I recently asserted that we should be educating people about how open source is managed, developed and supported. Without this kind of education we limit our ability to capitalise on the opportunities presented by a maturing open source industry. However, this is not the only reason why we should be providing this kind of education.
Jon Hall, Executive Director of Linux International, a man with plenty of experience as a computer science lecturer, recently wrote an article for Linux Pro Magazine with the title “Seeking the next Einstein: Show me the code“.
In this article Jon observes that access to source code is one of the most valuable educational tools there is for programmers (new or old). He reminds us of the efforts of John Lions who annotated a copy of the complete source of Unix. A work which became one of the most sought after books for computer science students, despite licence changes in Unix preventing its legal use for quite some time. Jon says that “looking at a good programmer’s code is still a great way to learn the craft.” Personally I would go much further than that.
I discovered open source during my undergraduate computer science degree as a mature student in 1995. Being able to examine and use open source libraries throughout my studies led me to the creation of a final year project that won me a first class honors. However, it was not just reading peoples code that allowed this, it was the hands on support given to me, in return for my own minor contributions, by the people who wrote that code. These people were real programmers, building full scale applications for use in the real world.
I attended less than 20% of the lectures and tutorials on my course, yet I still managed to get that First Class degree. I do not consider myself to be a gifted computer scientist, my educational success was a direct result of the combination of a well structured theoretical degree and solid practical experience outside of the normal teaching process.
My engagement with open source continued through my early research career, it formed an important part of my materials as a computer science lecturer and it put food on my table when “between jobs”. Today I spend my time trying to help others understand the benefits of open source and open development.
In his article, Jon acknowledges the educational value of free and open source software, but he goes on to turn this on its head. He goes on to observe that the openness of source code “will help us find the next generation of experts”. In other words, as well as helping us round out skills in our workforce, it also ensures that our staff can identify other experts and thought leaders in any given area of expertise.
It is my opinion that open source and open development as a vital part of skills development, if you are interested in such activities please contact us.
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