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Transcript of Open Source
Open Source
Kartik SubbaraoConsultant
Twitter: @kartiksubbaraoLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kartiksubbarao
What is Open Source Software?
● The Open Source Initiative maintains a definition:http://opensource.org/osd
● Some key points:– Free Redistribution
– Source Code
– Derived Works
● Examples of open source licenses: FreeBSD, MIT, GPL
Examples of Open Source Software
Linux
VLC
How Open Source Projects Work
● Minimum requirements:– A way to publish source code
– A way to communicate with users/contributors
● Platforms for open source development– Examples: GitHub, SourceForge, Google Code– Version Control (e.g. Git, Subversion, Mercurial)
– Mailing Lists / Discussion Forums
– Issue Tracking
– Documentation
Version Control
● Manage changes to source code by multiple contributors over time
● Capabilities have evolved from single system, to client/server, to distributed version control
● Common tasks:– Pull/push code from/to a repository
– Show differences between two versions of a file
– Create snapshot releases of the entire project
Mailing Lists / Discussion Forums
● Open Source projects are commonly coordinated by email/web discussions
● Can have different mailing lists for developers, users and announcements
● The goals, progress and culture of a project are are shaped and conveyed by these discussions
Issue Tracking
● Track bugs/enhancements/issues● Prioritize items● Delegate to specific people● Discuss resolution in context
Why Does Open Source Work?
● Environmental Factors– Easy access to connectivity and knowledge
– Common Language
– Tools
– Network Effects
● Intrinsic Factors– Motivations: Individual; Altruistic; Abundance/Flow
– Collaboration
– Different motivations can work together
Companies Using Open Source
● Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and others were built with open source
● 2010 Gartner Survey: 75% of Global 2000 companies uses open source software
● Benefits include zero licensing cost, choice, flexibility, access to source code
● file/print/web/app/database/cloud servers, monitoring, office, collaboration, others
● Commercial support is available from a range of companies, depending on the software
Companies Contributing toOpen Source
● Red Hat, Google, Facebook, Twitter and others are significant contributors to open source
● 2010 Accenture Survey: 29% of 300 large companies contribute to open source software
● Benefits include reduced maintenance overhead, development of industry standards, visibility, increased employee engagement
How to Contribute
● Open Source projects are ongoing experiments in network-enabled collaboration
● Enhancements● Bugfixes● Documentation● Answering Questions● Facilitation
Wikipedia
Education
● Open Courses– MIT Open CourseWare – http://ocw.mit.edu
– Berkeley Courses – http://webcast.berkeley.edu
– Open Yale Courses – http://oyc.yale.edu
– Stanford Class2Go -- http://class2go.stanford.edu/
– Others, including: http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
● Open Source Textbooks– Openstax College – http://openstaxcollege.org/
– College Open Textbooks – http://collegeopentextbooks.org/
Government
● data.gov – Government data and statistics● opensourceforamerica.org and
codeforamerica.org – Organizations promoting open source collaboration among government/citizens at all levels
Hardware
Other Areas
● Quantified Self● Genealogy● Genomics