Open Source Software

Convergencia digital y software libre en el EEES. Algunas experiencias con Gretl

by Ana Jesús López-Menéndez

Co-authored with Rigoberto Pérez and forthcoming in @tic, Revista de Innovación Educativa

La utilización de software libre y abierto (FOSS) aporta numerosas ventajas en el ámbito universitario, que resultan... more La utilización de software libre y abierto (FOSS) aporta numerosas ventajas en el ámbito universitario, que resultan aún más patentes en el marco del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES). Las principales características del FOSS (libertad de uso de programas, acceso al código fuente, estudio y adaptación, distribución de copias e implementación de mejoras que beneficien a toda la comunidad) aparecen relacionadas con competencias como creatividad, trabajo en equipo o adaptación a nuevas situaciones. Este trabajo examina el papel del software libre en el ámbito universitario y su potencial para reducir la brecha digital, presentando también algunas experiencias recientes.

Role of Instructional Design Models And Their Place in Distance Learning

by Muntajeeb Ali

Eric Ashby asserts that “any technology which increases the rate of learning would enable the teacher to teach less... more Eric Ashby asserts that “any technology which increases the rate of learning would enable the teacher to teach less and the learner to learn more”, (as cited in (Singh, 2005, p. 2)). In our daily life we see, that learner learn better when taught through, haptic games, movies, animations and graphics, thus attractive, animated and learner centred activities helps retention of information in learner for longer duration of time. Also learner are more, enthusiastic and interested in using, sharing and communication tools like, Blogs, Instant Chats, Video conferencing and Social Software. Thus we adopt these technologies in distance education, to give better experiences to learner and to make our teaching learning process effective, efficient and accessible for learners. Therefore it is important to have understanding of a variety of instructional design models to give experiences and satisfy learners’ needs in an ever rapidly changing environment (Taylor, n.d.). As there are myriads of instructional design models, suited to distance learning, it is imperative that the proper model should be employed for the desired learning outcome.

Spre „Knowledge city” prin încorporarea tehnologiilor colaborative, de tip Open‐Source

by Camelia Margea

In "SISTEME INFORMATICE PENTRU ADMINISTRAȚIA PUBLICĂ. Concepte teoretice, tehnologii şi soluții de implementare". Timişoara: Editura Universităţii de Vest din Timişoara (West University of Timisoara Publishing House), 2008. 149-160.

O viziune a centrelor urbane ale viitorului, care au la bază capitalul uman este întruchipată sub denumirea de... more O viziune a centrelor urbane ale viitorului, care au la bază capitalul uman este întruchipată sub denumirea de “Oraşele cunoaşterii” (“knowledge cities“ sau “the cities of knowledge”). Care sunt atributele pe care ar trebui să le întrunească o localitate care doreşte să ajungă la acest nivel? Cum pot contribui soluțiile software adoptate la dezvoltarea oraşelor? Care este potențialul oferit de sofware‐ul de tip open source? Acestea sunt câteva dintre întrebările la care încearcă să răspundă lucrarea de față.

Open Source Software for Accomplishing a Human Resource Management Portal

by Camelia Margea

Co-authored with Romeo Margea and Ioan Bandu.
Presented in the 5th WSEAS International Conference on ECONOMY and
MANAGEMENT TRANSFORMATION (EMT '10), West University of Timisoara, Romania, October 24-26, 2010.
Published in 'SELECTED TOPICS in ECONOMY and MANAGEMENT TRANSFORMATION – VOLUME II'.

The paper presents a solution for integrating many aspects of human resource management, with extensible customization... more The paper presents a solution for integrating many aspects of human resource management, with extensible customization possibility (language, interface), to meets specific needs of various organizations, both regarding the organization as a whole, but also in terms of different categories of users that can use the platform. It also provides an overview and perspective on using Open Source Software in human resource management.

