Welcome To Open Source

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Christie Mason -
Number of replies: 9
I'd love to have a plain explanation about the differences between BSD and GPL licenses.  Sometimes the differences seem clear to me and then I'll read something else which makes it all murky again.

Christie Mason
In reply to Christie Mason

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Bruno Vernier -
OK, keep in mind that IANAL (I am not a Lawyer)

so here is my simplified understanding of the GPL vs BSD

1. opensource licences are on a spectrum with the GPL and BSD being flagbearers for each side ... there are lots of licences all over the spectrum going between and around these two poles:

GPL-style......................................................... BSD-style

expressed in GPL-friendly terminology:

Personal Freedom .............................................. Business Security
Freedom to share............................................... Freedom to Grab
Pure Goodness .................................................. Trojan for Proprietary

expressed in BSD-friendly terminology:

Limits to Business growth ................................... Limitless Potential
People Power Hippies.......................................... Business Friendly
Viral Licence .................................................... True Free Licence


2.  GPL = General Public Licence ... Richard M Stallman's greatest invention ... founder of the opensource/freedomware movement, philosopher, ardent defender of the faith, wild-haired, wild-eyed hippy.  Most well known software under GPL:  Linux.  Anyone can improve the code, but may not change the licence on the modified code. 

3.  BSD = Berkeley Software Distribution ... most similar to "Public Domain", the oldest of the free licences.  Anyone can improve the code, and is free to change the licence on the modified code (even to proprietary commercial licence) as long as original code remains opensource.  Best known example: Apple Mac OS 10 ... it is an actual BSD unix operating system made proprietary after some minor changes were made to it by apple company.

4.  this is greatly oversimplified and real life is a combination of various degrees of each of these poles

5.  Personally, I lean towards the GPL side of the spectrum and all my programs are licenced GPL by default.  Moodle is GPL.  I like it because I think it is the licence that best guarantees that no one will steal moodle code and take over the market and become a commercial monopoly thanks to the our collective work.  

But I understand and appreciate the argument that it is good that commercial software be built on top of opensource code because (at least initially before it changes too much), we can still understand how it works under the hood  (I find it far far easier to understand Mac OS X than Mac OS 9 which is not based on any opensource code;  when Microsoft switched to TCP/IP for networking, it became way easier to understand than the proprietary networking protocols they tried to impose up to the mid 90's
In reply to Bruno Vernier

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Heather Ross -
Bruno,

Thank you so much for that explanation and for joining our conversation. I have another question for you, but I think that I'll start a new topic with it, so look for, "What Do You Think Might Be Threats To The Open Source Movement?"

Heather
In reply to Bruno Vernier

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Therese Weel -
Bruno,

Thanks for explaining these concepts so simply and eloquently.  I have never thought of BSD and GPL in that fashion, now I do.  The penny has dropped for me.

IINAL either.  

I think the essential concept that people need to understand is that there are consistent intellectual property laws in all westernized nations.  These cover trademarks, patents and copyrights.

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/copy_gd_protect-e.html


By releasing your work under an "open source license" like GPL, BSD or the creative commons, you can share your information  more openly. By  allowing other people to participate you will create something greater than you could have created on your own. 

I recommend Michel Bawen's P2Pfoundation wiki which provides a good overview of how using the "open source idea" empowers people in areas other than software development.

Open Music Practices

Open Standards Concepts

Panarchy Concepts

P2P Audiovisual Concepts

P2P Business Concepts

P2P Collaborative Concepts

P2P Cultural Concepts

P2P Facilitation Concepts

P2P Gaming Concepts

P2P Governance Concepts

P2P Intellectual Property Concepts

P2P Learning Concepts

P2P Media Concepts

P2P Monetary Concepts

P2P Policy Concepts

P2P Political Concepts

P2P Relational Concepts

P2P Science Concepts

P2P Spiritual Concepts

P2P Technological Concepts


Therese



In reply to Therese Weel

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Bruno Vernier -
interesting website!  very ambitious :-)  They also have a very interesting blog to go with it.

one glaring omission is open-source medicine :-)
In reply to Bruno Vernier

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Therese Weel -
Hmmm, 

P2P medicine/healthcare  yes that is one,  and one in which a natural commons exists.  After all Vitamin C is vitamin C. The main argument for proprietary medicines is the cost to produce and test it but proprietary medicine results in regulations, insurance complexities  and lawsuits.   I'll be you a dollar someone is thinking of a more efficient means based on OS ideas.

I'll add your suggestion.  If anyone is interested in adding their bit as they  explore the p2p wiki,  the how to contribute page is here:

 http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=How_to_contribute

Therese
In reply to Therese Weel

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Bruno Vernier -
one thing led to another and i ended up finding this gem: an online course in podcast format from Berkeley University:

Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information: Technical, Economic, Social, and Legal Perspectives

syllabus: http://harbinger.sims.berkeley.edu/osdddi/f06/Syllabus

podcasts: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/archive.php?seriesid=1906978370

the course is nearing the end; so it is very fresh and a very appropriate follow up to this workshop



Most Recent Webcasts
 
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Mon, 11/13
Wikipedia as an Open Source Project

Mon, 11/06
Open Source Biology

Mon, 10/30
Open Access Journals and Publications


In reply to Bruno Vernier

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Heather Ross -
Bruno,

This is great. Thank you.

UC Berkely is doing some great stuff in terms of practicing what they preach. They made these lectures available for everyone, the syllabus is a wiki, and other courses have been video taped and are now up on Google video.

My favorite is Dr. Marian Diamond's Integrative Biology 131.

Heather
In reply to Bruno Vernier

Re: Welcome To Open Source

by Salvor Gissurardottir -

This is very interesting, especially Wikipedia as open source project. I have been involved in Wikipedia for a couple of years now and have attended the two conferences Wikimania in Frankfurt 2005 and in Boston 2006. 

I am right now developing a set of learning objects for teachers and teacher education students about wikis and most of it intigrate various wikimedia projects. I make it requirement for my students to write articles in Icelandic Wikipedia and learning content, webquests, Internet Scavenger hunts etc in Icelandic wikibooks and upload pictures they use in Wikipedia Commons.

My learning objects called (The wiki school bus)  are at http://wiki.khi.is but  right now the site is only in Icelandic. Hopefully I will have time soon to translate some of it and explain my ideas about using wikibooks-wikimedia-commons together and why I think that is important for teachers.

In reply to Bruno Vernier

Post on TALO list re on Richard Stallman's role in free software

by Sylvia Currie -
I posted a message to the TALO (Teach and Learn Online) google group to see if they could help with our request for open source and free software to benefit students with disabilities. Chris Harvey posted some great links, which I've added to our Wiki.

Chris also mentioned that he read through our seminar and pointed out that Richard Stallman was the founder of free software, and not opensource/freedomware. Here's a link to the thread in TALO. Chris also provided links to Wikipedia's definition of free software and free software movement which I also added to our Wiki.

I'll have to carefully read all these definitions to get it sorted out in my head. thoughtful

BTW TALO list is a great way to keep up-to-date on how educators are using software in their own practice, and generally on current issues in education.