The Success of Open Source

1. The Success of Open Source And the Rise of Community Source Brad Wheeler Indiana University bwheeler@indiana.edu

2. The Open Source model of software production and maintenance is a success. Done. Applications? Open Source is Moving up the Stack Apache, JBoss, Eclipse Linux TCP/IP, SendMail, HTTP ?

3. Questions for Higher Ed • Can I trust open source applications today? • Can I trust open source applications tomorrow? • Who will support it? • Should I invest or be a free rider? • When? • Who will I hold accountable (sue)? • Are there really any total cost of ownership advantages? • Isn’t vended software safer? • Does this fit my institution? Code ~ Coordination ~ Community

4. Meeting the needs of faculty, students, staff, and stakeholders Success? All computing/research images from Indiana University sites

5. Code Coordination Community The Code Linux and Apache have delivered “the code”… can higher ed deliver the application code?

6. The Story of Two Codes • Oncourse code Dim targetName CourseList = "" If UCase("" & user) = UCase("" & Request.Cookies("OC_COURSE")("DPT")) Or UCase("" & user) = "OCADMIN" Then Exit Function Dim mail_dict, mail_ids, read_ids Set mail_dict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary") mail_dict.CompareMode = 1 'Text Mode conn.open cStr(Application("oc_Courses_conn")) • Sakai code public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException { super.init(config); m_redirectContext = config.getInitParameter("redirect-context"); m_redirectPath = config.getInitParameter("redirect-path"); m_logEnabled = "true".equals(config.getInitParameter("log"));

7. Sakai software in production use at Michigan & Indiana Does this code meet the current and future needs for faculty and students?

8. Concurrent Development Leverage Commits To CVS

9. From: The EDUCAUSE CIO Constituent Group Listserv On Behalf of ….. Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 4:57 PM “Dear Mr. Ellison, …we are not interested in migrating to Collaboration Suite and find ourselves locked out of an upgrade path for our Calendar services. If Oracle is unwilling to sell and support Calendar as a standalone service we will be forced to migrate to one of the competing calendaring systems. This would be unfortunate both because Oracle Calendar is a quality product that has served us well, and because of what it says about Oracle's willingness to listen to and accommodate the needs of its higher education customers. We are formally requesting that Oracle commit to maintaining the standalone version of Oracle Calendar in rough parity with the collaboration suite calendar component. We would appreciate a response to this request by January 10, 2005, even if it is not technically feasible to deliver the updated stand-alone version in that timeframe. Sincerely, <list of names, institutions>”

10. Twin Peaks Navigator Chandler/Westwood Control of Code & Destiny But with responsibility too! • Functionality of Systems • integration, standards…innovation • Cost of Systems • operations, maintenance, timing, evolution PKI Dartmouth

11. From: Tai, Raymond Y. [mailto:rytai@ucdavis.edu] Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:37 PMTo: sepp-develSubject: Sakai beyond Oracle/MySQL Hi, As I am converting Sakai to use MS SQL/Server as its backend, I realize this may be a futile effort on my part unless we have some direction from the developers/board members of Sakai as well as uPortal. The following two questions came to mind: (a) Currently, uPortal supports the following db backends: Oracle, MySQL, HypersonicSQL, PostgreSQL, DB2 and Sybase SQL Server at least up to the current version of 2.4.1. If uPortal 3.0 is part of the Sakai project, then what is the direction of db backend support? Scale back uPortal db support to match those with Sakai (Oracle/MySQL) or expand db support for Sakai to include those currently supported by uPortal? (B) Currently, there are db specific code in some of the java code. Question is how to take these db specific codes out of the java code if the direction is to expand db support for Sakai? Any insight is great appreciated. RT

12. Canonical Releases? Code Forking? Code Evolution? Questions of Coordination Questions of Community • Quality? • Feature development? • Cost (TCO)? Release 2.0 Release 1.0 1.1 1.2 Time

13. Code Coordination Community The Coordination Linux and Apache have demonstratd successful models of coordination… can higher ed?

15. Higher Ed Applications

16. Commercial Coordination Closed IP LicensingFees Creating Software Unbundled IP & Support + Commercial Support Options Sustaining Software Maintenance Fees Code Coordination Models Stakeholder Coordination Open IP Community Source Projects Bundled IP & Support Partnering Organizations

17. Black Board Industry Shakeout WebCT ? Consolidation Coordination Home Grown 1995 2004 2007 2002 Consolidation Commercial

18. Community Source Projects “Community source describes a model for the purposeful coordinating of work in a community. It is based on many of the principles of open source development efforts, but community source efforts rely more explicitly on defined roles, responsibilities, and funded commitments by community members than some open source development models.” “Institutional Investments for Institutional Outcomes” www.sakaiproject.org

19. Project (product?) Governance? Governance: Specifying the decision rights and accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior to achieve an objective Adapted from IT Governance, Weill & Ross, 2004

22. Solo Functional Coordination Dysfunctional Coordination Higher Ed Coordination Can higher ed capture economies of scale in software creation and maintenance? The $100 Million question… Lifecycle System Costs/ Effectiveness • Capturing Industry Leverage: • Learning how to partner • Synchronizing institutional • investments • IT architecture discipline • Creating effective communities ? Number Participating

