Herding Cats: Governance in Free and Open Source Software

1. Herding Cats:
Governance in Free and Open Source Software
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor
Information Systems Department
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, California
sverma@sfsu.edu
http://verma.sfsu.edu
March 19, 2012 - CBMIS Program
Mona School of Business,
University of the West Indies, Jamaica

2. Thou shalt not print – His Stevenness
 May 2010. The iPad cannot print
 Cannot print or will not print?
 Who gets to decide?
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/10/steve-jobs-says-printing-will-come-for-ipad/

3. A clever hack!

4. Ingenuity wins!
Free and Open Source Software provides the
flexibility.
How much freedom is too much freedom?

5. GNU Project
 GNU = GNU's not Unix
 recursive acronym
 Started by Richard M. Stallman in 1985

http://groups.google.com/group/net.unix-wizards/msg/4dadd63a976019d7

6. Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)
(3) non-profit organization based in Boston, MA,
USA. We rely on support from individuals like you
to carry out our worldwide mission to preserve,
protect and promote the freedom to use, study,
copy, modify, and redistribute computer software,
and to defend the rights of all free software users.

7. GNU General Public License
 V1 - 1989
 V2 - 1991
 V3 – 2007
 Most widely used FOSS License
 FSF is the keeper of GPL

8. What does “Free” mean?
 Free as in Freedom or Free as in Beer?
 Free implies “zero cost”
 Free implies “liberty”
or

9. Stallman's 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.

10. Open Source Initiative
 Created in 1998 to counter the confusion
around the term “free”.“Free” is not business
friendly.
 Open Source – simply put, the source code is
open.
 First meeting
 Eric Raymond, Bruce Perens, Larry Augustin, Jon
“maddog” Hall, Christine Peterson, Todd Anderson,
Sam Ockman, Michael Tiemann.
 Christine Peterson suggested “open source”.

11. The Open Source Definition
http://opensource.org/docs/osd
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 Technology-Neutral

12. GPL Family - reciprocation
 GNU General Public License or GPL
 Lesser GPL, sometimes also referred to as
Library GPL
 GNU Free Documentation License or GFDL
Linux kernel is released under GPL version 2

13. BSD family - academic
 Sourced from AT&T Unix
 Heavily modified by UC Berkeley. Therefore
called Berkeley Software Distribution.
 See history at
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html
 Gave rise to many Unices, including Solaris,
MacOSX, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD etc.
 Have their own licenses.
Android is released under the Apache license

14. So, which is it?
 Free/Libré Open Source Software (FLOSS)
 Free Software (FS)
 Open Source Software (OSS)
 Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
 Varies by geography
 Used interchangeably
 What really matters is the license!

15. Licenses
 Complete list of FSF licenses
 http://www.fsf.org/licensing/education
 Complete list of OSI Licenses
 http://opensource.org/licenses/category

16. Creative Commons
 Creative Commons is analogous to FOSS
except that they create licenses for content and
not code.
 http://creativecommons.org/
 Listen to this (a capella):
 http://ccmixter.org/files/anjibee/19299
 Then listen to this (nicely remixed under a CC license):
 http://ccmixter.org/files/hepepe/20997
 Creativity grows and flows when allowed to mingle.

17. FOSS: Use anywhere
 Linux
 Unix
 Mac Source code
 Windows Object code
 …
 ... OS Platform

18. Who uses FOSS
 Google, HP, Intel, Oracle, IBM, Amazon,
Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Internet
Archive...and yes, Apple and Microsoft as well!
http://www.techdigest.tv/steve-ballmer-hands.jpg

19. Who uses FOSS
 UWI Mona...
http://coe-msb.org

20. Who uses FOSS
Providence Basic School, Kingston, Jamaica
August Town Primary School, August Town, Jamaica
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm

21. Who uses FOSS
 ...and Lidia in the jungles of Peru.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xby2uj_web-la-selva_tech

22. Learn more
http://laptop.org

23. Explore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open_source_software

24. Example: Debian
 Ian Murdock = Founder of Debian
 Deborah = Ian's girlfriend (now wife)
 Deb + Ian = Debian
 Now managed by a non-profit foundation
 Elects president via elections (democracy).
 Values technical contributions above all else.
 Limited bureaucracy is more enabling than
coercive

25. Example: Ubuntu
 A project by Mark Shuttleworth, a Debian
developer turned rich guy from South Africa.
 Ubuntu = Humanity towards others.
 Ubuntu is managed by community council,
technical board and SABDFL
 Mark Shuttleworth is SABDFL
 Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life.
 Meritocracy

26. Governance Models?
No traditional models, but governance does exist.
Governance is ad-hoc.

27. Questions? Ask away!

28. Made with the free stuff
http://libreoffice.org