a combination of public and private approaches, including amendment of U.S. law to recognize transborder collaborative work, and adoption of clarifying contractual agreements among those who are collaborating via cyberinfrastructure, including cautious adaptation of “viral” licensing from the open source coding community.

Blackboard Makes a Pledge

drupal — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 11:47:54 -0600

"After months of criticism that its patent policies had the potential to squelch important education projects, Blackboard on Thursday announced a "patent pledge" under which it vowed not to assert its patent rights to sue open source projects or home-grown software used by colleges and universities."

Education Software Firm OKs Open-source Patent Use

drupal — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:09:03 -0600

"Blackboard, whose software can be used to manage university courses, has taken a significant step to mollify open-source rivals who perceive a patent threat from the company."

Open-source Group Wants Educational Patent Reversed

drupal — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:48:59 -0600

"A legal center is trying to overturn a patent it says threatens three open-source educational projects, a sign of the tension between patent holders and the collaborative programming community."

Blackboard Patents Challenged

drupal — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 10:36:48 -0600

"Open source group asked U.S. to revoke rights asserted by software giant. Sides trade charges on why compromise talks collapsed."

Open Education 2006: Community, Culture, and Content

drupal — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:47:58 -0500

Open Education 2006: Community, Culture, and Content was a multidisciplinary event designed to promote the discussion of the variety of research, development, and other activities necessary to move the field of open education forward. The proceedings include over 30 papers on topics such as Open educational resources, Tools and software supporting open education and Reusing and remixing open educational resources.

Analysis of Open Source Principles in Diverse Collaborative Communities

drupal — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:00:34 -0500

Open source culture and practice emerged as software hackers took control over the production, ownership and distribution of their skilled work. This revolution, quiet and unnoticed by most, began over twenty years ago. Along the way, free and open source software hackers developed organizational and dialog structures to support their ethos, creating a successful model for collaboration. This paper applies traits common to successful free software and open source hacker communities as a framework to analyze three non–hacker collaborative communities.

Software and Collaboration in Higher Education: A Study of Open Source Software

drupal — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 12:01:46 -0500

In recent years over a dozen open source software (OSS) projects have been launched among higher education institutions with the aim of meeting the community's needs more effectively and at less cost than do commercial options presently available. There is, however, a concern in the community that its adoption is hindered by uncertainty about future support for and improvements in the software. The creation of a new organization, which we refer to with generic term "OOSS" (Organization for Open Source Software), has been proposed to address this need. This concept has received significant interest from the community and from a group of senior college and university administrators. There is a desire for further exploration of the need for such an organization and for a clearer definition of what its mission and areas of activity would be.

Paul Courant, Professor of Economics and former Provost at the University of Michigan, has agreed to lead a study in collaboration with Ithaka. Michael Carter, a consultant with decades of experience in academic computing and instructional technologies with major universities and leading companies in the technology sector, is also assisting in this effort. The goal of the OOSS study is to evaluate the landscape and market environment for open source software (OSS) created by and for the higher education community, to assess the need for an organization to promote the support and adoption of these OSS projects, and to define this organization's mission and service model, should we determine that such an organization is desirable.

OSS Watch Survey 2006

drupal — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 15:57:29 -0500

During February and March 2006, OSS Watch conducted a survey of UK Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) institutions. The purpose of the survey was:
* to produce an up-to-date picture of the deployment of open source software in HEs and FEs;
* to draw comparisons with the results of a similar survey undertaken in 2003;
* to scope areas for future work by OSS Watch.

LAMP lights the way in open-source security

drupal — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:12:32 -0600

The most popular open-source software is also the most free of bugs, according to the first results of a U.S. government-sponsored effort to help make such software as secure as possible.

What's behind open-source ID push?

drupal — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:00:10 -0600

Big guns IBM and Novell threw their weight behind a previously obscure open-source identity management project this week, leading analysts to wonder: What's in it for those companies?

Open to Open Source

drupal — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:44:14 -0600

Open source software has found a permanent home on some college campuses. But according to a study released on March 1, 2006, by the Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness, open source products, which enable programmers to modify code and customize programs, have yet to reach the masses of academe.

