Therese Weel

Thank You Heather
For taking the initiative to host this moodle course.
I enjoyed it and  learned lots.

My parting gifts are http://www.programmableweb.com
and http://plazes.com two sites which showcase geographic data combined with existing databases to generate interesting and hopefully useful tools.

I have a growing interest in location centric community networks

until next time
Therese

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

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

Wai-Leng

Ah yes ESRI, thanks for shedding some light on the options available for GIS. 

This is a terrific example of how open source goes further than blog software and free desktop applications.  Companies spend  millions each year on enterprise databases financial systems, billing systems , student registration hospital information systems.  On the software licenses, training, expensive consultants and upgrades.

When we have viable open source offerings in these areas, organizations can choose an open source  solution instead.  They will be able to choose who they want to be their helpers. They can share best practices and everyone can benefit as these ideas are incorporated into the software.

These Grand Scale  open source projects wont appear on their own.  They  need to be championed and invested in by the stakeholders.  We are not there yet, but in a few years "sustainable software" will be in vogue.

Therese

hmmm.

Lets try this again

http://www.csc.com/features/2004/uploads/LEF_OPENSOURCE.pdf

Here it is again - If it doesn't work copy into your browser window.

This is a long document released in fall of 2004 by a established technology group similar to The Gartner Group.   It describes the landscape back in 2004. We're almost in 2007 now so things have changed somewhat but understanding the gist of the report for organizations considering implementing open source is still useful.

Therese