The document discusses open source software and its four core freedoms: the freedom to use software for any purpose, study and modify its code, redistribute copies, and distribute modified versions. It notes that open source allows anyone, including those who don't work for large companies, to contribute ideas to make software better. Examples are given of open source being used for early pharmaceutical research, architecture, emergency shelters, and proposed for making laws more transparent. The conclusion advocates for more open source adoption to allow ideas and innovation to flow freely for positive change.
20. What about the law?
Github – NYSenate Open Legislation Project
Ruth Cheesley
@RCheesley
21. So, why don't lawyers use Github?
TEDGlobal 2012 – Clay Shirky
People with a GitHub account
People experimenting with participation
Lawyers
People with power
Ruth Cheesley
@RCheesley
22. We have a transparent system ...
TEDGlobal 2012 – Clay Shirky
Transparency is openness in
only one direction.
In a truly open society, it needs
to flow both ways.
Ruth Cheesley
@RCheesley
23. In conclusion ...
Be the change you wish to
see in the world
~Mahatma Gandhi
Ruth Cheesley
@RCheesley
24. ● Kubuntu
● Libreoffice
● Gwenview
● GIMP
● Git
With immense gratitude to the following Open Source projects without which this
presentation would be rather less awesome!
@RCheesley
Google.com/+RuthCheesley
ruth.cheesley@viryatechnologies.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
Good Afternoon, my name is Ruth Cheesley and I run a company called Virya Technologies based just outside Ipswich, specialising in Open Source technologies.
This afternoon I'm going to explore the topic of Open Source and why I feel it's so important in the world today.
If you are active on Social Media you can tweet me @Rcheesley or on Google+ at google.com/+RuthCheesley – I'm on most networks so please do add me and ping me if you have any questions.
We will have some time at the end for questions, and I'll be around this evening so feel free to catch me later if you would like to chat.
So, let's start off by what we mean when we say 'Open Source'.
- Probably mostly in a development context
- Extensively used in development, coding
- Explore different licenses
- Consider different areas where it could be used
- Fundemental principals
– Four Freedoms by Richard Stallman
- Developed in the early days when closed and proprietary was becoming the norm
- Free as in free speech, free to do as you like, rather than free beer as in costs nothing
- Four freedoms open doors, give opportunities.
- Not all OSS applies the four freedoms at the same level, to the same groups.
- Freedom 0 is the freedom to run the program for any purpose
So this might be that you run it for the purpose it was originally intended, or that you use it in a totally different an innovative way for which it wasn't originally intended.
Look at this from the perspective of the user, and of the developer – some licenses are more restrictive on one or both of these groups.
The next freedom, freedom 1, allows you to be able to see how the program works, delve under the bonnet, understand how it ticks, and change it.
This might be by making bug fixes, or customising to meet your needs (or that of your client), or even completely re-writing entire parts of the code. The fundamental principle here is being able to get in and poke about and do what you like.
The opposite of this can be found, for example, with microsoft products where the source code is a closely guarded secret and this principle is generally not seen at all in proprietary projects.
Freedom 2 gives you the right to redistribute copies so that you can give it to other people.
I remember at University in the heyday of the Sasser infections when everybody seemed to be getting infected, I only ever used free and open source tools to fix people's computers and recover data, so that they could then keep the software and continue to use it themselves after I fixed whatever had been broken.
Analogy – recipe. Anyone can use it to bake a cake, and you can then share it on with your friends and family.
This is where things get interesting – the ability to distribute modified versions of the existing copy, which gives others the ability to benefit from your changes.
So, if we make changes, fix bugs, correct typo's, add functionality, that we can then share that on with others.
In the recipe analogy, I might tweak the recipe to make it vegan, and then share it on with friends, who might tweak it further and share it with their friends, and so it continues.
So you can see, when we are talking about freedom here, we're talking about free as in, free speech – not free beer, unfortunately.
Freedom in the context of Open Source is the freedom we have just talked about – but often people confuse open source software with free software.
The two often do coincide, but they are not always the same thing.