HOWTO: Open Source Software Licensing for University-based Research Projects

drupal — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:57:19 -0600

This publication is oriented towards release of open source by universities. This shows the results of case studies of three University of Toronto open source software projects including the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre's Decision Support Tool (DST) and Web-4-All; as well as KMDI's ePresence Media and ePresence Live.

What Is a Digital Library Anymore, Anyway?

drupal — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 12:37:45 -0600

The authors explore how digital libraries have evolved over the years and what form they have now taken."This paper describes an information model for digital libraries that intentionally moves "beyond search and access", without ignoring those basic functions, and facilitates the creation of collaborative and contextual knowledge environments. This model is an information network overlay that represents a digital library as a graph of typed nodes, corresponding to the information units (documents, data, services, agents) within the library, and semantic edges representing the contextual relationships among those units. The information model integrates local and distributed information integrated with web services, allowing the creation of rich documents (e.g., learning objects, publications for e-science, etc.). It expresses the complex relationships among information objects, agents, services, and meta-information (such as ontologies), and thereby represents information resources in context, rather than as the result of stand-alone web access. It facilitates collaborative activities, closing the loop between users as consumers and users as contributors."

Security Fears

drupal — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 16:00:49 -0500

The 2005 Campus Computing Project survey found that network and data security are the number one concern of university technology leaders.

Exploiting "Light-weight" Protocols and Open Source Tools to Implement Digital Library Collections and Services

drupal — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 15:41:25 -0500

This article describes the design and implementation of two digital library collections and services using a number of "light-weight" protocols and open source tools. These protocols and tools include OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative-Protocol for Metadata Harvesting), SRU (Search/Retrieve via URL), Perl, MyLibrary, Swish-e, Plucene, ASPELL, and WordNet. More specifically, we describe how these protocols and tools are employed in the Ockham Alerting service and MyLibrary@Ockham. The services are illustrative examples of how the library community can actively contribute to the scholarly communications process by systematically and programmatically collecting, organizing, archiving, and disseminating information freely available on the Internet. Using the same techniques described here, other libraries could expose their own particular content for their specific needs and audiences.

Blackboard vs....

drupal — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 15:16:31 -0500

Some higher education officials are wondering if in buying WebCT, did course-management giant wipe out the competition, or is open source the real competition?

Software and Seeds: Open Source Methods

drupal — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 16:28:51 -0500

Open source methodologies used in software are interrogated and then compared to the methods used in farmers' rights groups. The use of open source methods in other contexts illustrates increasing interest in grassroots democratic movements participating in the continuing process of balance between public and private interests. These efforts provide a possible alternate framework for policy decisions concerning intellectual property.

The Unacknowledged Convergence of Open Source, Open Access, and Open Science

drupal — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 16:04:22 -0500

A number of open initiatives are actively resisting the extension of intellectual property rights. Among these developments, three prominent instances — open source software, open access to research and scholarship, and open science — share not only a commitment to the unrestricted exchange of information and ideas, but economic principles based on (1) the efficacy of free software and research; (2) the reputation–building afforded by public access and patronage; and, (3) the emergence of a free–or–subscribe access model. Still, with this much in common, the strong sense of convergence among these open initiatives has yet to be fully realized, to the detriment of the larger, common issue. By drawing on David's (2004; 2003; 2000; 1998) economic work on open science and Weber's (2004) analysis of open source, this paper seeks to make that convergence all the more apparent, as well as worth pursuing, by those interested in furthering this alternative approach, which would treat intellectual properties as public goods.

Really Open Source

drupal — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 12:11:00 -0500

Rice University's Connexions project is an effort to take the idea of free educational materials to a new level. Started in 1999 by Richard Baraniuk, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice, Connexions is not unlike MIT's OpenCourseWare project, which puts course materials from all MIT classes online for free. In contrast, Connexions takes the approach of aggregating course materials from professors at any school. Connexions also offers feedback tools that allow users to rate content, similar to rating systems on sites such as Amazon.com. In Connexions, ratings happen after publication, rather than before publication as in traditional peer review, but Baraniuk believes the rating system can provide an alternative to traditional peer review, a system Baraniuk believes is broken. Baraniuk also sees enormous potential in Connexions to help community colleges, which rely heavily on adjunct professors who often have little time for course development. With relatively limited resources, faculty at community colleges could use Connexions to create courses tailored for their institution and students, rather than the common practice of simply having to rely on a single textbook for material.