Open Source Approach to Project Management Tools

by Camelia Margea

Published in Informatica Economica, vol. 15, no. 1/2011,
http://revistaie.ase.ro/content/57/18%20-%20Margea,%20Margea.pdf

Refences to this article:
* Thuse Lise-Lotte (2011-06-06). LIMITED PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS
EVALUATION. Master Thesis. Supervisor: Olerup Agneta. Department of Informatics, Lund University. http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1982265&fileOId=1982266
** http://www.themanager.org/Knowledgebase/Management/Project.htm [Themanager.org is an Internet-Portal, focused on management topics.]
*** http://www.projectmanagement411.net/open-source-project-management-tools/ [retrieved: 25.05.2012]

Managing large projects involving different groups of people and complex tasks can be challenging. The solution is to... more Managing large projects involving different groups of people and complex tasks can be challenging. The solution is to use Project management software, which allows a more efficient management of projects. However, famous project management systems can be costly and may require expensive custom servers. Even if free software is not as complex as Microsoft Project, is noteworthy to think that not all projects need all the features, amenities and power of such systems. There are free and open source software alternatives that meet the needs of most projects, and that allow Web access based on different platforms and locations. A starting stage in adopting an OSS in-house is finding and identifying existing open source solution. In this paper we present an overview of Open Source Project Management Software (OSPMS) based on articles, reviews, books and developers’ web sites, about those that seem to be the most popular software in this category.

Why South Africans don't FLOSS?

by Lisa Seymour

Open Source Adoption In Large US Companies

by Vaggelis Giannikas

Co-authored with Diomidis Spinellis

Various organizations increasingly adopt open source software, both on desktop PCs and servers. Since the first... more Various organizations increasingly adopt open source software, both on desktop PCs and servers. Since the first movements in open source in the 1960’s its growth has lead to new approaches in software development, licensing, and distribution, as well as in software vendors’ business models. The literature includes very interesting studies regarding prospective benefits, business models and case studies. However, the adoption of open source in large, global companies and its relationship with factors such as profitability, revenues and industry sector has not yet been researched. This study aims to answer these questions based on data we collected from Fortune 1000 companies and provides a method that can be applied in similar contexts.

Organizational adoption of open source software

by Vaggelis Giannikas

Co-authored with Diomidis Spinellis

Organizations and individuals can use open source software (OSS) for free, they can study its internal workings, and... more Organizations and individuals can use open source software (OSS) for free, they can study its internal workings, and they can even fix it or modify it to make it suit their particular needs. These attributes make OSS an enticing technological choice for a company. Unfortunately, because most enterprises view technology as a proprietary differentiating element of their operation, little is known about the extent of OSS adoption in industry and the key drivers behind adoption decisions. In this article we examine factors and behaviors associated with the adoption of OSS and provide empirical findings through data gathered from the US Fortune-1000 companies. The data come from each company's web browsing and serving activities, gathered by sifting through more than 278 million web server log records and analyzing the results of thousands of network probes. We show that the adoption of OSS in large US companies is significant and is increasing over time through a low-churn transition, advancing from applications to platforms. Its adoption is a pragmatic decision influenced by network effects. It is likelier in larger organizations and those with many less productive employees, and is associated with IT and knowledge-intensive work and operating efficiencies.

Free licenses in sensitive industry : a strategic use

by Nathalie Foutel

FOSLET 07 - Workshop on Free and Open Source Learning Environments and Tools

by Stefano Tardini

Industry event participation and network brokerage among entrepreneurial ventures

by Wouter Stam

Published in Journal of Management Studies, 47: 625-653.

Despite the recognition that network brokerage is beneficial for entrepreneurial ventures, little is known about its... more Despite the recognition that network brokerage is beneficial for entrepreneurial ventures, little is known about its antecedents. This study examines how participation in industry events (e.g. conferences) relates to entrepreneurs’ brokerage positions in informal industry networks and how these positions, in turn, impact new venture performance. Using a unique dataset of 45 events and subsequent network relations among entrepreneurs from 90 firms in the open source software industry, results indicate that: (1) entrepreneurs who participated in heterogeneous events or who bridged between events with few common participants were more likely to be brokers; (2) the relationship between event bridging and brokerage was stronger for entrepreneurs with broader prior career experiences; and (3)
network brokerage mediated the event participation–performance link. It appears that events may limit structural opportunities for brokerage and that individual differences matter for exploiting these opportunities. Overall, this study increases understanding of how and when particular networking behaviours are beneficial for entrepreneurs.

When does community participation enhance the performance of open source software companies?

by Wouter Stam

Published in Research Policy, 38: 1288-1299.

This study examined how participation in open innovation communities influences the innovative and financial... more This study examined how participation in open innovation communities influences the innovative and financial performance of firms commercializing open source software. Using an original dataset of open source companies in the Netherlands, I found that the community participation–performance relationship is curvilinear. In addition, results indicate that extensive technical participation in open source projects is more strongly related to performance for firms that also engage in social (“offline”) community activities, for companies of larger size, and for firms with high R&D intensities. Overall, this research refines our
understanding of the boundary conditions under which engagement in community-based innovation yields private returns to commercial actors.

