EDUCAUSE | Open Source

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.

"Open Source Reality": Douglas Rushkoff Examines the Effects of Open Source

agould — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:52:19 -0500

Yesterday, popular culture commentator and "cyberpunk" Douglas Rushkoff gave a talk on "Open Source Reality" at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. This lecture was a fourth in a series on understanding the culture and practices of Digital Natives, or the generation who has been raised with the computer as a central part of their lives.

Rushkoff, who teaches media theory at New York University's Interactive Telecommuncations Program, said the Internet is allowing people to more easily gather information and participate in discussions and debates. He said the open source applications that have emerged from universities in past years have greatly helped by stirring innovation and encouraging dialogue. Rushkoff says that while previous generations were focused on competition and the individual, he believes the Internet has provided a powerful vehicle for networking and building ideas within communities. Indeed, he says today's digital natives are much more attuned to collaboration, whether in school or at work, due to the Internet's collaborative atmosphere.

However, all is not rosy if the participants are not willing to question the sources, information, and history that accompanies any application or website. Just as digital natives previously were early video gamers who eventually learned to write code, it is essential that today's Internet participants not only receive and read the information- Rushkoff says they must learn to write it as well. He believes that access to the Internet, accompanied by a questioning, seeking nature, will allow the formerly passive to become action-oriented. Otherwise, he says, the danger of not learning "the code" is that the code will be used on you.

Most will agree that applications, networking sites, and accessible information that encourage action, rather than passivity, are commendable. However, it is incumbent upon the participants that they develop a greater sense of history and background before simply acting. The ability to network and make a difference is fine, but not if the participant is uninformed or simply pushing forth the agenda of a self-selected, narrow network. One of the audience members at Rushkoff's talk suggested the phrase, "Those who do not know history are damned to repeat it," was outdated and inaccurate. She said now is the time for us to "write history" and not focus on the past. A man identifying himself as a historian said later that it is vital that people have a concept of what has taken place in the past in order to better understand the present. He disputed the notion that the generations that went to the movie theaters and later watched televisions in their homes were merely passive recipients of the media's influence. Rather, he said people may have not understood the mechanics of the film projectors or televisions, but they had opinions and arguments on what media was directed at them.

The ability to explore a plethora of sites does not equal intellectual curiousity, nor does it prevent the participant/student from suffering from ideological or educational insularity. So, the notion that the Internet has made some sort of demarcation between the passive and active, depending on a person's generation, is not quite accurate. While Rushkoff is hopeful that technology and networking will result in greater teamwork and dialogue, there are folks in other disciplines who would not seem so hopeful (see Putnam's Bowling Alone). Furthermore, what does it mean for a society when the students have excellent Internet skills, but cannot place the American Civil War in the correct century?

Perhaps the concern is not so much with the applications themselves. It is with the approach we take when we get caught up with the novelty of easier communication, and forget the substance and power the Internet can wield for each of us.

(The thoughts expressed in this blog are not necessarily reflective of the positions taken by EDUCAUSE or the higher education community. They belong solely to the blogger.)

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.

Large-Scale Open Source E-Learning Systems at Open University UK

gdobbin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:25:04 -0500

This ECAR research bulletin examines the factors leading to the selection of the open source learning management system at the Open University, details the many aspects of development work that had to be undertaken, and describes the issues involved for institutions participating in an open source community. It also looks at some of the many business and cultural challenges the institution has faced, and at how faculty are being encouraged to move toward a model of education incorporating increasing amounts of e-learning content and activity.

Ccitation for this work: Sclater, Niall. “Large-Scale Open Source E-Learning Systems at Open University UK” (Research Bulletin, Issue 12). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

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

gbayne — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:46:16 -0500

This hour and seventeen minute podcast features a panel discussion from the EDUCAUSE 2008 Enterprise Conference in Chicago. This lively discussion, "Community Source Software: The Beginning of the End, or the End of the Beginning?," includes:

Laura McCain Patterson, Associate VP, Information Systems, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Richard Spencer, Acting CIO and AVP IT, The University of British Columbia
Brad Wheeler, VP for IT, CIO, and Professor, Indiana University
Session moderator: Andrea Di Maio, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner, Inc.

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 compares and contrasts community source with more traditional software sourcing options and explores critical sustainability success factors.

Dynamics of Supporting Sakai Through Local and Global Collaboration

gdobbin — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:06:36 -0500

This ECAR research bulletin discusses the adjustments that the Indiana University information technology organization made, and continues to make, in order to support membership in Sakai. It has been said that supporting Sakai can seem like trying to change a tire on a moving car. As co-founder of and active participant in the Sakai collaboration, the effects of IU’s decision—the unexpected, the challenging, and the delightful—are discussed in terms of the intra- and interuniversity realities of highly collaborative efforts.

