Open Source in Libraries: Freedom and Community
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Open Source for Libraries Nicole C. Engard Vice President of Education ByWater Solutions [email protected] Tuesday, April 10, 12
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Transcript of Open Source in Libraries: Freedom and Community
Open Source for Libraries
Nicole C. EngardVice President of Education
ByWater [email protected]
Tuesday, April 10, 12
What isn’t Open Source?
• “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.”
Common Open Source FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt)
Comic: Author: Unknown | Year: Unknown | Source: Unknown
Tuesday, April 10, 12
What is Open Source?Open source soCware is soCware that users have the ability to run, distribute, study and modify for any purpose.
Open source is a collaboraEve soCware-‐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 innovaEon.2
1,2 h<p://connect.educause.edu/display/47941
Tuesday, April 10, 12
What is Free Software?•OCen you will hear Free & Open Source SoCware (F/OSS) in conjuncEon.
•The Free SoCware DefiniEon (hQp://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-‐sw.html) is similar to, but not idenEcal to the Open Source DefiniEon (hQp://www.opensource.org/docs/definiEon.php)
•Free does not mean free of cost -‐ it means Free as in Freedom
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4 Freedoms of Free Software• You need all four of these freedoms to have free
soCware
• Freedom of use
• Freedom to copy
• Freedom to modify
• Freedom to contribute
hQp://www.web2learning.net/archives/4263
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Sharing of ideas"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples, then you and I will sEll 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."
AQributed to Bernard Shaw
http://ftacademy.org/materials/fsm/1#1
Tuesday, April 10, 12
The Cathedral (proprietary so4ware)
• Development occurs behind walls
• Source code is usually not provided -‐ kept locked up
• Corporate hierarchy
The Bazaar (open source so4ware)
•Code developed over the Internet with several others in public view
•Source code open to all users
• “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”
h<p://www.catb.org/~esr/wriIngs/cathedral-‐bazaar/cathedral-‐bazaar/
The Cathedral & The Bazaar
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Open Source GovernanceWhat 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 role of the community?
•The community looks out for the best interests of the soSware. They work as the governing body behind all decisions related to the soSware. The community decides what features to develop next and who the managers are.
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Open Source Community•Open source is about more than free soCware•Community is crucial to the growth of open source•Without shared knowledge and collaboraEon the project will not grow
•“CriEquing the community is a right reserved for those who have proved themselves by making valuable contribuEons”1
•People who use open source can collaborate and contribute in many ways with the community
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/.
•Write code•Write documentaEon•Debug•Educate others
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“Crowdsourcing has it genesis in the open source movement in soCware. The development of the Linux operaEng system proved that a community of like-‐minded peers was capable of creaEng a beQer product than a corporate behemoth like MicrosoC. Open source revealed a fundamental truth about humans that had gone largely unnoEced unEl the connecEvely of the Internet brought it into high relief: labor can oCen be organized more efficiently in the context of a community than it can in the context of the corporaEon. 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 enthusiasEcally pitch in to improve the final product, simply for the sheer pleasure of helping one another and creaEng something beauEful 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.8
Open Source Crowdsourcing
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Believing in OpennessIf you don't know why you do what you do then how will you ever get people to be loyal and want to be a part of what you do?
The goal is not just to sell to people what you have, it's to sell people on what you believe -‐ the goal is not to hire people who want a job it's to hire people who believe what you believe. If you hire people just because they can do a job they will work for your money -‐ if you hire people who believe what you believe they work for you with blood and sweat and tears.
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire acEon hQp://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_acEon.html
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Open Source is Easy!“The hard drive on one of our reference desk PCs died today. I threw in a new one, but I didn't feel like spending the day siing through Windows updates, so I loaded Ubuntu 11.04 on it instead. The install, as I'm sure you know, only took about 15 minutes. Now, before I add my next point, keep in mind that I manage a staff whose average age is about 63. No joke. Most of them have been working at my facility longer than I've been alive. SEll, once I had Ubuntu up and running, they were literally fighEng over who got to use the new operaEng system. They loved it that much.
Now I agree, Linux kicks buQ. I use it about 80% of the Eme. Typing to you on Mint right now! However, I never expected novice users to take to it so quickly. Please, next Eme you do an open source webinar, impress on your aQendees that libraries aren't sacrificing a thing by switching over to open source soCware. If anything, open source operaEng systems and applicaEons can be far more user friendly for the novice user than Windows will ever be...”
-‐-‐ Mark at the The Rahway Public Library
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Who’s Using Open Source?
