Open source software of the free as in free beer and free as in free speech variety has matured to the point that there are now strong contenders in nearly every category, though that doesn’t make them easy choices. It’s often revealing when people criticize OSS as being free as in free kittens, which is [...]
Posted November 21, 2007 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Politics & Controversy, Technology. Tags: choices, commercial vs. open source, F/OSS, free software, Moodle, open source. One Comment.
Anybody who thinks Free Software is anti-copyright or disrespectful of intellectual property should take a look at Mark Jaquith’s post, What a GPL’d Movable Type means. Let’s be clear, Anil Dash takes issue with Jaquith’s interpretation, but the point is Jaquith’s offense at what appears to be Six Apart’s grabbiness for any code somebody might [...]
Posted September 25, 2007 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Copyrights & Intellectual Property, Dispatches, Technology. Tags: copyleft, copyright, F/OSS, free software, intellectual property, open source. One Comment.
Sarah Houghton-Jan’s review of my LTR on open source software for libraries reminded me I wanted to blog this related piece I’d written for American Libraries.
Tim Spalding cocks his head a bit as he says it to emphasize the point: “LibraryThing.com is social software.” However we categorize it, Spalding’s baby has become a darling to [...]
Posted September 17, 2007 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Technology. Tags: F/OSS, free software, lib20, libraries, library 2.0, open source. 2 Comments.
The most selfish thing about submitting a manuscript late is asking “When is it going to be out?” So I’ve been waiting quietly, rather than trouble Judi Lauber, who did an excellent job editing and managing the publication.
Ryan and Jessamyn each contributed a chapter, and I owe additional thank yous to the full chorus of [...]
Posted June 7, 2007 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Technology. Tags: F/OSS, free software, freedom, lib20, libraries, library, library 2.0, Library Technology Reports, LTR, open source. 7 Comments.
VA Linux founder Larry Augustin on OSS
In Augustin’s view open source development became a necessity in the 1990s when the cost of marketing a program came to exceed the cost of creating it. “My favorite is Salesforce.com. In 1995 they spent under $10 million in R&D and over $100 million in sales and marketing. That [...]
Posted March 15, 2007 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Technology. Tags: distribution, F/OSS, free software, GPL, Larry Augustin, marketing, open source, oss. One Comment.