Recommending Mentors to Software Project Newcomers

by Igor Steinmacher

Open Source Software projects success depends on the continuous influx of newcomers and their contributions. Newcomers... more Open Source Software projects success depends on the continuous influx of newcomers and their contributions. Newcomers play an important role as they are the potential future developers, but they face difficulties and obstacles when initiating their interaction with a project, resulting in a high amount of withdrawals. This paper presents a recommendation system aiming to support newcomers finding the most appropriate project member to mentor them in a technical task. The proposed system uses temporal and social aspects of developer’s behavior, in addition to recent contextual information to recommend the most suitable mentor at the moment.

iGesture: A General Gesture Recognition Framework

by Beat Signer

Beat Signer, Ueli Kurmann and Moira C. Norrie, Proceedings of ICDAR 2007, 9th International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition, Curitiba, Brazil, September 2007

With the emergence of digital pen and paper interfaces, there is a need for gesture recognition tools for digital pen... more With the emergence of digital pen and paper interfaces, there is a need for gesture recognition tools for digital pen input. While there exists a variety of gesture recognition frameworks, none of them addresses the issues of supporting application developers as well as the designers of new recognition algorithms and, at the same time, can be integrated with new forms of input devices such as digital pens. We introduce iGesture, a Java-based gesture recognition framework focusing on extensibility and cross-application reusability by providing an integrated solution that includes tools for gesture recognition as well as the creation and management of gesture sets for the evaluation and optimisation of new or existing gesture recognition algorithms. In addition to traditional screen-based interaction, iGesture provides a digital pen and paper interface.

Balancing Knowledge Management and Knowledge Mobility in the University in in Tara Fenwick, Lesley Farrell (Eds) (2011) Knowledge Mobilization and Educational Research Politics, languages and responsibilities, Routledge

by Chris Chesher

Chesher, Chris and Sarah Howard (2011) 'Balancing Knowledge Management and Knowledge Mobility in the University' in Fenwick, Tara & Lesley Farrell (2011) Knowledge Mobilization and Educational Research. Politics, languages and responsibilities.
(book chapter: Paperback: 978-0-415-61465-8: Hardback: 978-0-415-61464-1)

Intellectual Property in Software: Insights for Indian Business

by Gopi Krishna S Garge

Published in the Journal of Intellectual Property Rights

Amongst the challenges that actors in the software side of information technology are experiencing, none is more... more Amongst the challenges that actors in the software side of information technology are experiencing, none is more contentious than the issues it raises for intellectual property. The controversy pits administration against faculty, scientists against humanists and academic values against financial interests, employees against management, and software developers against corporate houses. The conflicting global intellectual property practice in the case of software has resulted in multiple schools of thought, each providing their way of how it must be managed. In this paper, three areas of concern in intellectual property practice, business, technology and legal in nature, are addressed .The paper aims to describe these concerns and provides clarity regarding the polarization of schools of thought in intellectual property practice. Through a better understanding of the global and domestic situation, the authors hope to motivate a note of concern amongst those with a weak intellectual property focus in the Indian software sector.

Transition of governance in a mature open software source community: Evidence from the Debian case

by Bert Sadowski

Information Economics and Policy Volume 20, Issue 4, December 2008, Pages 323–332

As open source software (OSS) communities mature, they have to introduce a variety of governance mechanisms to manage... more As open source software (OSS) communities mature, they have to introduce a variety of governance mechanisms to manage the participation of their members and to coordinate the launch of new releases. The Debian community introduced new mechanisms of informal administrative control based on a constitution, elected leaders, and used interactive communication channels. We show that these control mechanisms were introduced as a response to emerging innovative opportunities due to the usage of source packages and to the need to build a responsive organization within the Debian OSS community.

Expanding the capabilities of laboratory instruments using built-in microprocessors and serial interfaces: Adapting an LKB Ultrospec® II UV spectrophotometer for …

by John Berges

XXVIII

by A Nonomura

Co-authored with Andrew A. Benson and Barry A. Cullen
Published in Advances in Photosynthesis, 2012, Intech, ISBN 978-953-307-928-8

A biography of OSS Production and Use for Microfinance NGOs

by Wifak H Gueddana