•Government Agencies•All Kinds of Businesses
•Schools (K-‐colleges)•Librarians
Tuesday, April 10, 12
http://www.unisys.com/unisys/news/detail.jsp?id=5100086&pid=&sid=203
2007 Survey Results
Open Source in Business
Tuesday, April 10, 12
• In 2010 a survey of 300 large organizaEons in both the private and public sector found:
• 50% are fully commiQed to open source in their business
• 28% say they are experimenEng with open source and keeping an open mind to using it
• 38% expecEng to migrate mission-‐criEcal soCware 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 beQer security/bug fixing
h<p://newsroom.accenture.com/arIcle_display.cfm?arIcle_id=5045
Open Source in Business
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Making money on open source• “IBM not only accepted open source soCware 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 unconvenEonal 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 soCware development for an investment of $100 million.”
Tapsco<, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. “Joining Linux.” In Wikinomics: How mass collaboraIon changes everything, 79-‐82. Expanded EdiIon. New York, NY: Penguin USA, 2008.
h<p://www.wikinomics.com/book/.
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Total AcEve Sites: 6/2000 to 3/2012
h<p://news.netcraS.com/archives/2012/03/05/march-‐2012-‐web-‐server-‐survey.html
Open Source On the Web
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•Reliability through Peer Review
•Freedom to Innovate
•No Vendor Lock-‐in
•User-‐centric Development
•CollaboraEve Environment
•Zero License Fees
Why so Popular?
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Why Should Libraries Care?
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Libraries and Open Source Both...
• Believe that informaIon should be freely accessible to everyone
• Give away stuff
• Benefit from the generosity of others
• Are about communiIes
• Make the world a be<er place
-‐-‐ Horton, G. h<p://Inyurl.com/3jvumn
Open Source & Libraries
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Libraries and Open Source make the perfect pair
[Librarians] "are almost ethically required to use and develop open source soCware."
Crawford, R. S. h<p://www.lugod.org/presentaIons/oss4lib.pdf
hQp://www.flickr.com/photos/cavort/151687944/
Open Source & Libraries
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Libraries and Open Source make the perfect pair
“Libraries are commiQed to the noEon of the ‘commons.’ Libraries are in fact one of the last best hopes for the preservaEon 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 insEtuEons that share their stuff the way we do through ILL?
-‐-‐ Lucia, J.
Open Source & Libraries
Tuesday, April 10, 12
2007 Survey Results
h<p://www.unisys.com/unisys/news/detail.jsp?id=5100086&pid=&sid=203
Open Source & Libraries
Tuesday, April 10, 12
• 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?
Common quesEons libraries have:
Open Source & Libraries
Tuesday, April 10, 12
•ByWater SoluEons
•Catalyst•Equinox•YourLibrarySite•And more!
Is there support? Do I have to know how to program?
• If you want to contribute to the code -‐ Yes
• If not you can use:•Support Providers•Local Students•Freelance Developers
Support for Open Source
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• Open Source developers follow the rule of “Release early and release oCen”
• Users vote with their dollars and Eme
• Freedom to develop on your own
• Developers love their products
hQp://www.flickr.com/photos/programwitch/2505184887/
Do I have to skimp on features?
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• Casey Coleman, chief informaEon officer for the GSA (U.S. General Services AdministraEon), said in a speech ... that the GSA heavily relies on open source to drive down costs, increase flexibility of IT dollars, and reduce risk. ‘You get much more transparency and interoperability, and that reduces your risk,’ she said.
• h<p://news.cnet.com/8301-‐13505_3-‐9921115-‐16.html
Isn’t Open Source Risky?• US Department of Defense memo encourages the use of open source with many reasons “including cost advantages, reduced risk of vendor lock-‐in, beQer security, and increased flexibility. It says that the posiEve aspects of open source soCware should be given consideraEon during procurement research.
• h<p://arstechnica.com/open-‐source/news/2009/10/dod-‐military-‐needs-‐to-‐think-‐harder-‐about-‐using-‐open-‐source.ars
Tuesday, April 10, 12
For a total 284 days in 2006 (or more than nine months out of the year), exploit code for known, unpatched criEcal 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 soCware fixes from MicrosoC were available to fix IE flaws that criminals were acEvely using to steal personal and financial data from users.
In a total of ten cases last year, instrucEons detailing how to leverage "criEcal" vulnerabiliEes in IE were published online before MicrosoC had a patch to fix them.
In contrast, Internet Explorer's closest compeEtor in terms of market share -‐-‐ Mozilla's Firefox browser -‐-‐ experienced a single period lasEng just nine dayslast year in which exploit code for a serious security hole was posted online before Mozilla shipped a patch to remedy the problem.
h<p://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/01/internet_explorer_unsafe_for_2.html
Isn’t Open Source Risky?
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Risk of Proprietary Software• “Closed-‐source efforts oCen suffer from flaws
and problems which the original development team never anEcipated. Lack of inspecEon of the code by other programmers can mean that inappropriate design constraints and other errors might not be discovered unEl the code is already in use.”
Pavlicek, Russell. Embracing insanity : open source soSware development. Indianapolis IN:
SAMS, 2000. p. 33.
