LSC555 IS Webliography
LSC 555 Information Systems Webliography: Open Source Software
By
Jessica Harper

 

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    Open Source Software Backgrounds

    Open Source Software Initiative
    Produced by the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
    This website is the official online guide for Open Source Software. It goes beyond the bare definition of OSI by including a list of approved open source licenses, software products, and trademarks/graphics. This tool's strengths include its news section, which contains current articles about the challenges currently facing the OSI community, its direct links to actual Open Source software tools, its detailed descriptions of Open Source Software's benefit to the free world and its friendly welcome page geared toward the general internet user. Drab color schemes and the lack of member testimonials are the site's only weaknesses. As the official site for Open Source Software, OSI should feature feedback from members and clientele.

    Open Source from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
    Produced by Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
    This is a free encyclopedia site that gives abbreviations and synonyms for open source software and explains the open source movement, open source debates, open source advocates, projects and organizations, licenses and software. This website's strength is its easy navigation. The links are easy to open and the definitions are easy to understand. The only weakness is that the various contents are lumped together. The points would be much easier to read if they were separated by subheadings.

    What is open source? A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary
    Produced by JupiterCoroporation
    This is a free dictionary site that offers a definition of open source for the technological community and criteria for OSI certification. The dictionary's strengths are its advice for eliminating computer bugs and its list of criteria for OSI Certification. The weaknesses are its short length and limited number of links.

    Open Source Software Institute
    Produced by the Open Source Software Institute
    This is the official website for the Open Source Software Institute. It offers information on academic issues, OSSI programs and activities, open source licenses and OSSI news updates. The strengths of the site are its discussion forum and daily news updates. The weaknesses are its brief discussion of the Open Source Software Institute's history.

    Free Software (Open Source)
    Produced by Free Software: the Software by the People, of the Pople and for the People!
    This site defines free software and open source and offers examples of both. It also provides a list of the major personalities in the Free Software/Open Source community and lists major organizations for Free Software/Open Source. The strengths include its simple language and lenghty links section. Its only weakness is that it suggests three free software websites. There are many more, and a list of ten would be more sufficient.
    Open Source Software Articles

    Hewlett-Packard Takes Open-Source Route into Software Market
    by Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com
    This news article focuses on an open-source software parternship between Hewlett-Packard and JBoss. As a result of this pairing, large corporate customers will recieve 24-hour support only from Hewlett-Packard as opposed to relying on HP for less complex problems involving configuration and installation. Hewlett-Packard especially seeks to target IBM customers who desire an alternative to Big Blue's WebSphere Java server software line and its DB2 database products. The strengths of this article are that it focuses on the Hewlett-Packard/JBoss pairing in great detail; it evaluates the economic implications of the partnerships and offers figures; and,it mentions the threats the HP-JBoss union poses to other open-source projects. The weakness of this article is that it explains the parternship in technical terms. The average lay-person might have trouble understanding how the parternership will benefit his or her software needs.


    Red Hat Opens China Office
    by Elizabeth Millard, www.enterprise-linux-it.com
    This news article is about the Open-source software company Red Hat establishing is an office in Beijing, China. Millard focuses on the challenges of this venture and discusses Red Hat's Education Drive and various partnerships. The strength of this article is its mention of Red Hat's government agency parternships. The weakness is its limited explanation of the Red Hat organization. The average reader might want more information on the company's history.

    Venture Capital: Investors See Open-Source Software Potential
    by John Cook, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter
    This news article discusses the threats the free software poses to venture capitalism. The strengths include its mention of seven open-source companies and their financers and the regions of the country where open-source communities are most prevelant. The weakness of this article is that it presents an unbalanced argument. Opponents of open-source software are quoted more than proponents.

    NewsForge|Java and Open Source
    by Mark Stone, NewsForge
    This news article focuses on the debate surrounding open-sourcing java programming languages. Strengths include its descriptions of open source components, its entries on market growth and penetration and its sections on building businesses around programming languages. The weakness is its lack of direct quotes. There are only a few. A balanced news article offers a number of quotes from varying points of view.

    NewsFactor Newtwork--Anaylst: Open-Source CRM Not Yet a Contender
    by Erika Morphy, CRM Daily
    This news article focuses on commerical open sources'presence in the emerging CRM market and CRM's struggle to become a legitimate open source competitor. The strength of the article is that it focuses on the rising popularity of the CRM market and mentions its four emerging companies. The weakness of this article is that it does not offer any links to CRM websites. Members of the Open Source Community would find links to CRM websites beneficial.

    Risks Of Free Source Software - A US Regulatory View
    by Bob McDowall, IT-Director.com
    This article examines the relationship between risk managment practices and open source software. The strengths of this article are that it offers sections on Strategic risks, Customisation, Maturity, Compatibility and Inter-operability. The weaknesses are the links for risk managment and open source software embedded within the article. They link to advertisements rather than actual sites.

    i-Technology Viewpoint: Mark MY Words-Trademarks and Open Soruce (LinuxWorld)
    by Heather Meeker, LinuxWorld
    This magazine article focuses on trademarks in the open source community and how and why copyright laws are relaxed for free software. The strengths of this article include its description of trademarks and its links to other sites that explain the trade-mark/open source issue. The weakness of this article is that some of the links do not work as well as others. The average user might be annoyed with the number of error messages.


    W3C Open Source Software
    Produced by the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
    This website focuses on the various types of W3C Open Source Software. The site's strengths are its lengthy listing of authoring tools, validation/lint, manipulation/libraries, server-side, and web agents/parsers/viewers. This site's main weakness is that it does not give a substantial history of W3C Software. A meager paragraph revealing that all W3C software is GPL compatible is not enough. Moreover, the average user may not know what GPL compatible means.

    The Open Group: Boundaryless Information FLow through Interoperability
    Produced by the Open Group
    As the official website for the international vendor The Open Group, this site explains its methods of bringing together buyers and suppliers of information technology in time and cost-efficient ways. The strengths include its offering of certification, testing and initiative information. The weakness is its links. Most of them are difficult to open, and some open with error messages.

    SGI-Developer Central Open Source
    produced by the Silicon Graphics, Inc
    This website describes SGI's alliance with Open Source and its mission to connect distributed intellectual resources of the Net, so to benefit individual developers and the global Open Source community. The strengths of this site include its lenghty SGI Open Source Project List, its menu of SGI Support and Resources, and its list of Community Resources. The main weakness is that the site never defines the acronym SGI. The average internet user would want to know the full name of this Open Source developer.

© Jessica Harper 2004