"This book is a collection of empirical research regarding the status of F/OSS projects, presenting a framework and state-of-the-art references on F/OSS projects, reporting on case studies covering a wide range of F/OSS applications and domains. It asserts trends in the evolution of software practices and solutions to the challenges ubiquitous nature free and open source software provides"--Provided by publisher.
This handbook of research is one of the few texts to combine Open Source Software (OSS) in public and private sector activities into a single reference source. It examines how the use of OSS affects practices in society, business, government, education, and law.
In online education, there is a challenge to not only meet the pedagogical aspects of digital education but also to understand the user experience within learning platforms and student interaction. Through online functions and advanced technology, a student's learning style can be enhanced. Learner Experience and Usability in Online Education provides emerging research on the design, implementation, and evaluation of user experience in online learning systems. While highlighting topics such as computer-based assessments, educational digital technologies, and immersive learning environments, this publication explores the human-computer interaction in the educational realm. This book is an important resource for educators, school administrators, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the role of positive user experience in educational learning systems.
To understand the principles and practice of software development, there is no better motivator than participating in a software project with real-world value and a life beyond the academic arena. Software Development: An Open Source Approach immerses students directly into an agile free and open source software (FOSS) development process. It focus
The pervasiveness of and universal access to modern Information and Communication Technologies has enabled a popular new paradigm in the dissemination of information, art, and ideas. Now, instead of relying on a finite number of content providers to control the flow of information, users can generate and disseminate their own content for a wider audience. Open Source Technology: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications investigates examples and methodologies in user-generated and freely-accessible content available through electronic and online media. With applications in education, government, entertainment, and more, the technologies explored in these volumes will provide a comprehensive reference for web designers, software developers, and practitioners in a wide variety of fields and disciplines.
Much of the innovative programming that powers the Internet, creates operating systems, and produces software is the result of "open source" code, that is, code that is freely distributed--as opposed to being kept secret--by those who write it. Leaving source code open has generated some of the most sophisticated developments in computer technology, including, most notably, Linux and Apache, which pose a significant challenge to Microsoft in the marketplace. As Steven Weber discusses, open source's success in a highly competitive industry has subverted many assumptions about how businesses are run, and how intellectual products are created and protected. Traditionally, intellectual property law has allowed companies to control knowledge and has guarded the rights of the innovator, at the expense of industry-wide cooperation. In turn, engineers of new software code are richly rewarded; but, as Weber shows, in spite of the conventional wisdom that innovation is driven by the promise of individual and corporate wealth, ensuring the free distribution of code among computer programmers can empower a more effective process for building intellectual products. In the case of Open Source, independent programmers--sometimes hundreds or thousands of them--make unpaid contributions to software that develops organically, through trial and error. Weber argues that the success of open source is not a freakish exception to economic principles. The open source community is guided by standards, rules, decisionmaking procedures, and sanctioning mechanisms. Weber explains the political and economic dynamics of this mysterious but important market development. Table of Contents: Preface 1. Property and the Problem of Software 2. The Early History of Open Source 3. What Is Open Source and How Does It Work? 4. A Maturing Model of Production 5. Explaining Open Source: Microfoundations 6. Explaining Open Source: Macro-Organization 7. Business Models and the Law 8. The Code That Changed the World? Notes Index Reviews of this book: In the world of open-source software, true believers can be a fervent bunch. Linux, for example, may act as a credo as well as an operating system. But there is much substance beyond zealotry, says Steven Weber, the author of The Success of Open Source...An open-source operating system offers its source code up to be played with, extended, debugged, and otherwise tweaked in an orgy of user collaboration. The author traces the roots of that ethos and process in the early years of computers...He also analyzes the interface between open source and the worlds of business and law, as well as wider issues in the clash between hierarchical structures and networks, a subject with relevance beyond the software industry to the war on terrorism. --Nina C. Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education Reviews of this book: A valuable new account of the [open-source software] movement. --Edward Rothstein, New York Times We can blindly continue to develop, reward, protect, and organize around knowledge assets on the comfortable assumption that their traditional property rights remain inviolate. Or we can listen to Steven Weber and begin to make our peace with the uncomfortable fact that the very foundations of our familiar "knowledge as property" world have irrevocably shifted. --Alan Kantrow, Chief Knowledge Officer, Monitor Group Ever since the invention of agriculture, human beings have had only three social-engineering tools for organizing any large-scale division of labor: markets (and the carrots of material benefits they offer), hierarchies (and the sticks of punishment they impose), and charisma (and the promises of rapture they offer). Now there is the possibility of a fourth mode of effective social organization--one that we perhaps see in embryo in the creation and maintenance of open-source software. My Berkeley colleague Steven Weber's book is a brilliant exploration of this fascinating topic. --J. Bradford DeLong, Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley Steven Weber has produced a significant, insightful book that is both smart and important. The most impressive achievement of this volume is that Weber has spent the time to learn and think about the technological, sociological, business, and legal perspectives related to open source. The Success of Open Source is timely and more thought provoking than almost anything I've come across in the past several years. It deserves careful reading by a wide audience. --Jonathan Aronson, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California
For many schools in today's economy, money is tight, and costs must be closely monitored. With this in mind, there is one area where educators can save: free, open source software. In Energize Education through Open Source, Christopher D. Whittum explains the ins and outs of a huge repository of educational and productivity software that is available and open source. Filled with practical examples, this guide shares how this software and hardware can be obtained, provides suggestions for integrating it, and shows how schools can find the options that work best for their students and teachers. Whittum, who has worked with computers for more than thirty years, addresses and explains the Linux operating system, discusses how the open source products can be integrated into existing curricula, and provides suggestions for applications that could serve as aids to learning. Energize Education Through Open Source provides a feasible technology solution for schools facing financial barriers.
In Empower, A.J. Juliani and John Spencer provide teachers, coaches, and administrators with a roadmap that will inspire innovation, authentic learning experiences, and practical ways to empower students to pursue their passions while in school. Empower will provide ways to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities for our learners.
