Digital Odyssey 2014 : Code, the Most Important Language in the World
Friday June 6th, 2014
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Oakham House, Ryerson University
55 Gould St
Toronto, ON M5B 1E9
Open Source software projects and communities
Panel Speakers: Randy Metcalfe, Kirsta Stapelfeldt,
8. It starts with the licence because:
âť– software begins as text
âť– text is copyright
âť– a copyright licence sets out the conditions of use
âť– a permissive licence can be crafted to promote the
freedom to run, study, adapt, redistribute, and modify
the original text or source code
9. 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 benefits
https://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
neutral
http://opensource.org/osd
10. The significance of FOSS:
âť– Access to the source code enables us to learn from the
work of others
âť– Freedom to modify the code enables us to build on the
work of others
âť– Freedom to distribute our modified code allows the
process of learning and growth to be iterative
âť– Natural tendency toward communal development to
leverage efficiency from shared goals
15. 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.
18. History
â—Ź Began life @ UPEI in 2006 (librarians
+ developers working to meet the
needs of researchers while following
best-practices for data stewardship)
â—Ź Designed to meet the diverse needs
of digital asset management in all
areas
â—Ź Key requirements:
o Interoperability and open
standards
o Change over time in keeping with
emerging best practice
19. History
Atlantic Innovation Fund grant from 2010- 2013 funded
development and staff for the project, ending in Summer
2013.
Small local team to an international community
20. Growing the Community
âť– documentation, releases, and presentations
at conferences
âť– helping others implementing the software
(multiple projects)
âť– created opportunities for communication
between implementers (two-way
communication channels)
âť– private services company (discoverygarden
inc)
21. Present Day
Islandora Foundation
A soliciting non-profit founded in July, 2013 to
steward the Islandora project and future
development of both the software and the
community.
Member supported:
âť– Partners - $10,000
âť– Collaborators - $4000
âť– Members - $2000
22. Islandora Community
âť– Foundation Board
➢ Staff
âť– User groups
➢ Google Groups
â– Users - 471
members
â– Devs - 172 members
➢ Camps
➢ Interest Groups
âť– Committees
➢ Committers
➢ Roadmap
âť– Volunteers
➢ Code Reviewers
➢ Release Managers
➢ Testers
➢ Developers
23. Volunteers
âť– Code Reviewers
➢ Release Manager
➢ Component Manager
➢ Reviewer
âť– Testers
➢ Any user who wants to download
RC code/VMs to try out. Aimed at
end users.
âť– 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)
24. It’s all about the community.
Development communities come in all shapes and sizes.
26. 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.
43. Reasons for selecting a FOSS project:
❖ it’s what my friends are doing
âť– it seems really popular and well run
âť– 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
âť– my boss told me I had to
âť– I just like this kind of thing
âť– lots more . . .
48. Things to remember:
âť– you are joining an ongoing conversation
âť– you are engaging with the current version of
an open development community
âť– communities change over time
âť– your participation in the community will
change it
50. Acknowledgements
â—Ź 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
â—Ź many thanks to pinterest user utehil for locating a lego minifigure template!
http://www.pinterest.com/utehil/birthday-party-lego/
Hinweis der Redaktion
And relax . . .
FOSS is not a self-certification scheme.
Now with added animation for freshness!
Make the point that normally you won’t have to select licenses. This is a good resource for reviewing “flavours” of OSS licensing.
Curiously, it isn’t the fork of the software that is significant. It is only the fork of the software development community that matters.
Digital Asset Management Software installed in any institution with a data stewardship requirement - used for institutional repositories, digital collections, and to support collaborative research & the creation of diverse data sets
Developers and Librarians at UPEI familiar with OS communities, because the university uses an OS LIS.
Licensing was complicated (or perhaps made easier) by the dominance of very open licenses in our base systems (FedoraCommons is Apache and Drupal in GPL - 2 or later)
This also makes for an interesting overlapping community, since developers work across the cultures of multiple open source software projects
University administrations and private sector groups both found the open source model challenging. I must have spent 20% of my time explaining things or trying to get round pegs into square holes.
A clearly articulated governance model informs potential contributors how their contributions will be received, decided upon, and accepted.
Where does the project that you are looking at fit? Has the project shifted its position on the square of openness over time?
benevolent dictator
meritocracy
consortium
?
difference between an open source project like VLC Media player, and an open source project like Islandora
One is commonly used by an individual for a common need (playing media) and is installed on a desktop, and one is commonly a server-based installation adopted by an institution for digital archiving
The latter type of project can rarely be sustained by developers alone building something for their own use and sharing it.
Many roles in community management and development - and vibrant, large community is essential.
Although they can be for developers
8 roles that I saw come up - not discreet. You belong to the community from the moment you start using the software. A Critical mass required for the success of any OS community, so being present is important.
Always the first to install a release candidate on a non-standard platform, and write a bug report that includes screenshots, details of the base system, and all steps needed to reproduce the issue.
Teachers start answering questions on the listserv as soon as possible and are always happy to share what they’ve learned.
These people have a visual sense. They design and provide feedback on interfaces and websites and create artwork/Graphics (icons, logos, banners, labels, team t-shirts)
Organizes the meet-up at any conference so that everybody gets a chance to meet in real life - shares a story and experiences by tweeting, blogging, and otherwise talking about the software and acknowledging its contributors. These people listen to the community; work within it, and contribute to its norms, and generally improve connections between people.
They might not have time to develop or write documentation, but the bankroller finds a way to sponsor the time of others, and writes grants in such a way to make space for OS project development.
The responsible manager fosters a team that develops with the OS community in mind, and provides time for developers to publish back to the codebase.