1. Henry Briggs
Open Source Software:
Presentation to The Board of Education
Diffusion and Integration of Technology in Education
EDUC-7101-1/EDUC-8841-1
Dr. David Thornburg
Walden University
08/16/09, Version 10.0
2. Abstract
The utilization of the computer and web
technology has given rise to many innovations
in the world community including education.
Open source software is one of these
innovations. The business community have
used the advantages of open source software to
benefit their institutions. The educational
communities are beginning to see the benefits
of adopting open source software.
4. Connecting the World with
Open Source Code
In open source software the codes to modify and
adapt the software are available to all users.
This is one of the concerns of propriety software
developers. Propriety software developers are
able to charge for any changes or modifications
and distribution of the software.
Open source code is free to be modified and
distribute with others.
5. Introduction
“We must begin making a conscious effort to
promote a culture of openness in all aspects of
academic life — in our teaching” and research.
The innovation in teaching, the process and
“results of our research, and in the software and
other tools we use to perform our work” (Wiley,
2006).
7. Quote Accompanying
Richard Stallman's Software
“Share this code with your fellow users.
Learn from it. Improve upon it.
And when you're done,
please give something back
to the community”
(Kidd, 2000).
9. Who, What?
The business community adopted open source because of the
monetary savings.
The education community is beginning to adopt open source
because of the savings that can be applied to other school
departments. Open source software continues to diffuse into
educational communities.
The strategies that will be the most persuasive would be to
point out the savings and the compatibility of the open source
products that can be used for instructional strategies
Teachers will have the ability to expose the students to different
software applications free or at minimal charge.
The laggards would be the traditionalist groups who are
inherently afraid of change.
10. Attributes:
Which combination of perceived attributes would be best for
helping your innovation meet critical mass in your industry?
Unrestricted distribution
Source code distribution
Modifications
Author's source code integrity.
No personal discrimination
No restriction on application License distribution
License must not be product-specific
No restriction on other software - Technology
neutrality
(Open Source Software in Education 2008)
17. Free Open Source Collaborative Tools
1. Access Grid; audio and video collaboration
2. Citadel; collaboration suite
3. OpenGroupware.org; software server for multiple
clients
4. Openoffice.org: Compatible with Microsoft Office.
5. Spicebird; personal information manager
6. Audacity; audio recorder and editor
7. Synfig; animation builder
8. Cmap; concept mapping tool
9. Moodle; open source management system
10. A Plethora of other free open source applications
that are used for teaching and learning
18. Open Source Software is used throughout society; whether
indoors or outdoors, mobile or home.
20. History of Open Source Software
1960's Bundled software with IBM
1970's Software became closed
1976 The original EMACS was a set of Editor MACroS for the TECO
editor written by Richard Stallman
1980’s Stallman founded the GNU project to write a complete open
source operating system.
1984 X originated at MIT. The X Org foundation leads.
1987 Perl, the dynamic programming language was created and
released by Larry Wall
1980's – 1990's early development continues
1990's late Acceptance of open source products
1991-1992 final version Linux kernel; creation GNU/Linux
1997 GNOME project leaders Miguel de lcaza and Federico Mena
1998 Liberation of Netscape; Mozilla web browser officially launched
1998 term “open source software” replaces “open software”.
21. History of Open Source Software
Continued
1998 Stallman created the GNU Public License- Software under this
license the software is free to be modified and distributed but must
remain under the original license.
1999 OpenOffice.org released free of charge by Sun Microsystems
2001 there were 18 million registered Linux users
2002 MediaWiki introduced
2004 Mozilla Foxfire released – used by many institutions of higher
learning
2005 there were 29 million registered Linux users
22. Development
One of the diffusion studies positioned
the thoughts on the paper titled
“Why Open Source Software / Free Software
(OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)?
Look at the Numbers!” By David A. Wheeler
and uses quantitative data to give reasons why
institutions and individuals may consider using
Open Source Software.