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Risk of Proprietary Software
• “In its 2011 Coverity Scan Open Source Integrity Report, which was released on Thursday, Coverity actually found that open source code has fewer defects per thousand lines of code than proprietary soCware code does.”
Noyes, Katherine. “Actually, Open Source Code Is Be<er: Report.” PCWorld Business Center, February 23, 2012.
h<p://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/arIcle/250543/actually_open_source_code_is_be<er_report.html.
Tuesday, April 10, 12
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/250543/actually_open_source_code_is_better_report.html
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/250543/actually_open_source_code_is_better_report.html
All soSware has risks, you need to evaluate open source the same way you do proprietary systems.
Several Levels of Risk to consider:
• SoSware security issues• Open source is just as secure if not more secure than proprietary systems because of its transparency• Evaluate open source soSware no differently than you do other soSware!
• Company mergers and acquisiIons• Because you own the code to your system you are not Ied to one support source and will never be leS without support
Software is Risky!
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•Absolutely, with the right in-‐house skills
•Systems knowledge
•Linux server management
•Web programming
•Perl / PHP / MySQL
Can I do it Myself?
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Some Numbers
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When asked what Open Source apps they use at work, 977 librarians and library workers answered as follows
hQp://opensource.web2learning.net/archives/category/survey-‐results
Open Source & Libraries
Tuesday, April 10, 12
When asked why they chose and open source app, 977 librarians and library workers answered as follows
hQp://opensource.web2learning.net/archives/category/survey-‐results
Open Source & Libraries
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Now What?
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Play Time• Start downloading and installing applicaEons that will make things more efficient (and possibly affordable) for you.
hQp://www.flickr.com/photos/nengard/3253133986/
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Portable Play•Can’t install soCware on your work computer?•Try PortableApps:
•Install on your USB drive and use many of these open source applicaEons without installing to the hard drive
hQp://portableapps.com
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Local Play•Don’t have access to a web server?
•Try BitNami:•Free, easy to setup wikis, blogs, forums and many other web applicaEons that you can run locally or in the cloud. BitNami makes deploying server soCware a simple and enjoyable process.
h<p://bitnami.org/
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Additional Links•Open Source Living
http://osliving.com
•OSS Watch, open source software advisory service:http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk
•Open Source as Alternativehttp://www.osalt.com
•Nicole’s Delicious bookmarks:http://delicious.com/nengard/opensource
Tuesday, April 10, 12
OSS & Libraries Links• Open Source SoCware in LibrarieshQp://infomoEons.com/musings/ossnlibraries/
• Open Source SoCware and Libraries Bibliographyzotero.org/groups/freelibre_and_open_source_soCware_and_libraries_bibliography
• PracEcal Open Source SoCware for LibrarieshQp://opensource.web2learning.net/blog
• Open Network Libraries hQp://onl.org.nz
• FOSS4LibhQp://foss4lib.org
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Open Source Blogs• The Open RoadhQp://www.cnet.com/openroad/
• Open Ended from Ars TechnicahQp://arstechnica.com/open-‐source
• The H Open SourcehQp://www.h-‐online.com/open/
• ZDNet Open SourcehQp://blogs.zdnet.com/open-‐source
• New York Times -‐ OpenhQp://open.nyEmes.com
• OpenSource.comhQp://opensource.com
• Open Source at DatamaEonitmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Online Reading List• Open Source: Narrowing the Divides between EducaEon, Business, and CommunityhQp://connect.educause.edu/display/47941
• The concepts of Free SoCware & Open Standards: IntroducEon to Free SoCware hQp://Cacademy.org/materials/fsm/1#1
• We Love Open Source SoCware. No, You Can’t Have Our CodehQp://journal.code4lib.org/arEcles/527
• Open Source SoCware Tools And Directories: Where To Find Them, How To Evaluate ThemhQp://www.masternewmedia.org/open-‐source-‐soCware-‐tools-‐and-‐directories-‐where-‐to-‐find-‐them-‐how-‐to-‐evaluate-‐them/
• Open Source Security BibliographyhQp://www.zotero.org/nengard/items/collecEon/QKWPIXK9
• Nicole’s Zotero LibraryhQp://www.zotero.org/nengard/items/collecEon/1796131
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Print Reading List• Prac?cal Open Source SoAware in Libraries by Nicole C. Engard
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolu?onary by Eric S. Raymond
• Embracing Insanity: Open Source SoAware Development by Russell Pavlicek
• The success of open source by Steve Weber
• The open source alterna?ve: Understanding risks and leveraging opportuni?es by Heather J. Meeker
• Open Sources 2.0: The Con?nuing Evolu?on by Chris DiBona, Mark Stone, and Danese Cooper
Tuesday, April 10, 12
Thank You!
Nicole C. EngardVice President of Education
ByWater [email protected]
Tuesday, April 10, 12