Citation for this work: Goodrum, David, Jan R. Holloway, Anastasia S. Morrone, Lance Speelmon, and Elizabeth A. Van Gordon. “Dynamics of Supporting Sakai Through Local and Global Collaboration” (Research Bulletin, Issue 11). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

Recasting the Centralization-Decentralization Debate: Advancing the Innovation Support Cycle

gdobbin — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:33:06 -0500

This research bulletin explores the importance of focusing on innovation in decision-making about IT. Acknowledging the apparent dichotomy between the efficient use of resources in a centralized IT model and the effective application of IT resources toward innovative research and pedagogy, the bulletin presents a model for IT service delivery that can be used or adapted in colleges and universities.

Citation for this work: Frederick, Lawrence W. “Recasting the Centralization–Decentralization Debate: Advancing the Innovation Support Cycle” (Research Bulletin, Issue 10). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

New EDUCAUSE Quarterly Reports on Top Higher Ed IT Issues

cluckett — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:00:10 -0500

The summer 2008 EDUCAUSE Quarterly spotlights the complete findings of the 2008 EDUCAUSE Current IT Issues Survey as well as feature articles on open source software in education, a first assessment of a learning studio, and student use of clickers in library presentations.

2008 EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Closing Session: Leading Ahead of the Curves by Brad Wheeler

llarsen — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:50:27 -0500

Leading Ahead of the Curves

Brad Wheeler, Vice President for IT and CIO, Dean, & Professor, Indiana University

[EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference Closing General Session, March 19, 2008]

The slides for this keynote are available at http://www.educause.edu/upload/presentations/MWRC08/GS02/Leading-Ahead-of-the-Curves-Wheeler20080319_inked.ppt

A podcast of the session is available at http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastleadingaheadofthec/46500

NOTES

Brad Wheeler began his talk on technology leadership with reminisces beginning in 1993 when he was an associate professor at the University of Maryland and Mosaic was the hot new tool and the Web took off.

Adapting the well-known “and then a miracle occurs” cartoon, he changed the text on the blackboard to show a sketch of “Campus Cyberinfrastructure” -> “then a miracle occurs” -> ”Cloud Computing Nirvana” and said that we can be the miracle in leading ahead of the curves but we need more explicit information in the miraculous step 2.

The Curves we must lead ahead of and balance are:

Technical possibility is where coolness is the key factor. Investors for innovations keep the frontier moving forward. However, for a CIO, technical possibility is not the question but rather technical maturity. When charted against time you end up with a set of steps up rather than a smooth curve.
Social desirability is where “Gotta have it” is the key factor. Social expectation is now a flat line at the top of the chart. Millennials want new technologies immediately. When academic organizations say that you can only upgrade and make changes every few years there are questions to answer for when you can test and when you can deploy - we can’t always wait those few years before implementing. The curve is really a set of steps again. The CIO needs to decide where and when it’s right to buy-in to the new technology.
Economic Feasibility is a matter of dollars where, over time, a product becomes less expensive so you do have a downward curve.

Wheeler has a box where he keeps prognostications and quoted an article in Campus Technology (Oct 23 2007) about five factors they said will have a synergistic effect. There are many who provide these predictions but because of the fog factor we begin to dismiss them. He described how CIOs feel as Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting The Scream.

Wheeler said the main question is:

“Can our actions substantively affect the shape of the curves or do we just adapt as they are revealed?” and asked are we only an industry that reacts to the curves or do we have the wisdom and ability to shape the curves?

His Curve bending examples were

open educational resources/scholarship
search of certitude
community source
licensing terms

Leading ahead of the curve loops us back to Scholarship 2.0 and the rise of IT, digital repositories, and electronic collaboration in achieving and improving the quality of the scholarly endeavors of research, teaching, learning, and service.

He closed by saying that we need to come together and collectively be the miracle to lead ahead of the curve.

In the Q&A, Wheeler answered questions on

supporting those who still want face-to-face
how to leverage across campuses (higher education) so everyone benefits including less wealthy institutions
outsourcing email and integration of applications
open vs commercialization of courses.

=======================

The slides are available at http://www.educause.edu/upload/presentations/MWRC08/GS02/Leading-Ahead-of-the-Curves-Wheeler20080319_inked.ppt

The podcast is available at http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastleadingaheadofthec/46500

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