23. Technological Improvements
Open Source Software has addressed
many of the technological difficulties
of online learning. In this age of
communication, the Open Source
Software has enabled the world to
connect and collaborate, through the
circulation of the software.
24. Open Source Software is compatible with most
computer hardware and other applications
26. Commercialism
-The commercialism and marketing of the
Open Source Software is simple
because there is minimal, if any charge
for the various software
downloads, modification or use.
-In the educational community through
sharing information and various educational
tools the increase of the software use
has become more wide spread.
28. S-Curve of Linux Kernel -
Free Open Source Operating System
29
million
1991 2001 early 2005 early
Linux adopters majority
18 million
1st. User
Linus Torvalds Continues to diffuse in society
29. Benefits:
public collaboration behind each project.
“created by tens of thousands of programmers all
collaborating to create, and improve upon, a flawless
website framework” (Dynamic Website Development
and Design 2009).
others can modify the Open Source Software to suit
their individual person or group or school needs
30. Benefits Continued - 2:
-free open source code
-detect and change or delete the attacker program, where as propriety software has
hidden codes and spy-ware maybe hidden in the code without the knowledge of
users and may require a fee by the proprietary vendor to rid the system of the spy-
ware (The Linux Information Project 2004).
31. Benefits Continued - 3:
-can be used on older hardware and thereby this is beneficial to all and
especially to lower income individuals and others in third world countries
who get donations of older computers who can take advantage of these
open source software resources
-savings monetarily lets one invest in other educational endeavors
-allow teachers to expose students to a wide range of software products
-addresses security issues because its source code is open and
available to the users and if any “back-doors” or spy-ware is written into
the program the users will be able to detect and correct the problem.
32. Open Source Software (OSS)
Common and/or Successful OSS products:
Mozilla Foxfire, internet browser
Apache HTTP Server
Internet Protocol [IP], and internet address system
GNU/Linux operating system, Unix-like operating
system
33. Open Source can be currently utilized by
many learners around the world.
Its use is expected to continue to expand.
Huli Wigmen of Papua, New Guinea using laptop computers.
34. Conclusion
There are many organizations in the business and educational
communities that have adopted Open Source Software into their
organizations and computing systems. The monetary savings and the
collaborative nature of open source are appropriate for these current
tough financial times and the growing use of the internet to produce,
manage, and share knowledge across natural barriers and time
constraints and a wide variety of communities. The openness and
transparency of open source has made the move toward open source
appealing. Open source is easy to access with many organizations such
as the Thornburg Center making open source software available to all.
While the use of open source software is available to all; individuals and
organization must apply with the license that accompany the software.
My recommendation is that our school system join the use of Open
Source for academic and financial reasons.
35. References
Celebrating 10 Years of Mozilla
http://www-archive.mozilla.org/mozilla-ten-year.html
Clipart retrieved from:
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSE
Clipart, retrieved from, www.tcpd.org on 7/1/09,
Thornburg Center for Professional Development; Open Source software; , retrieved from; http://
www.tcpdpodcast.org/oss.html#Linux. On 6/03/09 and 6/14/2009.
Kidd, E. (2000). A History of Open Source; Userland Software Inc., retrieved from:
http://static.userland.com/userLandDiscussArchive/msg019844.html. on 7/29/09.
Lakhan, S. E., Jhunihuwala, K. (2008). Open Source Software in Education, EDUCAUSE
QUARTERLY. Vol. 31, no.2
Open Source Software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_open_source_software
QuarterlyMagazineVolum/OpenSourceSoftwareinEducation/162873
on 6/25/09.
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations; Simon & Schuster, Inc., Free Press; New York, NY.
The Linux Information Project (2006). Source Code Definition, retrieved from:
http://www.linfo.org/source_code.html on 6/11/09.
Vandana Singh, Michael B. Twidale, David M. Nichols, "Users of Open
Source Software - How Do They Get Help?," hicss, pp.1-10, 42nd Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences, 2009
Wheeler, D. A. “Why Open Source Software / Free Software
(OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)? Look at the Numbers!
http://irm.stackworks.net/
Wiley, D. (2006). Open Source, Openness, and Higher Education. Innovate Journal of Online Education,
3(1).
