open source for libraries
TRANSCRIPT
Open Source for Libraries
Nicole C. EngardVice President of Education
ByWater [email protected]
Thursday, January 19, 12
Outline
• What is Open Source?
• Products for your Library
• Q&A Throughout
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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
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What is Open Source?Open source soLware is soLware that users have the ability to run, distribute, study and modify for any purpose.
Open source is a collaboraMve soLware-‐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 innovaMon.2
1,2 hQp://connect.educause.edu/display/47941
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What is Free Software?• OLen you will hear Free & Open Source SoLware (F/OSS) in conjuncMon.
• The Free SoLware DefiniMon (hQp://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-‐sw.html) is similar to, but not idenMcal to the Open Source DefiniMon (hQp://www.opensource.org/docs/definiMon.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
soLware
• Freedom of use
• Freedom to copy
• Freedom to modify
• Freedom to contribute
hQp://www.web2learning.net/archives/4263
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Sharing of ideas
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples, then you and I will sMll 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
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The Cathedral (proprietary soAware)
• Development occurs behind walls
• Source code is usually not provided -‐ kept locked up
• Corporate hierarchy
The Bazaar (open source soAware)
•Code developed over the Internet with several others in public view
•Source code open to all users
• “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”
hQp://www.catb.org/~esr/wriMngs/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 software. They work as the governing body behind all decisions related to the software. 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 soLware•Community is crucial to the growth of open source•Without shared knowledge and collaboraMon the project will not grow
•“CriMquing the community is a right reserved for those who have proved themselves by making valuable contribuMons”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 documentaMon•Debug•Educate others
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“Crowdsourcing has it genesis in the open source movement in soLware. The development of the Linux operaMng system proved that a community of like-‐minded peers was capable of creaMng a beQer product than a corporate behemoth like MicrosoL. Open source revealed a fundamental truth about humans that had gone largely unnoMced unMl the connecMvely of the Internet brought it into high relief: labor can oLen be organized more efficiently in the context of a community than it can in the context of the corporaMon. 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 enthusiasMcally pitch in to improve the final product, simply for the sheer pleasure of helping one another and creaMng something beauMful 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
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Who’s Using Open Source?
•Government Agencies•All Kinds of Businesses
•Schools (K-‐colleges)•Librarians
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http://www.unisys.com/unisys/news/detail.jsp?id=5100086&pid=&sid=203
2007 Survey Results
Open Source in Business
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• In 2010 a survey of 300 large organizaMons in both the private and public sector found:
• 50% are fully commiQed to open source in their business
• 28% say they are experimenMng with open source and keeping an open mind to using it
• 38% expecMng to migrate mission-‐criMcal soLware 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
hQp://newsroom.accenture.com/arMcle_display.cfm?arMcle_id=5045
Open Source in Business
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Making money on open source• “IBM not only accepted open source soLware 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 unconvenMonal 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 soLware development for an investment of $100 million.”
TapscoQ, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. “Joining Linux.” In Wikinomics: How mass collaboraMon changes everything, 79-‐82. Expanded EdiMon. New York, NY: Penguin USA, 2008.
hQp://www.wikinomics.com/book/.
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Total AcMve Sites: 6/2000 to 1/2012
hQp://news.netcraL.com/archives/2012/01/03/january-‐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
•CollaboraMve 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 informaMon should be freely accessible to everyone
• Give away stuff
• Benefit from the generosity of others
• Are about communiMes
• Make the world a beQer place
-‐-‐ Horton, G. hQp://Mnyurl.com/3jvumn
Open Source & Libraries
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Libraries and Open Source make the perfect pair
[Librarians] "are almost ethically required to use and develop open source soLware."
Crawford, R. S. hQp://www.lugod.org/presentaMons/oss4lib.pdf
hQp://www.flickr.com/photos/cavort/151687944/
Open Source & Libraries
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Libraries and Open Source make the perfect pair
“Libraries are commiQed to the noMon of the ‘commons.’ Libraries are in fact one of the last best hopes for the preservaMon 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 insMtuMons that share their stuff the way we do through ILL?
-‐-‐ Lucia, J.
Open Source & Libraries
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2007 Survey Results
hQp://www.unisys.com/unisys/news/detail.jsp?id=5100086&pid=&sid=203
Open Source & Libraries
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• 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 quesMons libraries have:
Open Source & Libraries
Thursday, January 19, 12
•ByWater SoluMons
•BibLibre•Equinox•YourLibrarySite•And more!
