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Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) & Wiki Curriculum Development Opportunities(Based on the UNDPInternational Open Source Network) www.iosn.net
1ST AMDIN Biennial Conference & General Meeting
(29-31 August 2007)
Presented By:
Modise Makhetha (Open Source Researcher)
Meraka Institute – Open Source Centre
Overview
• FOSS Background
- Definition – What is FOSS?- History – Where does it come from?- Adoption – Why FOSS?
• WikiBased Curriculum Development
- Introduction- Background- Developments
• FOSS and AMDIN
FOSS Background Definition
• Software whose licences give users the following freedoms
- Freedom to run the software for any purpose
- Freedom to study and modify the program
- Freedom to redistribute copies of either the original or modified software (without having to pay royalties to previous developers)
FOSS Background – Definition (contd)
• There are two philosophies (or movements) within the FOSS space- Free Software Foundation (FSF) (www.fsf.org)
• Mainly focusing on the freedom to cooperate – since nonfree software restricts this freedom
• Referring to free as in freedom – not price• Opposed to software patents, copyright laws – as these
restrict the FOSS freedoms- Open Source Initiative (OSI) (www.opensource.org)
• Mainly focusing on the technical values of making powerful reliable software – more businessfriendly than FSF
• Less focused on moral issues of free software – but paying attention to the FOSS distributed development method
FOSS Background – Definition (contd)
• The FOSS development model can be explained as follows (in contrast with traditional (or proprietary) software development)
- Traditional software development constitutes• Groups of programmers working in isolations, with careful
planning and management till the work is completed and released to the world – resulting in limited subsequent work on the software released
- While the FOSS development model enables• Programmers to release early minimally functional code to
the general public – then modify the software based on feedback
• Other programmers can modify or build upon existing code – resulting in software development and evolution continuously
FOSS Background – Definition (contd)
• The advantages of the FOSS development model include- Reduced duplication of effort
• FOSS developers reuse the work produced by compatriots- Building upon the work of others
• Many FOSS projects rely on software built by other projects to supply needed functionality
- Better quality control• With enough qualified developers using the software and
examining the source code, errors are spotted and fixed faster
- Reduced maintenance costs• Maintenance costs can be shared among the thousands of
potential users of the software – thus reducing perorganisation costs
FOSS Background History
• Began in the “hacker” culture of US computer laboratories in 1960's and 70's – Almost at the very beginning of the computer industry
• In the early 1980's, the GNU (acronym for Not Unix) project was born – Subsequently giving birth to the FSF – To promote Free Software and the GNU project
• In 1991, Linux (Unixlike kernel) was developed – thus forming the core of the GNU/Linux operating system
• From the late 1990's, Linux exploded into the press limelight- 1997 Linux had already owned 25% of the server market
• In 1998 the label “Open Source” was created – Hence the formation of the Open Source Initiative and Definition
FOSS Background Adoption
• WHY FOSS?- According to others
• It is a movement• A virus• A communist conspiracy• The heart and soul of the internet
- Though it can be considered• A highly effective vehicle for the transfer of wealth from the
industrialised world to the developing countries
FOSS Background – Adoption (contd)
• IS IT FREE?- There is no licensing fee charged for the usage of FOSS- FOSS distributions (such as Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, Ubuntu,
etc) can be downloaded from the internet at no charge- The only costs involved include
• Personnel costs• Hardware requirements• Opportunity costs• Training costs(often referred to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO))
FOSS Background – Adoption (contd)
• WHAT ARE THE SAVINGS?- Intel reported savings of US$200 million from a move to
GNU/Linux from UNIX- Amazon saved US$17 million from switching their servers to
GNU/Linux- On TCO studies conducted by research houses (in 2004)
• Linux was found to cost 40% of Microsoft Windows• Linux required a reduced number of support staff and
software updates than Microsoft Windows• Linux reduced both the personnel and hardware
requirements costs
FOSS Background – Adoption (contd)
• WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?- Security
• Not perfectly secure but superior- Reliability/Stability
• Well known as stable and reliable- Open standards and vendor independence
• Giving users – whether individuals or governments – flexibility and freedom to change between software packages, platforms and vendors
- Reduced reliance on imports – important to governments• A major incentive for developing countries
- Developing local software capacity important to governments
- Piracy, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), WTO important to governments - Localisation important to governments
FOSS Background – Adoption (contd)
• WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?- Lack of business application
• Due to the scarcity of people competent in both technical and business subjects
- Interoperability with proprietary systems• For organisations that have already invested massive
amounts of capital into proprietary systems- Documentation
• The primary focus of early FOSS developers was functionality
• Creating that worked well – with less attention paid on the ease of use
WikiBased Curriculum Development(Based on a Course Forges initiative)
• INTRODUCTION- The Course Forges initiative (courseforge.org) was intended to
provide a development environment for many independent cooperative curriculum development
• BACKGROUND- A group of lecturers (in Canada) realized that they cannot individually
contribute to the development of curricula and course material- Inspired by the success of open source software development
• Especially the distributed collaboration• The free public access to results• And the lack of administrative overhead
A curriculum development community was proposed on similar grounds
WikiBased Curriculum Development(contd)• DEVELOPMENTS
- The adoption of the FOSS development model in curricula initiatives imply
• Collaborative development• Shared development, without an ego stake in authorship
• Shared documents in a common, relatively public place
• Community standards• Shared development effort, with recognition as the chief incentive
• Intellectual property ground rules encouraging sharing, with public content on the Course Forges, and the possibility of extending the work for profit in other venues
• Consistent structure for curriculum units, in the style of the software patterns community
FOSS and AMDIN
• Key issues within AMDIN- Address African development challenges- Respond to global engagements- Develop leadership and management capacity in response to the
needs of the African people and their governments
• FOSS contributions to the above- Address the African ICT development challenges through initiatives
such as the Free/Open Source Software For Africa (FOSSFA) - Encourage global engagements through the development of FOSS
solutions (such as the ART system build by Ethopians) that can be shared and used globally
- Identify ways in which FOSS leadership and management capacity can be developed to suffice the ICT needs of the African people and their governments
Thank you