This document summarizes a presentation given by Sameer Verma on facilitating a digital commons using free and open source software (FOSS). It introduces San Francisco State University and provides an overview of FOSS, including definitions of free software and open source software. It discusses FOSS licensing and provides examples of popular FOSS applications and projects. It also addresses FOSS adoption policies in Southeast Asian countries and the use of FOSS for educational purposes.

1. Facilitating a Digital Commons with Free
and Open Source Software:
Paving the Way for Generations to
Come
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Colloquium Associate Professor
Research,Teaching and Service
Information Systems Department
The University of the West Indies,
Mona Campus, Jamaica San Francisco State University
Sept 18, 2008 San Francisco, CA 94132 USA

2. Introduction ­ San Francisco State University
● Part of the California State University system
– 23 campuses, 450,000+ students, 24,000+ faculty
● San Francisco State University
– 8 colleges
– 30,000+ students
– Undergraduate: 24,000 +
– Graduate: 6,000 +
– Faculty: 1,800 +
http://www.sfsu.edu/

3. About myself

4. Software Freedom Day
● Software Freedom Day 2008
– Celebrated by 600+ teams worldwide
● UWI Mona Team
– Thursday, September 18, 2008
– http://softwarefreedomday.org/teams/centralandsouthamerica/Jamaica
– FOSS for Windows
● http://www.theopendisc.com/
– UWI SFD 2008 Flyer

5. Anecdote

6. Open Document Format
fazverma.wpd > fazlollahi­verma­dsi­1994.odt
futureproofed!

7. Commons
● Gardens
● Streets
● Light posts
● Bathrooms
● Libraries
● Internet Access?
● Software?
● Media?

8. Analog to Digital
● A paper book is analog
– $$ for every extra copy
– A copy of a copy of a copy ...degrades each time you
make a copy
– Last for a few hundred years
● An PDF book is digital
– Near zero $ for extra copies
– A copy of a copy of a copy ...is as perfect as the original
– Last forever

9. Going Digital
● Thousands of books on a thumb drive
● Replicate freely
● Easy storage and retrieval
● Translatable
– Language
– Script
– Audio
– Video

10. Digital Repositories
Paper Books Vinyl Records
01010101010101
1010100100101
CassetteTapes Digital Celluloid Movies
10010100001001
1010101001101010
Paintings
Photos

11. DRM: Who's rights are these?
● Digital Rights Management
– Protect copyrights
– Do users have no rights?
– Whose rights are being protected?
● Digital Restrictions Management!
– What if Apple/Microsoft/Adobe/... went out of
business?
– Your book will no longer “open”

12. ● sustainable
● long term
● representative
● accessible
● ...
● futureproof
Digital Commons

13. FOSS: Free and Open Source
A platform for building sustainable digital
commons

14. Free and Open Source Software
● peer reviewed
● transparent
● meritocratic

15. Free and Open Source Software
● peer reviewed
● transparent
● meritocratic
Academic Process

16. Free and Open Source Software
● Two viewpoints:
– Free Software (http://fsf.org)
– Open Source Software (http://opensource.org)
● FOSS: A public commons approach
● Who's involved:
– Individuals
– Community groups
– Non­profit foundations
– Software corporations

17. Four Freedoms
● Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program, for any
purpose.
● Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works,
and adapt it to your needs.
● Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can
help your neighbor.
● Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and
release your improvements to the public, so that the whole
community benefits.

18. The Open Source Definition
1. Free Redistribution
2. Source Code
3. Derived Works
4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
7. Distribution of License
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
10. License Must Be Technology­Neutral

19. Software Licensing
● Why is a license needed?
– Public domain implies no control over intellectual
property rights
– License defines the terms and conditions for use of
intellectual property
● Copyrights apply to expressions
● Patents apply to ideas
– Copyright enforceable via a license

20. Contractual nature of license
Rosen, L (2005)
“...license is used to describe the legal way a
copyright and patent owner grants permission to
others to use his intellectual property.”
Rosen, L. (2005). Open source licensing: Software freedom and intellectual property law.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

21. FOSS Licenses
● 72 approved licenses
– 9 popular important
– 3 special purpose
– 5 miscellaneous
– 8 redundant
– 26 non­reusable
– 5 superseded
– 4 retired
– 12 uncategorized

22. Categorization
● Reciprocal
● Academic
● Standards
● Content

23. Reciprocal vs Academic
Reciprocal: significant changes to source code
●
must be put back into the public commons
● Linux
●Academic: Academic/Government grant project.
Putting code back into the commons is optional
● BSD Unix
● Solaris
● MacOSX

