Open Source for Libraries Nicole C. Engard Vice President of Education, ByWater Solutions Koha Documentation Manager Author, The Accidental Systems Librarian 2d & Practical Open Source Software for Libraries tasl.web2learning.net & opensource.web2learning.net [email protected]Wednesday, February 20, 13
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Open Source for Libraries
Nicole C. EngardVice President of Education, ByWater Solutions
Koha Documentation Manager
Author, The Accidental Systems Librarian 2d & Practical Open Source Software for Libraries
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
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
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."
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/.
“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
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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
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...”
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.
• 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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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
Online Surveys• Install on your own servers• WYSIWYG HTML Editor• User-Management• Free with no limits on number of surveys or responses• Multi-Lingual Surveys in more than 50 languages• Integration of pictures and movies into a survey• Creation of a printable survey version• Anonymous and Not-Anonymous survey• Open and closed group of participant surveys• Optional public registration for surveys
•Open Source browser plugin for Firefox and Chrome•Provides access to library resources from the browser•Uses an open source framework from which editions for specific
libraries can be built•Currently, 850+ academic and public libraries
have created public LibX editions•Integrates into popular websites (Google Scholar, Amazon, Barnes
• Open source Firefox extension (standalone version in alpha)• Helps you collect, manage, and cite research resources• Playlist-like organization• Allows for note-taking• Includes saved searches and tags• Integration with MS Office & Open Office• Data stored in your web browser
• Can store of files and bibliography online as well• Allows for shared collections http://zotero.org
•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.
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