IBM Opens Research to Academia

drupal — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 11:01:28 -0500

IBM is extending an academic outreach program to give universities access to some of its cutting-edge research free of charge.

Beyond Markets and Firms: The Emergence of Open Source Networks

drupal — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 16:09:07 -0500

Although hierarchies and markets (i.e., autonomy) have been subject to extensive study, heterarchies represent different modalities of organizing that have been little researched. Drawing on complexity theory and the main features of complex evolving systems (CES), this paper sets out to remedy this imbalance by showing that heterarchies feature highly decentralized and relatively stable interactions which are coordinated through an emergent process of parametric adaptation. Implications in terms of learning are discussed casting a new light on the delicate issue of motivation in Open Source software development.

Community Source Springs Forth

drupal — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 15:36:32 -0500

Implementing new administrative systems software takes time, but support for community source projects is gaining ground.

The Importance of Open Access, Open Source, and Open Standards for Libraries

drupal — Wed, 25 May 2005 11:18:44 -0500

The open access, open source software, and open standards concepts have been garnering increased attention in the field of librarianship and elsewhere. These concepts and their benefits and importance to libraries are examined. Benefits include lower costs, greater accessibility, and better prospects for long-term preservation of scholarly works.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Incentives in Profit–Oriented Firms Supplying Open Source Products and Services

drupal — Wed, 18 May 2005 16:44:14 -0500

This paper contributes to the literature on Open Source (OS) software by providing empirical evidence on the incentives of firms that engage in OS activities. Data collected by a survey conducted on 146 Italian companies supplying OS solutions (Open Source firms) show that (surprisingly) intrinsic, community–based incentives do play a role but are not, in general, put into practise. We investigate this discrepancy between attitudes and behaviours and single out groups of firms adopting more consistent behaviours. Our results are in line with the literature on business models of the firms that enter the Open Source field.

Free Software and Open Source: The Freedom Debate and its Consequences

drupal — Wed, 18 May 2005 15:26:49 -0500

Recently the University of Göteborg held an online course in the theory and philosophy of free software and open source. During this course a lively discussion on terminology took place, in particular the concept of freedom was discussed. Without arriving at particular conclusions the posts included views in part on the lack of user awareness on what was property within the computer, on the difference between free, gratis, and libre in different languages and cultures and the need for both a common terminology and infrastructure. This paper is not an attempt to resolve these issues but to bring these questions to the attention of a wider audience in the hope that the discussion will continue.

To most outsiders the ethics of software is not something usually considered. To most proficient computer users with a passing interest in this question the ethics of software is recognised as one of the fundamental questions in the digital rights area. To most of the latter, terms such as free software, open source, and their derivatives (FLOSS, FOSS, Software Freedom) are interchangeable. Choosing one over the other is a matter of taste rather than politics. However, to most insiders the question is not one of taste. There is a fundamental difference between the two areas even if they share a similar root. Free software is not the same as open source. The two groups differ in their fundamental philosophical approach to software and its importance to society as a whole. This paper examines the two groups' differing philosophies and explores how their actions have affected software development, access to fundamental software infrastructure, and the development of the concept of freedom.

The Social Structure of Free and Open Source Software Development

drupal — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 12:25:54 -0600

Metaphors, such as the Cathedral and Bazaar, used to describe the organization of FLOSS projects typically place them in sharp contrast to proprietary development by emphasizing FLOSS's distinctive social and communications structures. But what do we really know about the communication patterns of FLOSS projects? How generalizable are the projects that have been studied? Is there consistency across FLOSS projects? Questioning the assumption of distinctiveness is important because practitioner–advocates from within the FLOSS community rely on features of social structure to describe and account for some of the advantages of FLOSS production.