Notas do Editor
Henry Briggs
Open Source Software:
Presentation to the Board of Education
Diffusion and Integration of Technology in Education
EDUC-7101-1/EDUC-8841-1
Dr. David Thornburg
Walden University
07/08/09
Abstract:
The utilization of the computer and web technology has given rise to many innovations in the world community including education. Open source software is one of these innovations. The business community have used the advantages of open source software to benefit their institutions. The educational communities are beginning to see the benefits of adopting open source software.
Open Source Software
Thornburg Center
25 years of pragmatic visionaries
An innovation for teaching and learning with the use of technology- One of the organizations that offer Open Source Software.
Connecting the World with Open Source Code:
Code open to modify and adopt the software are available to all users. This is one of the concerns of propriety software developers. Propriety software developers are able to charge for any changes or modifications and distribution of the software.
Open source code is free to be modified and distribute with others.
“We must begin making a conscious effort to promote a culture of openness in all aspects of academic life — in our teaching” and research. The innovation in teaching, the process and “results of our research, and in the software and other tools we use to perform our work” (Wiley, 2003). David Wiley a Professor at Bridgham Young University
Richard Stallman:
A man with an open vision.
Envisioned free software used by all in whatever way they chose as long as they will share the software free to all.
Richard Stallman had the idea of open source software with the source code free for use to all;
Quote Accompanying Richard Stallman's software
“Share this code with your fellow users. Learn from it. Improve upon it. And when you're done, please give something back to the community” (Kidd, 2000).
Linus TorvaldsAuthor of the Linux Kernel Operating System
Linus Torvalds wrote an operating system with free source code that used the license of GNU written by Stallman,s foundation and used open source software.
Who, What?
The business community adopted open source because of the monetary savings.
The education community was also an early adopter of open source because of the savings and many applications that can be applied to other school departments.
The strategies that will be the most persuasive would be to
point out the savings and the compatibility of the open source products that can be used for instructional strategies
Instructors will be able to expose the students to a plethora of software applications free or minimal charge. The laggards would be the traditionalist groups who are
inherently are afraid of change.
Attributes: Which combination of perceived attributes would be best for helping your innovation meet critical mass in your industry?
Unrestricted distribution
Source code distribution
Modifications
Author's source code integrity.
No personal discrimination
No restriction on application License distribution
License must not be product-specific
No restriction on other software - Technology neutrality
(Open Source Software in Education 2008)
Stage 1: Need
Tools used by individuals with minimum or no cost.
Beneficial to individuals and nations with financial difficulties.
Open Source Software:
Adapted and used by older hardware
A variety of software is available for many uses and users.
Software development
Free open source code: The keys [code] are free to all
The source code can be used by anyone wanting to change or adopt the application for their personal use. Can be distributed to others free of charge.
Stage 2: Research
With the collaboration of programmers from around the world and the use of these applications by the programmers that wrote them the software is safer than proprietary software which cost.
Collaboration
With the shift toward distance education in the educational community the free software that is offered through various organizations such as the Thornburg Center; give many of those that have financial difficulties the opportunity to obtain higher education.
Free open source collaborative tools
1. Access Grid; audio and video collaboration
2. Citadel; collaboration suite
3. OpenGroupware.org; software server for multiple
clients
4. Spicebird; personal information manager
5. Audacity; audio recorder and editor
6. Synfig; animation builder
7. Cmap; concept mapping tool
8.-A Plethora of other free open source applications that are used for collaboration.
Open Source Software is used by the many of the educational community from primary to post-secondary educational users.
The web is ubiquitous and open source software will keep you in the network with transparency and openness.
Educational institutes will be able to devote monetary resources saved with the use of free open source software to other projects.
Stage 3: Development
History of open source software
1960's Bundled software with IBM
1970's Software became closed
1976 The original EMACS was a set of Editor MACroS for the TECO editor written by Richard Stallman
1980’s Stallman founded the GNU project to write a complete open source operating system.
