Open Source Movement - Evidence of Open Source Adoption

Evidence of Open Source Adoption

Libraries are using open source software to develop information as well as library services. The purpose of open source is to provide a software that is cheaper, reliable and has better quality. The one feature that makes this software so sought after is that it is free. Libraries in particular benefit from this movement because of the resources it provides. They also promote the same ideas of learning and understanding new information through the resources of other people. Open source allows a sense of community. It is an invitation for anyone to provide information about various topics. The open source tools even allow libraries to create web-based catalogs. According to the IT source there are various library programs that benefit from this.

The following are events and applications that have been developed via the open source community as and echo the ideologies of the open source movement.

OpenCourseWare Consortium — an organization composed of various colleges that support open source and share some of their material online. This organization, headed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was established to aid in the exchange of open source educational materials.

Wikipedia — user-generated online encyclopedia with sister projects in academic areas, such as Wikiversity — a community dedicated to the creation and exchange of learning materials

Project Gutenberg — prior to the existence of Google Scholar Beta, this was the first supplier of electronic books and the very first free library project

Google — this search engine has led the way in transformation of Web-based applications, such as books, scholarly journals, that are based primarily on open source software. Google continues to make applications based on open software. Recently, in November 2009, Google announced that it would be “enabling people everywhere to find, and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state districts, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar”

Microsoft — Before summer of 2008, Microsoft has generally been known as an enemy of the open source community. The company’s anti-open source sentiment was enforced by former CEO Steve Ballmer, who referred to Linux, a widely used open source software, as a “malignant cancer”. Microsoft also threatened Linux that they would charge royalties for violating 235 of their patents. In 2008, however, Sam Ramji, the then head of open source software strategy in Microsoft, began working closely with Bill Gates to develop a pro-open source attitude within the software industry as well as Microsoft itself. Ramji, before leaving the company in 2009, built Microsoft's familiarity and involvement with open source, which is evident in Microsoft's contributions of open source code to Windows Azure, “its new-age web service for building and hosting applications on the net”, among other projects. These contributions would have been previously unimaginable by Microsoft. Microsoft has also recently contributed to the Samba project, which essentially is a recreation of Microsoft’s Server Message Block (SMB) using open source code. This service allows Windows desktops to be integrated with Linux file servers. It can be run on many platforms and aims to “removing barriers to interoperability”. For Microsoft, this meant allowing Linux platforms to compete with their own proprietary Windows software for the sake of promoting the open source movement. Microsoft’s change in attitude about open source and efforts to build a stronger open source community is evidence of the growing adoption and adaption of open source.

Government agencies and infrastructure software — Government Agencies are utilizing open source infrastructure software, like the Linux operating system and the Apache Web-server into software, to manage information. In 2005, a new government lobby was launched under the name National Center for Open Source Policy and Research (NCOSPR) “a non-profit organization promoting the use of open source software solutions within government IT enterprises."

Synthetic Biology- Synthetic Biology is considered the feasibility of the open source movement. This new technology is important and exciting because it promises to enable cheap, lifesaving new drugs as well as helping to yield biofuels that may help to solve our energy problem. Although synthetic biology has not yet come out of its "lab" stage, it has great potential to become industrialized in the near future. In order to industrialize open source science, there are some scientists who are trying to build their own brand of it.

Open Source Movement in the Military- Open source movement has potential to help in the military. The open source software allows anyone to make changes that will improve it. This is a form of invitation for people to put their minds together to grow a software in a cost efficient manner. The reason the military is so interested is because it is possible that this software can increase speed and flexibility. Although there are security setbacks to this idea due to the fact that anyone has access to change the software, the advantages can outweigh the disadvantages. The fact that the open- source programs can be modified quickly is crucial. A support group was formed to test these theories. The Military Open Source Software Working Group was organized in 2009 and held over 120 military members. Their purpose was to bring together software developers and contractors from the military to discover new ideas for reuse and collaboration. Overall, open-source software in the military is an intriguing idea that has potential drawbacks but they are not enough to offset the advantages.

Open Source in Education- Colleges and organizations use software predominantly online to educate their students. Open source technology is being adopted by many institutions because it can save these institutions from paying companies to provide them with these administrative software systems. One of the first major colleges to adopt an open source system was Colorado State University in 2009 with many others following after that. Colorado State Universities system was produced by the Kuali Foundation who has become a major player in open source administrative systems. The Kuali Foundation defines itself as a group of organizations that aims to "build and sustain open source software for higher education, by higher education." There are many other examples of open source instruments being used in education other than the Kuali Foundation as well.

“For educators, The Open Source Movement allowed access to software that could be used in teaching students how to apply the theories they were learning”. With open networks and software, teachers are able to share lessons, lectures, and other course materials within a community. OpenTechComm is a program that is dedicated to “open access, open use, and open edits- text book or pedagogical resource that teachers of technical and professional communication courses at every level can rely on to craft free offerings to their students.” As stated earlier, access to programs like this would be much more cost efficient for educational departments.

Open Source in Healthcare- Created in June 2009 by the nonprofit eHealthNigeria, the open source software OpenMRS is used to document health care in Nigeria. The use of this software began in Kaduna, Nigeria to serve the purpose of public health. OpenMRS manages features such as alerting health care workers when patients show warning signs for conditions and records births and deaths daily, among other features. The success of this software is caused by its ease of use for those first being introduced to the technology, compared to more complex proprietary healthcare software available in first world countries. This software is community-developed and can be used freely by anyone, characteristic of open source applications. So far, OpenMRS is being used in Rwanda, Mozambique, Haiti, India, China, and the Philippines. The impact of open source in healthcare is also observed by Apelon Inc, the "leading provider of terminology and data interoperability solutions". Recently, its Distributed Terminology System (Open DTS) began supporting the open source MySQL database system. This essentially allows for open source software to be used in healthcare, lessening the dependence on expensive proprietary healthcare software. Due to open source software, the healthcare industry has available a free open source solution to implement healthcare standards. Not only does open source benefit healthcare economically, but the lesser dependence on proprietary software allows for easier integration of various systems, regardless of the developer.