24. Who does FOSS?

25. Google

26. IBM

27. Oracle

28. Sun Microsystems

29. HP

30. Microsoft

31. Free and Open Source Software
Examples

32. Mozilla Firefox

33. Ubuntu Linux

34. SugarCRM

35. OpenOffice

36. Nokia Maemo

37. Openmoko

38. Android

39. Tuxpaint

40. Projects
● Research
● Teaching
● Service

41. FOSS: Policy and Implementation
● ICT Policy
● Infrastructure
● Availability of Software
● Software Piracy
● Localization of non­English languages

42. ASEAN
Singapore
● 10 countries in ASEAN
Malaysia
– Association of South­East Asian Nations
Brunei D.
● UNDP:
Thailand
– “The vision is that developing countries in
the Asia­Pacific Region can achieve rapid Philippines
and sustained economic and social Indonesia
development by using affordable yet Viet Nam
effective FOSS ICT solutions to bridge
Cambodia
the digital divide.”
Myanmar
Laos
UNDP International Open Source Network: http://www.iosn.net/

43. Methodology
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
OSS adoption in
ASEAN nations
Indonesia Indonesia
Singapore IT Infrastructure
Malaysia Software Industry
Thailand Geographic spread Adoption Survey
Vietnam Local involvement
Cambodia Government actions
Laos Localization efforts
Brunei
Philippines
Myanmar

44. Use of FOSS across ASEAN

45. Studies
● ASEAN group of nations
– Data collection
– Profiling
– Policies
● Indonesia
– Survey
– Interviews

46. Policies matter...
...but implementation speaks volumes

47. Classroom: Unit of focus
vocational or educational

48. Multimedia Applications
● The experiment
– Software needed for the class: Approx. $200
– Will a student at a public university spend $200 on
software for a semester?
– Can FOSS tools adequately fill the need?
● Important: Choice of tool should be based on
the curriculum and not the other way around.

49. Applications
• GIMP – Bitmapped graphics
• Blender – 3D rendering
• Inkscape – Scalable Vector Graphics
• Audacity – Audio editing and manipulation
• Scribus – Desktop Publishing
• Tux paint – Fun for kids...and grown ups!
• Kino – Non­linear Digital Video Editor
• Drupal* – Web 2.0 CMS
Total: $0.00
*Server-side

50. Assignment
● ccmixter.org
• Audio assignment
based on ccmixter.org
samples and loops
• Students download
vocals, drum loops,
effects, etc. and use
Audacity to mix and
recreate tracks.
• Learn audio tools and
legal aspects via
Creative Commons
licenses

51. Assessment
● Are students really satisfied with a FOSS
platform?
● Are we providing education or training?
● We are conducted surveys using a “user
satisfaction” instrument.

52. Lessons learned
● FOSS must meet curricular needs.
● Advocacy works. Evangelism does not.
● Innovative technology.
● Collaborative software development.
● Ethics and legalities of the digital domain.

53. Campus IT services
learning management systems

54. Learning Management at SF State
● Moodle, Drupal, DIVA, Mahara,
Coursestream, ...
– Software Fanaticism or Weighted Scoring?

55. Community Service
[global] community

56. One Laptop Per Child
OLPC­SF
Somebody is finally
thinking of the
children!

57. a different generation
­my compi!
Mira Verma

58. School Galadima, Abuja City, Nigeria
See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Galadima

59.
Samkha village located in the suburbs of northern Thailand
See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Thailand/Ban_Samkha

60.
Khairat school is India's pilot site.
See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_India

61. Sugar: a different interface

62. Sweet as Sugar!
http://laptopgiving.org/en/software­and­interface.php

64. school...to go

65. FOSS makes it happen

66. OLPC Enthusiasts, Jamaica
● Mailing list
– http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc­jamaica
● Web
– http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Jamaica

67. Beyond Software
● Wealth of Networks (Yochai Benkler)
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Networks
● Creative Commons (Lawrence Lessig)
– http://creativecommons.org/
● Wikipedia
– http://www.wikipedia.org/
● Open Access Journals
● Public Library of Science (http://www.plos.org/)
● BioMedCentral (http://www.biomedcentral.com/)
● Harvard Open Access Policy (http://fas.harvard.edu/)

68.
free, open, creative, meritocratic, peer­reviewed,
educational, innovative
you

69.
free, open, creative, meritocratic, peer­reviewed,
educational, innovative
participate
you

70. You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
­­mohandas k. gandhi

71. meritocracy rules!