1	The good, the bad or the ugly? Perceptions of open source Scott Siddall – Denison University John Bucher – Oberlin College Rob Abel – IMS Global Learning Consortium
2	Roadmap Brief introduction Current state of open source – Rob Oberlin as a case study – John Denison as a case study – Scott Point/Counterpoint – all Open discussion
3	Why open source? You can run it – share it – change it – improve it “People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.” The Open Source Initiative http://opensource.org
4	The Expectations Price – 54% Flexibility - 42% Functionality - 40% Performance – 32% TCO – 31% Data from Saugatuck Technology and BusinessWeek Research Services
5	Open source is a licensing model Open Source Initiative >60 licensing models GPL, BSD, Mozilla, MIT are all popular GNU Public License (GPL) applies to half of the 100,000+ projects at Sourceforge
6
7	Open Source is also a culture Complex software development By loosely coordinated developers and contributors In an informal meritocracy software specifications are rarely written continuous design instead virtual project management a gentle hierarchy
8	“The Cathedral and the Bazaar” Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch. When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor. Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging. Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers. - Eric S. Raymond, 1997
9	Types of open source software Central services and infrastructure Email systems, servers, network management tools Desktop operating systems Linux, Sun Java Desktop Web applications ePortfolios, portals, course management, digital asset management, collaboration and communication tools, help desk systems, financial systems, student services “Open source is moving up the stack” - Brad Wheeler, Indiana University
10	The Assertions Open source software costs less than proprietary software Lower licensing price? – yes Lower total cost? Maybe if cost allocations are shifted
11	Many Contentions OSS licensing is easy OSS is more reliable, fewer bugs OSS can be customized Proprietary software has better interfaces OSS is more secure OSS is better because it uses open standards OSS is by and for a community Proprietary software has better support OSS is difficult to install, distribute, migrate to OSS avoids vendor lock-in OSS reuses software elements efficiently Proprietary software developers have better resources
12	Need for leadership “People think just because it is open-source, the result is going to be automatically better. Not true. You have to lead it in the right directions to succeed.” - Linus Torvalds
13	Community Source Purposeful coordination of work within a community Based on the principles of open source development A greater reliance on Defined roles Responsibilities Funded commitments
14	Projects supported by the Mellon Foundation Sakai and SAMigo Westwood/Chandler ePortfolio (OSP) Public Key Infrastructure Open Courseware uPortal Sophie Pubcookie OKI Kuali LionShare VUE Simile
15	Future of the higher ed software market We share unique software requirements Education is a tiny piece of the global software market place Who will create our software, at what cost? Will we have to craft our own software? What will be the impact of software development by for-profit education?
16
17	Case study: Denison University Granville, Ohio Traditional liberal arts curriculum 2,150 residential students Undergraduate only 200 faculty members 31 staff members in IT
18	Denison and Open Source Key people believed in open source Embrace the best solution regardless of source Early adoption established a pattern in 1999
19	Denison’s choices Web servers Apache on Linux Course management Blackboard CourseWork Sakai Content management Bricolage uPortal Email systems
20
21
22	Email systems Red Hat Enterprise Linux Mail transport agent is Postfix Cyrus IMAP is the mailstore PHP, Perl and PostgreSQL for scripting and database Horde IMP webmail SpamAssassin for spam identification (along with public RBLs and filter rules) Spamity to manage the spam quarantine function Sympa for listserver support CLAM Anti-Virus AMaViSd-new to glue the services together
23	Email systems Redundant hardware 11 commodity servers Content switches SAN Provisioned for 30,000 accounts Outstanding performance Staff skill sets expanded
24	Discussion questions What do we do with the money we save on licensing fees? What’s the difference between commercial and OS software in terms of integration into campus systems? Is it important that software support come from the software developer? What criteria are important in assessing your campus readiness to adopt OS?
25	Return to home