23. From: Charles Severance [mailto:csev@umich.edu] Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 4:17 PMTo: sepp-develSubject: Some Development Needed News/RSS I have a request for some development help. The core team is furiously working on the 1.5 release (Rob Lowden's Holiday gift) and we don't have time to work on a tool which in my mind needs some help. The "news" tool is a legacy tool that does RSS feeds. In my testing and talking to the original developer of the code, it is a pretty simple/basic implementation. I figure that there might be someone out there who could test it out a bit, and teach it a few more formats than 0.91 RSS. This is not a critical thing, but someone with some RSS skills might find it pretty easy to do. If you are interested - let me know - so we don't have 2 people in the same place. Here are the areas in CVS that you would work in. ./chef-tool/src/java/org/sakaiproject/tool/news ./chef-tool/src/reg/chef.news.xml ./chef-tool/src/webapp/vm/news ./chef-tool/src/webapp/vm/news/chef_news-Control.vm ./chef-tool/src/webapp/vm/news/chef_news-customize.vm ./chef-tool/src/webapp/vm/news/chef_news-Layout.vm ./chef-tool/src/webapp/vm/news/chef_news-List.vm /Chuck

24. From: Chris Brandt [mailto:cmbrandt@ucdavis.edu] Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 2:19 PMTo: sepp-develSubject: News / RSS reader I mucked around a little bit in the code and found that the reason that most rss feeds are being denied in Sakai is that very few of them contain an image node (which is required by the current codebase). By commenting out lines 444-447 (of legacy-component\src\java\org\sakaiproject\component\ legacy\news\BasicNewsService.java) and only setting the m_imageX properties if the image node actually exists, most RSS and RDF feeds _are_ usable. I've checked several sites including slashdot and they seem to work just fine. Enjoy! Chris /*if (imageList.getLength() != 1) { throw new NewsFormatException("File received from " + source + " is not in RSS format"); } */ if (imageList.getLength() == 1) { image = imageList.item(0); ---- snip ---- m_imageLink = getNodeValue(image, "link", null); m_imageDescription = Validator.stripAllNewlines(m_imageDescription); }

25. -----Original Message-----From: Charles Severance [mailto:csev@umich.edu] Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 3:14 PMTo: sepp-develSubject: Re: News / RSS reader Chris This is awesome! Thanks a bunch. Your fix is right on the money. I just tested it and checked it into CVS. I attach the CVS commit message at the end of the message. Thanks a lot. Now I need to find more tasks to do. /Chuck

26. The Collaborative Capability Organizational capabilities are bundles of reliable and replicable routines that achieve a valuable purpose No “not invented here” Timely signaling of local matters Collaborative Capability Greater good over just the local good Distributed work via distance Earning trust

27. Twin Peaks Navigator IU & Community Source Projects 2004

28. Code Coordination Community The Community Linux and Apache have cultivated worldwide, sustaining communities … can higher ed?

29. GPL/GNU “Viral” Code Open source Use without fee Derivative works MUST have same license rights Open source Use without fee Allow derivative works Open-Open Code Open source Use without fee Derivative Works Any license.. Licensing Frames Community “Birkenstocks and Wingtips: Open Source Licenses,” EDUCAUSE REVIEW, Jan/Feb 2005.

30. GPL License Commercial “closed” License “open-open” licensing is the best of both worlds for Higher Ed Licensing “Wingtips” Capitalist, Private good philosophy “Birkenstocks” Free software, Public good philosophy

31. From: Fenlason, Clay D [mailto:clayf@bu.edu] Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 9:14 AMTo: advocacySubject: Small School Sakai Yesterday's NERCOMP gathering led by Babi, Mark, Jeff and Jim reminded me of what appears to be a conventional point of view, but one I've tended to be puzzled by. Stripped to its essentials, it goes something like: "Sakai implementation is fine for big schools with lots of resources, but the cost of entry (esp. in terms of staff) is just too high for small schools.“ This sort of thing always leaves me with a wrinkled brow, since we became a SEPP partner precisely *because* we're a small school with limited resources. A larger school might be able to operate with fair success under the illusion that they could go it alone, but we can afford no such pretension. Further yet, we don't yet have the knowledge or skills in-house to just pick up and run with the public code releases. We need a little more guidance, training, time to get ourselves up to speed and forge some collaborative relationships. My first instinct, then, is to think that those who bemoan the frailty of the small school are missing the "community" part of the message: they're thinking "open source," but not "community source."

32. Public Gated Community? Communities Core Governance

33. Arizona State Boston University School of Management Brown University Cambridge University Carlton College Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's Knowledge Media Laboratory Carnegie Mellon University Coast Community College District (Coastline Community College) Columbia University Community College of Southern Nevada Cornell University Dartmouth College Foothill-De Anza Community College District Harvard University Johns Hopkins University Maricopa County Community College District Nagoya University New York University Northeastern University Northwestern University Ohio State University Princeton University Simon Fraser University State University of New York Tufts University University of Amsterdam University of Arizona University of California Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Merced University of California, Santa Barbara University of Cape Town, South Africa University of Colorado at Boulder University of Delaware University of Hawaii University of Illinois University of Lleida University of Melborne University of Minnesota University of Oklahoma University of Toronto University of Texas University of Virginia University of Washington University of Wisconsin, Madison Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Yale University 53 Sakai Partners as 31 Oct 04 1-2 per week since 1 March -- Others are in in various stages of contracting

34. Code Coordination Community The Success of Open Source And the Rise of Community Source Brad Wheeler Indiana University bwheeler@indiana.edu