So, you can see how these principles give you the freedom – but there are a wide range of OS licenses which have different levels of what can and can't be done.
For example, with freedom 3, how about redistributing an OS project within a proprietary solution?
GPL – not allowed, must be released as GPL. Other less restrictive licenses do allow you to incorporate into proprietary software
Lots of different licenses
Flikr – Creative Commons – GPL/LGPL – BSD – etc.
So, who of us uses Open Source technologies?
OK so perhaps I'm exaggerating a little bit, but imagine if everything in the world was developed in a proprietary, closed-source environment. Imagine if nobody shared anything with anybody unless it was for a fee. Imagine if no development was shared until it was in a final, polished release (which was paid for), and there was no access to the source code unless you worked for the organisation licensing the software.
Consider all the innovation we see around us which would either not have happened by now, or never have seen the light of day because the people who came up with it were not inspired or supported by this or that open source project, library or code snippet.
So, with this in mind, could we potentially open source everything?
If we did, would it foster a sharing, caring community or cause world-wide chaos?
Let's explore a couple of areas where open source principles have been brought to bear on traditionally proprietary industries, and how they have faired.
Pharma
Instead of operating in secrecy and guarding their work, shared it. Mailed it to friends. Sent it to Oxford crystallographers, who sent back an informative picture
understand better how the small-molecule inhibitor works so potently against Brd4.
40 labs in the US and 30 more in Europe, encouraging these labs to use it, build upon it, and share their findings in return.
Less than a year- JQ1 prevents the growth of leukemia, making affected cells behave like normal white blood cells. Another group reported that multiple myeloma cells respond dramatically to JQ1. Still another found that the inhibitor prevents adipose cells from storing fat, thus preventing fatty liver disease.
Using the old research models, Bradner’s team might have learned that JQ1 affects AML cells in the first year. But it might have been next year before they got to leukemia, and years after that before they realised it also could affect fatty liver. How many years do you think the old approach adds to the development of drugs we need today?Are we willing to allow that to happen? Anyone who has had their lives touched by cancer would, I'm sure, support a move toward a more open source, rapidly evolving pharmaceutical industry over a slow, clunky money-driven system like we have now.
Emergency shelters in Grenada – hurricane relief. Aid was slow, no media attention, destroyed 75% of housing and all the main cash crop of nutmeg.
Shelters were developed over eight years, now using new material, completely waterproof and hurricane-proof.
Installed in Haiti for over a year with no damage sustained.
Cameron Sinclair & Kate Stohr
“How do you improve the living standards of five billion people? With 100 million solutions”14,819 architectural projects1,648,210 people have benefitted from 156 completed projects around the world44,512 members of the OANAFH – pro-bono design, involve and engage the local community, up-skill local people, design for their community. 20Yrs for UN to make flap in tent
One billion live in abject poverty. Four billion live in fragile but growing economies. 1 in 7 people live in slum settlements. By 2020 it will be 1 in 3.
Emergency shelters in Grenada – hurricane relief. Aid was slow, no media attention, destroyed 75% of housing and all the main cash crop of nutmeg.
Shelters were developed over eight years, now using new material, completely waterproof and hurricane-proof.
Installed in Haiti for over a year with no damage sustained.
Kenaf clinic – HIV/Aids visiting doctors
Grows in 2 weeks in circle
Put a roof on top
Eat after the clinic is complete
Track changes in laws
Changes in governments
Engage community in discussions
Track changes in laws
Changes in governments
Engage community in discussions
Track changes in laws
Changes in governments
Engage community in discussions
Emergency shelters in Grenada – hurricane relief. Aid was slow, no media attention, destroyed 75% of housing and all the main cash crop of nutmeg.
Shelters were developed over eight years, now using new material, completely waterproof and hurricane-proof.
Installed in Haiti for over a year with no damage sustained.
So, in conclusion, I really believe that the world needs open source, and the principles of open source have the ability to make a real change in the world.
I would implore you to consider how the work you are doing right now might benefit the wider world, and consider how you can all take the open source concept forward.