Open Source software

projects and communities

Randy Metcalfe

Kirsta Stapelfeldt

This morning:

❖ licences

❖ communities

❖ projects

And relax . . .

It’s all about the licence.

It’s all about the licence.If it doesn’t have a FOSS licence, it isn’t FOSS.

What is FOSS?A clunky way of avoiding the difference between

free software and open source software.

Free Software Foundationhttps://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

Open Source Initiativehttp://opensource.org/licenses

It starts with the licence because:

❖ software begins as text

❖ text is copyright

❖ a copyright licence sets out the conditions of use

❖ a permissive licence can be crafted to promote the

freedom to run, study, adapt, redistribute, and modify

the original text or source code

Four Freedoms

1. freedom to run the program for

any purpose

2. freedom to study how the

program works and adapt it to

your needs

3. freedom to redistribute copies so

that you can help your neighbour

4. freedom to improve the program

and release your improvements

to the public so that the whole

community benefitshttps://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Open Source Criteria

1. free redistribution

2. source code

3. derived work

4. integrity of the author’s source

code

5. no discrimination against

persons or groups

6. no discrimination against fields

of endeavour

7. distribution of licence

8. licence must not be specific to a

product

9. licence must not restrict other

software

10. licence must be technology

neutralhttp://opensource.org/osd

The significance of FOSS:

❖ Access to the source code enables us to learn from the

work of others

❖ Freedom to modify the code enables us to build on the

work of others

❖ Freedom to distribute our modified code allows the

process of learning and growth to be iterative

❖ Natural tendency toward communal development to

leverage efficiency from shared goals

It’s all about the licence.But which licence?

Kuali OLE - Educational Community License

NewGenLib - GPL

OPALS - GPL

Fedora Repository - Apache

EPrints - GPL

Open Harvester Systems - GPL

Lucene - Apache

VuFind - GPL

Moodle - GPL

Drupal - GPL

SubjectsPlus - GPL

CUFTS - GPL

It doesn’t need to be scary:

http://choosealicense.com/

It’s not all about the licence.

It’s not all about the licence.Once the software is released, the pressure is on to

create some form of open development community.

Because of the permanent possibility of a fork.

It’s all about the community.

Islandorahttp://islandora.ca/

History● Began life @ UPEI in 2006 (librarians

+ developers working to meet the

needs of researchers while following

best-practices for data stewardship)

● Designed to meet the diverse needs

of digital asset management in all

areas

● Key requirements:

o Interoperability and open

standards

o Change over time in keeping with

emerging best practice

HistoryAtlantic Innovation Fund grant from 2010- 2013 funded

development and staff for the project, ending in Summer

2013.

Small local team to an international community

Growing the Community

❖ documentation, releases, and presentations

at conferences

❖ helping others implementing the software

(multiple projects)

❖ created opportunities for communication

between implementers (two-way

communication channels)

❖ private services company (discoverygarden

inc)

Present Day

Islandora FoundationA soliciting non-profit founded in July, 2013 to

steward the Islandora project and future

development of both the software and the

community.

Member supported:

❖ Partners - $10,000

❖ Collaborators - $4000

❖ Members - $2000

Islandora Community

❖ Foundation Board➢ Staff

❖User groups➢ Google Groups

■ Users - 471

members

■ Devs - 172 members

➢ Camps

➢ Interest Groups

❖Committees➢ Committers

➢ Roadmap

❖ Volunteers➢ Code Reviewers

➢ Release Managers

➢ Testers

➢ Developers

Volunteers

❖Code Reviewers➢ Release Manager

➢ Component Manager

➢ Reviewer

❖ Testers➢ Any user who wants to download

RC code/VMs to try out. Aimed at

end users.

❖Developers➢ Anyone who contributes modules,

tools, forms, or any other code

back to the community.

➢ CLA to accept contributions under

a GNU license.

➢ Software Acceptance Procedure

to define the steps.

Continuous Integration Server (Travis)

It’s all about the community.Development communities come in all shapes and sizes.

Get your shoes on . . .

It’s all about the community.When you first encounter and begin learning about some

FOSS project you are already coming to grips with its

particular community.

square of openness

more open to participatory governance

Roles in FOSS communities.

One community model does

not fit all open source projects.

Code is not the most important

language in the world.

“I’m not a developer.”

Common non-developer roles in FOSS communities.

Bonus Points:

● Joins the mailing lists

● Always in IRC

channel

● Happy to work with

tickets

user

● Writes & edits docs

● Translates

● Reports Typos

doc

guru

● Installs new releases

● Reports & verifies

bugs

QA

helper

teacher● answers questions on

listserv

● always happy to share

what they’ve learned

artist● provide feedback on

interface websites

● create

artwork/graphics

(icons, logos, etc)

promoter● tweets, blogs and

talks about

experience

● meets up IRL

bankroll● sponsors time of

others

● writes grants that

make space for

generalized

development

● keep OS community

in mind

● budgets time and

resources to

contribute back

good

manager

It’s not all about the community.

It’s not all about the community.

❖ your time is finite

❖ your work is not always your own

❖ you have specific goals

square of engagement

more use of the software

Reasons for selecting a FOSS project:

❖ it’s what my friends are doing

❖ it seems really popular and well run

❖ its proposed functionality and development roadmap

make it the ideal choice for my institution even if it is

some years away even from a beta release

❖ my boss told me I had to

❖ I just like this kind of thing

❖ lots more . . .

Does it matter why you get involved?

Does it matter why you get involved?

No.

Things to remember.

Ah . . .

Things to remember:

❖ you are joining an ongoing conversation

❖ you are engaging with the current version of

an open development community

❖ communities change over time

❖ your participation in the community will

change it

Thanks!

Acknowledgements

● All photos copyright Randy Metcalfe

● The “square of engagement” first discussed in a blog post (Dec., 2008) by Randy Metcalfe,

http://www.eifl.net/news/square-engagement

● The “square of openness” was used in a briefing note on “Governance Models” (Feb., 2010) by

Ross Gardler and Gabriel Hanganu of OSS Watch, http://oss-

watch.ac.uk/resources/governancemodels

● many thanks to pinterest user utehil for locating a lego minifigure template!

http://www.pinterest.com/utehil/birthday-party-lego/