Very brief presentation about open vs. closed system, open source, community source, and some of the challenges by robin fay, georgiawebgurl@gmail.com.
Very brief presentation about open vs. closed system, open source, community source, and some of the challenges by robin fay, georgiawebgurl@gmail.com.
Closed systems, open systemsPresentation Transcript
Here comes who?
Introduction
Closed systems vs. open systems
Opensource vs. community sourced
APIs, RSS, crosswalking
How all of that stuff works
Questions and wrap-up
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
Find me at robinfay.net, facebook,
twitter, linkedin, youtube, blogger, etc.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, Metadata 101, robinfay.net
Here comes who?
Open systems are systems which allow users to
contribute, manipulate, edit, use, reuse, mashup,
and in some way actually create or alter content
and/or the actual programming of the system
While the coding language may be proprietory
(FBML is Facebook specific markup language) the
actual software encourages user contributions
Examples of open systems software might include
Wordpress and Unix; to a lesser extent Facebook.
If you can mod (modify it) the software, it is
probably an open system.
Collaboration!
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
Here comes who?
Closed systems are systems which allow users to
use content as is, with minimal to modification to
the actual system or program.
Users may create or email content, but changes
to the system are minimal. Content may also live in
a proprietary format, which is not compatible with
other products (at least without conversion).
Examples of closed systems include many library
catalog softwares, email software such as listservs,
Microsoft Office, web browsers, etc.
Many pay to play, proprietary software are
closed systems.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
Here comes who?
Unfortunately, many systems are a mix of closed and
open. You can often do some creation/alteration but you
can’t actually change the program.
For example> Add, edit, delete entries in Wikipedia,
but you are not actually altering the software, just the
website.
However, if you install the Opensource software
MediaWiki (used by Wikipedia) then you can mod the
system.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia,, robinfay.net
Opensource is software that
is released and licensed to
the public for use and/or
modification. It may be
developed by one
developer, a team, or a
community. It may or may not
be open system, but
generally is.
Community source is software
that is developed by a
community or group.
Community source does not
necessarily mean opensource.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia,, robinfay.net
In a nutshell and very much in
general:
open system = opensource +
free software
Closed system = proprietary
and/or commercial (cost may
be through advertisement)
There are many variations in
what constitutes opensystem.
...but in order for all of the
things to work and talk to
each other and be open....
...but in order for all of the things
to work and talk to each other and
be open....
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia,, robinfay.net
APIs are programming interfaces
which facilitate communication
between both open and closed
systems
Metadata is the underlying structure of information on the web.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
Here comes who?
APIs are the pieces of programming
allowing one software to talk to one
another in ways that are understandable
(think translation tools). RSS feeds are
created from APIs.
Metadata is information which relates
description, copyright, format, and more.
While programming languages are the
engines which run the web and the
software we use, metadata is akin to street
signs or maps – communicating to people,
software, and other computer languages.
Let’s check out a little metadata.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
Web designers create metadata to
describe the website and its content.
Metadata for a website is either created by the user when building the website or hand-
coded into the HTML. Some search engines use these keywords to varying degrees.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
You create metadata every time you
edit a Word document.
Descriptive
metadata
Administrative &
Structural
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
... Or upload to Flickr or tag a friend
on Facebook.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
Here comes who?
All of the metadata we (the world) creates is mined in
some form or another. Search engines, document
processing software, library catalogs, websites,
digital portals, even our desktop computer’s indexing
is mining our information
The Web provides almost endless possibilities to
create and share resources and digital objects.
We are now all authors, artists, photographers,
archivists in the world stage....
Sounds great, but....
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
Here comes who?
Many collaborative websites (social networking) such
as Wikipedia rely on the collective expertise of the
group -- the “true” or accurate information will rise to
the top. Untrue or irrelevant information will either sink
to the bottom (fewer hits, bad reviews, marked for
review, etc.) or will be revised by more expert
opinions.
For the most part, this works fairly well; however, there
are drawbacks and quality control is an ongoing issue.
Accuracy and relevance are too big issues with user
generated content.
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, Metadata 101, robinfay.net
Here comes who?
Thoughts
Who owns information?
In the past, priest and experts controlled information. Now content
is created and distributed by users – all of us. What is expertise?
Who controls it?
How does copyright fit into this way of creating the human
experience? What about mashups? When is something new?
Who controls information? Who controls our identity? If we
chose not participate, will others create an identity for you?
Robin Fay, Univ. of Georgia, robinfay.net
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