To address this question, we examined 120 project teams from SourceForge, representing a wide range of FLOSS project types, for their communications centralization as revealed in the interactions in the bug tracking system. We found that FLOSS development teams vary widely in their communications centralization, from projects completely centered on one developer to projects that are highly decentralized and exhibit a distributed pattern of conversation between developers and active users.

We suggest, therefore, that it is wrong to assume that FLOSS projects are distinguished by a particular social structure merely because they are FLOSS. Our findings suggest that FLOSS projects might have to work hard to achieve the expected development advantages which have been assumed to flow from "going open." In addition, the variation in communications structure across projects means that communications centralization is useful for comparisons between FLOSS teams. We found that larger FLOSS teams tend to have more decentralized communication patterns, a finding that suggests interesting avenues for further research examining, for example, the relationship between communications structure and code modularity.

Patents, Open Standards and Open Source

drupal — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 10:52:51 -0600

The author discusses Open Standards and Open Source in the context of the European Union.

The Penguin in Peril: SCO’s Legal Threats to Linux

drupal — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 16:17:58 -0600

This thesis reviews the novel licences employed by open source developers. The paper examines how the success of the open source Linux operating system has led to conflict with traditional closed source software firms through the case study of SCO v. IBM, currently before the United States Federal District Court. Apart from exposing weaknesses in open source licensing, the case highlights the need to consider the intellectual property laws governing inputs into software development. The thesis further explores future intellectual property legislation that may forestall open collaboration. It is argued that proponents of such development methods must engage in policy discussions to limit the exclusionary authority of intellectual property licensors, by ensuring broad user rights to protected works.

An Uncommon Commons

drupal — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 12:05:23 -0600

IBM recently "promised not to sue any open-source developer, distributor or user, and stated clearly that IBM is legally bound by that promise. However, the statement contains disclaimers that limit IBM's promise." The author discusses the difference between patents and copyrights.

Opening the Sources of Accountability

drupal — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:16:26 -0600

This paper scrutinizes the concept of accountability in light of free and open source software. On the view that increasing accountability grants value to society by motivating those most likely and able to prevent risk and harm to do so, the author argues that while developing software collaboratively, licensing it openly, and distributing its source code freely are promising first steps in the long journey to rehabilitate accountability in our highly computerized society, our very understanding of what accountability is changes too. This paper analyzes the concept of accountability in an open environment and explores the implications in two mission–critical application fields in which software plays a significant role — electronic voting, and electronic medical records. It further considers the potential remedies to accountability's erosion that free and open source software offer, and the ways in which accountability can be generalized to collective action if we understand it less as punishability and more as a culture that encourages the prevention of risk and harm.

FLOSS At Large: Selected papers from the FLOSS workshop at 4SEASST joint conference, Paris, 25-28 August 2004

drupal — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:31:02 -0600

Free/libre open source software (FLOSS) has emerged as an important phenomenon. Seven papers in this special issue examine the FLOSS community and how innovation, cooperation, and trust develop in this exceedingly diverse group.

Values of Community Source Development

drupal — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 17:11:37 -0500

Higher education enters into open source development as a collaborative effort among institutions. They consider this not so much as a way to develop a product or distribute code, but rather a philosophy of how to develop tools for the higher education community.

Considering Open Source Software

drupal — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 10:48:50 -0500

The author discusses the use of open source software for library projects, digital libraries are specifically mentioned.

The E-Commerce and Development Report 2003 - Chapter 4: Free and Open-source Software: Implications for ICT Policy and Development

drupal — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 17:22:24 -0500

The E-Commerce and Development Report focuses on trends in information and communications technologies (ICT), such as e-commerce and e-business, and on national and international policy and strategy options for improving the development impact of these technologies in developing countries.Includes a discussion of issues of strategic importance to policy makers, including the productivity effects of ICT, key policy elements of a national e-strategy, and a policy approach to open-source and free software.

