EDUCAUSE | Open Source and Applications Development

Community Source Software: The Beginning of the End, or the End of the Beginning?

drupal — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:25:46 -0500

Community source is designed to coordinate the work of different user IT organizations sharing the same purpose and requirements. An alternative to commercial applications and custom development, it gives users control and shares risk across peer organizations. Although several such public sector communities exist and yield great promises, many struggle with achieving critical mass and a viable business model. This panel will compare and contrast community source with more traditional software sourcing options and explore critical sustainability success factors.

Open Source Software in Education

elilly — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:02:16 -0500

Academia has adopted open source software for some online learning initiatives because it addresses persistent technical challenges

An Open Source LMS for a Mission-Critical, Enterprise-Level Application: Are We There Yet?

drupal — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:00:25 -0500

The open source learning management system has gradually reached maturity. In this session, we will share ideas and lessons learned about making open source LMS enterprise-ready. Currently SFSU has one of the largest Moodle installations in the United States and is the sole university hosting an anonymous Moodle CVS server.

CNI Podcast: An Interview with Julian Lombardi, Executive Director of the Open Croquet Consortium

gbayne — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:36:51 -0600

In this 15 minute podcast, we feature an interview with Julian Lombardi, Assistant Vice President at Duke University and Executive Director of the Open Croquet Consortium. Croquet is a powerful new open source software development environment and software infrastructure for creating and deploying deeply collaborative multi-user online applications and metaverses on and across multiple operating systems and devices.

Dr. Julian Lombardi is the Assistant Vice President of Academic Services and Technology Support with Duke University’s Office of Information Technology, Senior Research Scholar with Duke University's program in Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS), and an adjunct professor with Duke University's Department of Computer Science. He is also one of the six principle architects of the Croquet Project, executive director of the Open Croquet Consortium, and a co-chair of MacLearningEnvironments.org. A former biology professor, Lombardi combined his interests in information technology, complex systems, and the phenomenon of emergence in biological systems and began designing and developing computer-supported collaboration systems involving self-optimizing massively multiuser online 3D environments in the mid-1990s. He eventually founded VIOS, Inc. in 1999 where he acted as the venture capital-backed company's first CEO and then Chief Creative Officer/Software architect. From 2002-2005, he managed a learning technology research and development group in University of Wisconsin-Madison's Division of Information Technology.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2007 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity. You can learn more about CNI at their web site, http://www.cni.org

Open Source 2010: Reflections on 2007

drupal — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 11:37:56 -0600

Has the vision proffered for "Open Source 2007" been realized? Will 2010 mark continued progress in the collaborative development of applications software—perhaps one of the most potent tools for addressing the challenging trends confronting IT in higher education?

Open/Community Source Applications: Learning to Play with the Other Kids!

drupal — Tue, 24 May 2005 11:29:28 -0500

Open and community source applications have begun to emerge as viable alternatives for some institutions. Unlike infrastructure efforts such as Apache or Linux, however, community source applications involve players beyond the IT space. Joining these efforts and subsequently engaging in productive collaboration with other institutions present challenges for some institutions. This presentation will offer ideas on best practices in successful collaboration.

How Is Open Source Special?

drupal — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 11:12:50 -0600

The author discusses the positive and negative aspects of open source.

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.

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.

CIO Constituent Group Survey on Open Source

drupal — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 16:22:09 -0500

An informal survey of the EDUCAUSE CIO Constituent Group on open source applications use.

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.

Open Source, The Way Ahead

drupal — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 11:41:14 -0500

This speaker talks about the broadening of the Open Source movement. Nonproprietary Open Source coding allows users to customize software to meet their specific needs.

Open Source: Open Minds

drupal — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 15:47:08 -0500

The Open Source model of collaborative software development, building on the work of others, is a close match to the culture of the library. This session will discuss the uses and advantages of Open Source server and desktop applications on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux platforms.