1984 X originated at MIT. The X Org foundation leads.
1987 Perl, the dynamic programming language was created and released by Larry Wall
1980's – 1990's early development continues
1990's late Acceptance of open source products
1991-1992 final version Linux kernel; creation GNU/Linux
1997 GNOME project leaders Miguel de lcaza and Federico Mena
1998 Liberation of Netscape; Mozilla web browser officially launched
1998 term “open source software” replaces “open software”.
History of open source software continued
1998 Stallman created the GNU Public License- Software under this license the software is free to be modified and distributed but must remain under the original license.
1999 OpenOffice.org released free of charge by Sun Microsystems
2001 there were 18 million registered Linux users
2002 MediaWiki introduced
2004 Mozilla Foxfire released – used by many institutions of higher learning
2005 there were 29 million registered Linux users
Development
-One of the diffusion studies positioned the thoughts on the paper titled “Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)? Look at the Numbers!” By David A. Wheeler and uses quantitative data to give reasons why institutions and individuals may consider using Open Source Software.
Wheeler found open source software to be the most reliable software and in many cases has the best performance.
Technological improvements
Open Source Software has addressed many of the technological difficulties of online learning. In this age of communication, the Open Source Software has enabled the world to connect and collaborate, through the circulation of the software.
Open source software is comparable with most computer hardware and other applications. We will be able to collaborate with many other school systems who can use many other systems which still make it all possible with open source. The school systems that do not use any we can shown them this no cost/low cost option.
Stage 4: commercialization
Commercialization
-The commercialism and marketing of the Open Source Software is simple because there is minimal, if any charge for the various software
downloads, modification or use.
-In the educational community through sharing information and various educational tools the increase of the software use
has become more wide spread.
Open source software is used by the business community and has been vetted by this group making it something our school system should definitely consider.
S Curve of Linux Kernel – free open source operating systems
1st User Linus Torvalds in 1991 Linux, 2001 18-million early adopter users, 2005 29-million early majority users
Benefits
public collaboration behind each project.
“created by tens of thousands of programmers all collaborating to create, and improve upon, a flawless website framework” (Dynamic Website Development and Design 2009).
others can modify the Open Source Software to suit their individual person or group or school needs
Benefits Continued -2-
-free open source code
-detect and change or delete the attacker program, where as propriety software has hidden codes and spy-ware maybe hidden in the code without the knowledge of users and may require a fee by the proprietary vendor to rid the system of the spy-ware (The Linux Information Project 2004).
Benefits Continued -3-
-can be used on older hardware and thereby this is beneficial to all and especially to lower income individuals and others in third world countries who get donations of older computers who can take advantage of these open source software resources
-savings monetarily lets one invest in other educational endeavors
-allow teachers to expose students to a wide range of software products
-addresses security issues because its source code is open and available to the users and if any “back-doors” or spy-ware is written into the program the users will be able to detect and correct the problem,
Open Source Software [OSS]
Common and/or Successful OSS products:
Mozilla Foxfire, internet browser
Apache HTTP Server
Internet Protocol [IP], and internet address system
GNU/Linux operating system, Unix-like operating system
Open Source can be currently utilized bymany learners around the world.Its use is expected to continue to expand.
Huli Wigmen of Papua, New Guinea, using laptop computers.
There are many organizations in the business and educational communities that have adopted Open Source Software into their organizations and computing systems. The monetary savings and the collaborative nature of open source are appropriate for these current tough financial times and the growing use of the internet to produce, manage, and share knowledge across natural barriers and time constraints and a wide variety of communities. The openness and transparency of open source has made the move toward open source appealing. Open source is easy to access with many organizations such as the Thornburg Center making open source software available to all. While the use of open source software is available to all; individuals and organization must apply with the license that accompany the software. My recommendation is that our school system join the use of Open Source for academic and financial reasons.
Of course, I want to acknowledge my references and thanks to all the new knowledge I have learned and have given to you.