Open Source Software for LibrariesPresentation Transcript
Open Source for Libraries Nicole C. Engard Director of Open Source Education ByWater Solutions nengard@bywatersolutions.comTuesday, January 18, 2011
Outline • What is Open Source? • Products for your Library • Q&A ThroughoutTuesday, January 18, 2011
What isn’t Open Source? Common Open Source FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt) •“Isn’t that insecure?” •“I don’t want to share my data!” •“How can it be any good if it’s free?” •“We don’t have the staff to handle open source.” •“We’ve never had success with homegrown systems.” Comic: Author: Unknown | Year: Unknown | Source: UnknownTuesday, January 18, 2011
What is Open Source? Open source software is software that users have the ability to run, distribute, study and modify for any purpose. Open source is a collaborative software- development method that harnesses the power of peer review and transparency of process to develop code that is freely accessible.1 Open source draws on an ecosystem of thousands of developers and customers all over the world to drive innovation.2 1,2 http://connect.educause.edu/display/47941Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source is not New "Anyone who hears this, if he can sing, may add and change at pleasure. Let it go from hand to hand: let those who request it have it. As a ball among young women, catch it if you can. Since this is of Good Love, lend it out gladly: do not make a mockery of its name by keeping it in reserve; nor exchange it for money by selling or renLng it; for Good Love when bought, loses its charm." Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita. The Book of Good Love (14th century, original in Ancient Spanish) http://ftacademy.org/materials/fsm/1#1Tuesday, January 18, 2011
What is Free So:ware? • Often you will hear Free & Open Source Software (F/OSS) in conjunction. • The Free Software Definition (http:// www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) is similar to, but not identical to the Open Source Definition (http:// www.opensource.org/docs/ definition.php) • Free does not mean free of cost - it means Free as in FreedomTuesday, January 18, 2011
Four Freedoms of Free So:ware • You need all four of these freedoms to have free soWware • Freedom of use • Freedom to copy • Freedom to modify • Freedom to contribute http://www.web2learning.net/archives/4263Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Sharing of ideas "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples, then you and I will sLll each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." AZributed to Bernard Shaw http://ftacademy.org/materials/fsm/1#1Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Cathedral & The Bazaar The Cathedral The Bazaar (proprietary software) (open source software) •Development •“Given enough occurs behind eyeballs, all bugs walls are shallow” •Source code is •Code developed usually not over the Internet provided - kept with several locked up others in public •Corporate view hierarchy •Source code open to all users http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source Governance What kind of quality control is there? •Most open source projects have a release manager or a manager of some sort who reviews the code and approves it before adding it to the final release What is the roll of the community? •The community looks out for the best interests of the software. They work as the governing body behind all decisions related to the software. The community decides what features to develop next and who the managers are.Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source Community •Open source is about more than free software •Community is crucial to the growth of open source •Without shared knowledge and collaboration the project will not grow •“Critiquing the community is a right reserved for those who have proved themselves by making valuable contributions”1 •People who use open source can collaborate and contribute in many ways with the community •Write code •Write documentation •Debug •Educate others 1. Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. “Embracing open source culture and strategy.” In Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything, 82-83. Expanded Edition. New York, NY: Penguin USA, 2008. www.wikinomics.com/book/. Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source Crowdsourcing “Crowdsourcing has it genesis in the open source movement in software. The development of the Linux operating system proved that a community of like-minded peers was capable of creating a better product than a corporate behemoth like Microsoft. Open source revealed a fundamental truth about humans that had gone largely unnoticed until the connectively of the Internet brought it into high relief: labor can often be organized more efficiently in the context of a community than it can in the context of the corporation. The best person to do a job is the one who most wants to do that job; and the best people to evaluate their performance are their friends and peers who, by the way, will enthusiastically pitch in to improve the final product, simply for the sheer pleasure of helping one another and creating something beautiful from which they all will benefit.” Howe, J. (2008). Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business. New York: Crown Business. p.8Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Who’s Using Open Source? •Government Agencies •All Kinds of Businesses •Schools (K-colleges) •LibrariansTuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source in Business 2007 Survey Results http://www.unisys.com/unisys/news/detail.jsp?id=5100086&pid=&sid=203Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source in Business • In 2010 a survey of 300 large organizaLons in both the private and public sector found: • 50% are fully commiZed to open source in their business • 28% say they are experimenLng with open source and keeping an open mind to using it • 38% expecLng to migrate mission-‐criLcal soWware to open source in next 12 months • The cost was no longer viewed as the key benefit, instead: • 76% cited quality as a key benefit of open source • 70% cited improved reliability • 69% said beZer security/bug fixing http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5045Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Making money on open source • “IBM not only accepted open source soWware products and processes but also its philosophy, which is to spur quality and fast growth rather than just profits based on proprietary ownership of intellectual property.” • “Giving up so much control is unconvenLonal to say the least, but the rewards for doing so have been handsome. IBM spends about $100 million per year on Linux development. If the Linux community puts in $1 billion of effort, and even half of that is useful to IBM customers, the company gets $500 million of soWware development for an investment of $100 million.” Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. “Joining Linux.” In Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything, 79-82. Expanded Edition. New York, NY: Penguin USA, 2008. http://www.wikinomics.com/book/.Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source on the Web Total Active Servers: 10/2000 to 1/2011 http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2011/01/12/january-2011-web-server-survey-4.htmlTuesday, January 18, 2011
Why so popular? • Reliability through Peer Review • Freedom to Innovate • No Vendor Lock-in • User-centric Development • Collaborative Environment • Zero License FeesTuesday, January 18, 2011
Why Should Libraries Care?Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source & Libraries Libraries and Open Source Both... • Believe that information should be freely accessible to everyone • Give away stuff • Benefit from the generosity of others • Are about communities • Make the world a better place -- Horton, G. http://tinyurl.com/3jvumnTuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source & Libraries Libraries and Open Source make the perfect pair [Librarians] "are almost ethically required to use and develop open source software." Crawford, R. S. http://www.lugod.org/presentations/ oss4lib.pdfTuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source & Libraries Libraries and Open Source make the perfect pair “Libraries are committed to the notion of the ʻcommons.ʼ Libraries are in fact one of the last best hopes for the preservation of the intellectual commons. That value system should extend to the intellectual work we do on our access systems. We should reclaim the domain of library technology from the commercial and proprietary realms and actualize is as part of our vision of the commons. ... We are also congenital collaborators. Can you think of any other group of institutions that share their stuff the way we do through ILL? -- Lucia, J. http://pln.palinet.org/wiki/index.php/Open_source_plansTuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source Concerns 2007 Survey Results http://www.unisys.com/unisys/news/detail.jsp?id=5100086&pid=&sid=203Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source & Libraries Common questions libraries have: • Is there support? Do I have to know how to program? • Do I have to skimp on features? • Isn’t Open Source risky? • Can I do it myself?Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Support for Open Source Is there support? Do I have to know how to program? • ByWater Solutions • BibLibre • Local Students • Equinox • Freelance Developers • YourLibrarySite • And more!Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Do I have to skimp on features? • Open Source developers follow the rule of “Release early and release often” • Users vote with their dollars and time • Freedom to develop on your own • Developers love their productsTuesday, January 18, 2011
Isn’t Open Source Risky? • US Department of Defense memo encourages the use of open source • Casey Coleman, chief information with many reasons “including cost officer for the GSA (U.S. General advantages, reduced risk of vendor Services Administration), said in a lock-in, better security, and increased speech ... that the GSA heavily relies flexibility. It says that the positive on open source to drive down costs, aspects of open source software increase flexibility of IT dollars, and should be given consideration during reduce risk. ʻYou get much more procurement research. transparency and interoperability, and that reduces your risk,ʼ she said. • http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/ 2009/10/dod-military-needs-to-think-harder- • http://news.cnet.com/ about-using-open-source.ars 8301-13505_3-9921115-16.htmlTuesday, January 18, 2011
Isn’t Open Source Risky? For a total 284 days in 2006 (or more than nine months out of the year), exploit code for known, unpatched critical flaws in pre-IE7 versions of the browser was publicly available on the Internet. Likewise, there were at least 98 days last year in which no software fixes from Microsoft were available to fix IE flaws that criminals were actively using to steal personal and financial data from users. In a total of ten cases last year, instructions detailing how to leverage "critical" vulnerabilities in IE were published online before Microsoft had a patch to fix them. In contrast, Internet Explorers closest competitor in terms of market share -- Mozillas Firefox browser -- experienced a single period lasting just nine days last year in which exploit code for a serious security hole was posted online before Mozilla shipped a patch to remedy the problem. Quote: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/01/ internet_explorer_unsafe_for_2.htmlTuesday, January 18, 2011