The Cathedral, the Bazaar, and the Academy

drupal — Mon, 23 Aug 2004 15:17:15 -0500

Open source software is poised to play an increasingly important role in higher education. Major new open source applications in learning management systems and personal information managers are under way using innovative, collaborative funding and institutional coordination models. This presentation will look at major initiatives such as the Sakai Project to illuminate opportunities and challenges of open source for higher education.

Chandler/Westwood: Progress in Open-Source Collaboration

drupal — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 12:52:37 -0500

Chandler/Westwood is the major initiative of the Open Source Application Foundation. Twenty-five universities are participating directly in the design and development of this state-of-the-art open-source personal information management system that includes coordination of calendars, e-mail, notes, and other digital objects. Panel members will present a status report on the project and the activities of the evolving group of supporting institutions.

Collaborative Open-Source Software: Panacea or Pipe Dream for Higher Education?

drupal — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 17:29:20 -0500

The speaker will examine the current trend toward collaborative open source software development (Sakai, Chandler, uPortal, etc.) in higher education, looking at issues critical to assessing the long-range impact on university systems. This assessment will include a historical perspective; locate this new paradigm in relation to the traditional buy-versus-build choices; and discuss issues related to institutional deployment and lifecycle support.

Choosing Open Source and Partnering as an IT Strategy

drupal — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 16:53:26 -0500

In 2002, IU committed to a strategy of open source, partnering, and code mobility for applications. By 2004, IU is deeply involved in five partnered projects. This session will report on the specific insights, lessons, and challenges of changing to an open source and partnering strategy.

Open Source 2007: How Did This Happen?

drupal — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 16:26:29 -0500

Institutions are in search of a new model to fund application software. Community source projects—based on open source philosophy and licensing—offer promise for developing sustainable economics and for advancing the frontiers of innovation.

UC Davis' Open-Source, Web-Based Communication Package for Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

drupal — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 10:19:03 -0600

UC Davis is developing a platform-independent, open-source communications package (OpenRCT) that provides a multimedia, multilingual (UNICODE-compliant) tool for synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. OpenRCT runs on Windows, MacOS-X, and LINUX/UNIX. It is being used for language courses, virtual office hours, distributed discussions, and other applications.

The Muscles, Aches, and Pains of Open Source

drupal — Wed, 22 Oct 2003 11:41:21 -0500

The author discusses the options of using software applications developed by established companies versus the collaborative open source route.

Democratizing Software: Open Source, the Hacker Ethic, and Beyond

drupal — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 13:13:09 -0500

The development of computer software and hardware in closed-source, corporate environments limits the extent to which technologies can be used to empower the marginalized and oppressed. Various forms of resistance and counter-mobilization may appear, but these reactive efforts are often constrained by limitations that are embedded in the technologies by those in power. In the world of open source software development, actors have one more degree of freedom in the proactive shaping and modification of technologies, both in terms of design and use. Drawing on the work of philosopher of technology Andrew Feenberg, I argue that the open source model can act as a forceful lever for positive change in the discipline of software development. A glance at the somewhat vacuous hacker ethos, however, demonstrates that the technical community generally lacks a cohesive set of positive values necessary for challenging dominant interests. Instead, Feenberg's commitment to "deep democratization" is offered as a guiding principle for incorporating more preferable values and goals into software development processes.

Creating Open Source: Issues, Processes, and Promises from Stanford's CourseWork CMS

drupal — Mon, 21 Jul 2003 17:24:00 -0500

CourseWork's goals included the creation of a framework to support modular learning tools developed by many schools and understanding and developing better distribution, peer, and technical support models for systems that are affordable, supportable, and easy to integrate into campus systems. This presentation will focus on what we have learned and what is still needed.

The Open Knowledge Initiative in Practice

drupal — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:39:19 -0500

This presentation will summarize the process by which the OKI architecture evolved and then demonstrate, by example, some of the implementations that have been made of the OKI Service Interfaces. Learnings associated with the OKI project will be shared: going from an idea to a design, to demos, to production implementations.

The Open-Source Movement

drupal — Mon, 29 Jul 2002 15:42:05 -0500

Despite many obstacles, open-source has the potential to strongly influence the future of software development and support in the academic world.