And now for somethingcompletely different!

Thomas Kaliltkalil@berkeley.eduCFP 2004April 22, 2004

Not going to talk about

Linux Apache OpenOffice Mozilla Python MYSQL Etc.

Premises There are some potential IT applications

with high social ROI and low private ROI Either:

Applications are not provided at all, or Companies have very limited budgets

for research, product development, evaluation, etc – which limits quality and impact

Big potential payoff because of low marginal costs

Premises

We should experiment with different ways to promote creation, evaluation and use of these applications

Might involve government, foundations, social enterprises, companies, consortia …

Open sources licenses and approaches may have a role to play in these experiments

Example: reading software

Goals for reading software Help ensure that every child can read by the

4th grade Enable children who are behind 1-2 grades

behind to catch up – effective as one-on-one tutor

Fun and easy to use Rigorous, third-party, experimental evaluation

Current market for K-12 educational software not very attractive

Social payoff from high-quality, low-cost reading software

38% of 4th graders can’t read and understand a paragraph from children’s book – as high as 70% in inner-cities

75% of high-school drop-outs report reading difficulties

By middle school – children who read well read 10 million words/year, vs. less than 100K words for children with reading difficulties

Age-Appropriate Books Per Household

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Watts Compton Beverly Hills

Books

0.04 2.7

199

Other possible examples Software for human rights organizations

(e.g. Martus) Software to thwart state-sponsored

censorship and surveillance Public health information systems that

increase childhood immunization rates K-12 software for math and science

education that could increase U.S. performance (currently 18th out of 20th)

Software for adult literacy, GED equivalence

Different approaches for support

Grants for R&D, pilots, evaluation Large cash prize for software that

meets certain specs Guaranteed purchase for software

that meets specs Support could be linked to

requirement for OSS license

Why open source? Public investment would not be stranded Multiple companies or organizations could be

involved in marketing, distribution, after-sales support

Could allow for both high quality (with public support for R&D) and low-cost (no need for firms to recapture R&D costs)

Potential for re-use across projects Potential for people to fix bugs, add or suggest

new features, etc. BSD license could allow for proprietary

enhancements