Risk of Proprietary So:ware • “Closed-‐source efforts oWen suffer from flaws and problems which the original development team never anLcipated. Lack of inspecLon of the code by other programmers can mean that inappropriate design constraints and other errors might not be discovered unLl the code is already in use.” Pavlicek, Russell. Embracing insanity : open source software development. Indianapolis IN: SAMS, 2000. p. 33.Tuesday, January 18, 2011
So:ware is Risky! All software has risks, you need to evaluate open source the same way you do proprietary systems. Several Levels of Risk to consider: • Software security issues • Open source is just as secure if not more secure than proprietary systems because of its transparency • Evaluate open source software no differently than you do other software! • Company mergers and acquisitions • Because you own the code to your system you are not tied to one support source and will never be left without supportTuesday, January 18, 2011
Can I do it myself? • Absolutely, with the right in-house skills • Linux server management • Web programming • Perl / PHP / MySQL • Systems knowledgeTuesday, January 18, 2011
Some NumbersTuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source & Libraries When asked what Open Source apps they use at work, 977 librarians and library workers answered as follows http://opensource.web2learning.net/archives/category/survey-resultsTuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source & Libraries When asked why they chose and open source app,977 librarians and library workers answered as follows http://opensource.web2learning.net/archives/category/survey-resultsTuesday, January 18, 2011
Now What?Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Play Time • Start downloading and installing applications that will make things more http://www.flickr.com/photos/nengard/ efficient (and possibly 3253133986/ affordable) for you.Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Portable Play •Can’t install software on your work computer? •Try PortableApps: •Install on your USB drive and use many of these open source applications without installing to the hard drive http://portableapps.comTuesday, January 18, 2011
Local Play •Don’t have access to a web server? •Try BitNami: •Free, easy to setup wikis, blogs, forums and many other web applications that you can run locally or in the cloud. BitNami makes deploying server software a simple and enjoyable process. http://bitnami.org/Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Non-‐Profit in a Box • NGO-in-a-Box offers open source ‘boxes’ to non profits • Each box comes with applications and manuals to help you perform your daily tasks with open source • Choose from : • The BaseBox - a collection of tools for the day to day running of small to medium sized NGOs • The Security Version • The Audio and Video Edition • The Open Publishing Edition http://ngoinabox.orgTuesday, January 18, 2011
AddiRonal Links •Top 50 Programs that Drive You Crazy & their OS Alternatives: http://tinyurl.com/2xju2m •OSS Watch, open source software advisory service: http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk •Open Source as Alternative http://www.osalt.com •Nicole’s Delicious bookmarks: http://delicious.com/nengard/opensource •Open Source Living http://osliving.comTuesday, January 18, 2011
OSS & Libraries Links •Open Source Software in Libraries http://infomotions.com/musings/ossnlibraries/ •Open Source Software and Libraries Bibliography zotero.org/groups/ freelibre_and_open_source_software_and_libraries_bibliography •Open Network Libraries http://onl.org.nz •Practical Open Source Software for Libraries opensource.web2learning.net/blogTuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source Blogs •The Open Road •ZDNet Open Source http://www.cnet.com/ http://blogs.zdnet.com/open- openroad/ source •Open Ended from Ars Technica •New York Times - Open http://arstechnica.com/open- http://open.nytimes.com source •OpenSource.com •The H Open Source http://opensource.com http://www.h-online.com/open/Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Online Reading List • Open Source: Narrowing the Divides between Education, Business, and Community http://connect.educause.edu/display/47941 • The concepts of Free Software & Open Standards: Introduction to Free Software http://ftacademy.org/materials/fsm/1#1 • A Primer on Risk http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6611591.html • Nicole’s Zotero Library http://www.zotero.org/nengard/items/collection/1796131 • We Love Open Source Software. No, You Can’t Have Our Code http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/527Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Print Reading List • Practical Open Source Software in Libraries by Nicole C. Engard • The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary by Eric S. Raymond • Embracing Insanity: Open Source Software Development by Russell Pavlicek • The success of open source by Steve Weber • The open source alternative: Understanding risks and leveraging opportunities by Heather J. Meeker • Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution by Chris DiBona, Mark Stone, and Danese CooperTuesday, January 18, 2011
Thank You! Nicole C. Engard nengard@bywatersolutions.com The Book: opensource.web2learning.netTuesday, January 18, 2011
Open Source Software for Libraries
Pawan Agrawal