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

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.

Seeking Open Infrastructure: Contrasting Open Standards, Open Source and Open Innovation

ckeller — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:05:28 -0500

While “open” normally has connotations of public goods, the idea of “open”–ness has been used for decades as a competitive strategy by firms in the computers and communications industries. Phrases like “open standard,” “open source” and more recently “open innovation” have been used to refer to these strategies.

What do they have in common? Which ones really are “open”? What does “open” mean, anyway?

The author discusses the issues faced in the creation and adoption of cyberinfrastructure, contrasting firm strategies for three types of “open”–ness in the context of their respective business models.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.