Is there support? Do I have to know how to program?
•Local Students•Freelance Developers
Support for Open Source
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• Open Source developers follow the rule of “Release early and release oLen”
• Users vote with their dollars and Mme
• 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 informaMon officer for the GSA (U.S. General Services AdministraMon), 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.
• hQp://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 posiMve aspects of open source soLware should be given consideraMon during procurement research.
• hQp://arstechnica.com/open-‐source/news/2009/10/dod-‐military-‐needs-‐to-‐think-‐harder-‐about-‐using-‐open-‐source.ars
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For a total 284 days in 2006 (or more than nine months out of the year), exploit code for known, unpatched criMcal 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 soLware fixes from MicrosoL were available to fix IE flaws that criminals were acMvely using to steal personal and financial data from users.
In a total of ten cases last year, instrucMons detailing how to leverage "criMcal" vulnerabiliMes in IE were published online before MicrosoL had a patch to fix them.
In contrast, Internet Explorer's closest compeMtor in terms of market share -‐-‐ Mozilla's Firefox browser -‐-‐ experienced a single period lasMng 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.
hQp://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/01/internet_explorer_unsafe_for_2.html
Isn’t Open Source Risky?
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Risk of Proprietary Software• “Closed-‐source efforts oLen suffer from flaws
and problems which the original development team never anMcipated. Lack of inspecMon of the code by other programmers can mean that inappropriate design constraints and other errors might not be discovered unMl the code is already in use.”
Pavlicek, Russell. Embracing insanity : open source soLware development. Indianapolis IN:
SAMS, 2000. p. 33.
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All soLware has risks, you need to evaluate open source the same way you do proprietary systems.
Several Levels of Risk to consider:
• SoLware security issues• Open source is just as secure if not more secure than proprietary systems because of its transparency• Evaluate open source soLware no differently than you do other soLware!
• Company mergers and acquisiMons• Because you own the code to your system you are not Med to one support source and will never be leL without support
Software is Risky!
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•Absolutely, with the right in-‐house skills
•Linux server management
•Web programming
•Perl / PHP / MySQL
•Systems knowledge
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
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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
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Now What?
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Play Time• Start downloading and installing applicaMons that will make things more efficient (and possibly affordable) for you.
hQp://www.flickr.com/photos/nengard/3253133986/
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Portable Play•Can’t install soLware on your work computer?•Try PortableApps:
•Install on your USB drive and use many of these open source applicaMons without installing to the hard drive
hQp://portableapps.com
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Local Play•Don’t have access to a web server?
•Try BitNami:• Free, easy to setup wikis, blogs, forums and many other web applicaMons that you can run locally or in the cloud. BitNami makes deploying server soLware a simple and enjoyable process.
hQp://bitnami.org/
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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
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OSS & Libraries Links• Open Source SoLware in LibrarieshQp://infomoMons.com/musings/ossnlibraries/
• Open Source SoLware and Libraries Bibliographyzotero.org/groups/freelibre_and_open_source_soLware_and_libraries_bibliography
• PracMcal Open Source SoLware 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.nyMmes.com
• OpenSource.comhQp://opensource.com
• Open Source at DatamaMonitmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/
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Online Reading List• Open Source: Narrowing the Divides between EducaMon, Business, and CommunityhQp://connect.educause.edu/display/47941
• The concepts of Free SoLware & Open Standards: IntroducMon to Free SoLware hQp://Lacademy.org/materials/fsm/1#1
• We Love Open Source SoLware. No, You Can’t Have Our CodehQp://journal.code4lib.org/arMcles/527
• Open Source SoLware Tools And Directories: Where To Find Them, How To Evaluate ThemhQp://www.masternewmedia.org/open-‐source-‐soLware-‐tools-‐and-‐directories-‐where-‐to-‐find-‐them-‐how-‐to-‐evaluate-‐them/
• Open Source Security BibliographyhQp://www.zotero.org/nengard/items/collecMon/QKWPIXK9
• Nicole’s Zotero LibraryhQp://www.zotero.org/nengard/items/collecMon/1796131
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Print Reading List• Prac%cal Open Source So/ware 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 So/ware 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
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Thank You!
Nicole C. EngardVice President of Education
ByWater [email protected]
Thursday, January 19, 12