Free and Open Source Software: Policy and Development Implications

drupal — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 16:45:59 -0500

Free and open source software (FOSS) has become an inseparable component of the global technological ecosystem as well as of the current debate on information technology anddevelopment policy. Much of the Internet and a distinguished list of technology businesses use FOSS-based infrastructures for mission-critical tasks. Nevertheless, FOSS is ofteninsufficiently understood from an economic, human capacity and intellectual property perspective, issues with important development implications. Given a greater awareness andbetter understanding of FOSS, Governments may need to adjust their policies, primarily through their e-strategy. The notion that FOSS can have positive externalities makes it animportant consideration in countries with strong development agendas. FOSS has substantial potential for business and commercial use, and for-profit entities may benefitfrom exploring FOSS-based solutions. FOSS has triggered thinking on and consideration of issues relating to content provision and consumption in other areas of human activity suchas education, science and creative endeavours, where its contribution is making available a spectrum of solutions for creative work, research and development and knowledgedistribution, in between the proprietary model and the public domain.

The Economics of Open Source Hijacking and the Declining Quality of Digital Information Resources: A Case for Copyleft

drupal — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:55:02 -0500

The economics of information goods suggest the need for institutional intervention to address the problem of revenue extraction from investments in those resources characterized by high fixed costs of production and low marginal costs of reproduction and distribution. Solutions to the appropriation issue, such as copyright, are supposed to guarantee an incentive for innovative activities at the price of few vices marring their rationale. In the case of digital information resources, apart from conventional inefficiencies, copyright shows an extra vice since it might be used perversely as a tool to "hijack" and privatise collectively provided open source and open content knowledge assemblages, even in the case in which the original information was not otherwise copyrightable. Whilst the impact of hijacking on open source software development may be uncertain or uneven, some risks are clear in the case of open content works. The paper presents some evidence of malicious effects of hijacking in the Internet search market by discussing the case of The Open Directory Project. Furthermore, it calls for a wider use of novel institutional remedies such as copyleft and Creative Commons licensing, built upon the paradigm of copyright customisation.

Seeking an Educational Commons: The Promise of Open Source Development Models

drupal — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:28:46 -0500

Schools are hindered by cost and flexibility problems as they try to obtain resources such as software and textbooks. Open source development processes are producing products that can address many of these problems and, as importantly, provide a better alignment with core educational values. Indeed, open source products potentially encourage the development of an educational commons.

Risk Perception and Trusted Computer Systems: Is Open Source Software Really More Secure than Proprietary Software?

drupal — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 10:57:00 -0500

While Open Source software is routinely described as "more secure" than commercial off the shelf software, all available evidence suggests that there is little difference in the level of trust that should be accorded either type of system. The paper also relies on an analysis using risk perception theory to explain why Open Source is widely believed to be "more secure" than other types of software.

Open Source Security: Still a Myth

drupal — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 10:32:17 -0500

Open source may have many benefits over closed systems, but security is still a problem. This article looks at why open source software may currently be less secure than its commercial counterparts.

Free And Open Source Software Licensing Primer

drupal — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 10:37:03 -0500

This primer is an introductory summary of licensing issues involved with using the different FOSS licenses, primarily the GNU GPL license. It offers several scenarios, and proposes a framework for licensing of government sponsored software. The primer also addresses common questions and misconceptions regarding copyright and licensing issues.

Open Source and Standards

drupal — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:04:41 -0500

This paper is from the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE). This paper discusses possible future outcomes of open standards.

Is the Open Source Software Process Sui Generis to Software, or a More General Way of Organizing the Production of Complex Knowledge Products?

drupal — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:58:54 -0500

The author discusses the issue of open source and software development.

Federal Policy and Open Source Software

drupal — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:36:40 -0500

A brief discussion of open source software as a federal policy issue.

The Role of Intellectual Property in Open Source Software

drupal — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:01:27 -0500

This is a paper and presentation that was presented at the IIPI Conference on Strategies for Building Software Industries in Developing Countries. It was May 19-21, 2004 in Honolulu, Hawai'i.

An Open Mind on Open Source

drupal — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 14:41:55 -0500

As hundreds of colleges and universities gear up to replace outdated administrative systems software, more are contemplating open source as an option. Yet many business officers remain uncertain about the possible risks and unaware of the potential benefits of this new phenomenon.