For quite some time now at OSS Watch we’ve struggled with the model of “Community Source” promoted by some projects within the Higher Education sector. Originating with Sakai, and then continuing with Kuali, the term always seemed confusing, given that it simply meant a consortium-governed project that released code under an open-source license. As a … Read more
Last month, OSS Watch delivered a series of sessions on communication and participation with open source communities at the TYPO3 Developer Days event in Eindoven. One of the sessions in our series looked at the theory of communities, the varieties of the communities we form and the motivations involved in each. The core message of … Read more
In our recent survey on free and open source software in the UK education sectors, we asked colleges and universities for their main reasons for not selecting an open source solution according to 12 criteria. Below you can see how important each of the criteria were rated for software running on servers: Interoperability and migration … Read more
As a result of the OSS Watch National Software Survey, we now have 10 years of survey data on open source in universities and colleges in the UK, so we can look at some long term trends. Today I’ve been looking at institutional IT policies. Back in 2003, most IT policies in colleges and universities … Read more
tl;dr: Open Source is inherently no more or less secure than closed source software. For a more thorough answer to this question, we’ve just updated our briefing note, “Is Open Source Software Insecure? An Introduction To The Issues” where we look at some of the ways in which software is considered secure, and look at … Read more
In case you missed it, Jisc Inform has an article by OSS Watch on open source for colleges, in which we highlight the Open Source Options resource. I’ll also be doing a short talk at ALT-C next month on Open Source Options in education – see you there! Read more
Last week I gave a talk on open source as part of a Microsoft Azure for Education day at UCL in London. I was sharing the stage with Stephen Lamb from Microsoft, who gave a great overview of the various open source projects that Microsoft are engaged in, including Node.js and PHP for Windows. But … Read more
Last week Open Source, Open Standards 2013 took place in London, an event focussed on the public sector. Naturally these being two topics we’re very keen on here at OSS Watch I went along too. Overall the key message to take away from the event was just how central to public sector IT strategy these two themes … Read more
Universities are ahead of the curve in adopting open source, says Scott Wilson – we should now lead the public sector in exploring its full potential. Read the full article at Guardian Higher Education Network. Read more
OSS Watch Briefing Paper: Open Standards and Open Source Open source software and open standards are two of the key interventions in technology policy, whether that policy is made by governments, public sector organisations, or companies. Open standards can ensure interoperability and assist portability, allowing the switching of solutions and avoiding vendor lock-in. Standards can also … Read more