An MADM risk-based evaluation-selection model of free-libre open source software tools

Free-Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) tools are free-cost license highly attractive to be implemented by organizations. However, not of all the FLOSS tools are mature, and failed implementations can occur. Thus, FLOSS evaluation-selection frameworks and FLOSS success-failure implementation factors studies have been conducted. In this research, we advance on such studies through an integrated FLOSS evaluation-selection model with a risk-based decision making approach. Our model was built upon the other two literatures, and it was structured as a Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) model which contains 12 variables grouped in four risk categories: financial, organizational, end-user and technical ones. We illustrated its utilization in the domain of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) FLOSS tools. Hence, our model contributes to the FLOSS literature with the inclusion of the risk management approach and to the FLOSS evaluation-selection praxis with the provision of an innovative and essential risk-based model

Portal da saúde: uma alternativa usando tecnologias open source

A investigação realizada propõe um modelo concetual de um portal de saúde centrado no utente que assenta num interface baseado num calendário. O estudo começa com uma revisão da literatura sobre os conceitos associados à implementação das tecnologias de portal nas organizações e sobre a sua importância como agregador de conteúdos e de porta de entrada para as organizações. Para sustentar as necessidades e desejos dos utilizadores recorreu-se a uma análise de stakeholders com a identificação das suas ações sobre o Portal. Em seguida, e de modo a dar forma ao conceito proposto, fez-se uma análise do estado da arte de portais de saúde e das suas funcionalidades principais. Destes estudos iniciais resultou uma proposta de de um modelo concetual de um portal de saúde centrado no utente e nas suas necessidades. A implementação do modelo concetual foi realizada usando o Drupal, que é uma ferramenta de gestão de conteúdos (CMS) baseada em software open source. Este estudo inclui também os resultados preliminares de uma pesquisa realizada junto de um grupo de utilizadores.The research proposes a Conceptual Model of an health portal user-centered with a core interface calendar. The study begins with the literature review of the related concepts with the implementation of portal technologies in organizations and its importance as content aggregator and gateway to organizations. To evaluate the users' wants and needs a stakeholder analysis was developed, identifying their type of action on the Portal. Then, in order to shape the proposed concept, it was made an analysis of the state of the art health portals and their main features. These initial studies resulted in a Conceptual Model proposal of an health portal focused on the users' needs. The implementation of the Conceptual Model was performed using Drupal, which is a content management system tool (CMS) based on open source software. This study also includes the preliminary results of a conducted survey in a group of users

An Open Source Approach to Social Media Data Gathering

Modern usage of social media affords the military intelligence and analytic communities novel approaches to gather information. However, the tools and resources to develop these methodologies are still maturing. Furthermore, current data acquisition tools are not available to the DoD for all social media platforms. This thesis addresses a small subset of this problem by developing an open source methodological approach to collect and manage data from a popular social media site that has previously been inaccessible to defense intelligence organizations. This approach was operationalized via the R package called instaExtract, and an exemplar analysis was performed to demonstrate its application and efficiency for intelligence gathering

Adoption of free desktop open source software in developing countries in Africa : a case of Kenyan University students

Open source products such as software development tools and server applications are gaining popularity among expert users. There is however a notable lag in adoption of desktop open source software among ordinary users especially in Africa. A number of critical factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions have been suggested as the determinants of Information and Communication Technologies adoption in general. This study deemed it important to establish if the above factors are the determinants of desktop open source software adoption in Africa. The study aimed to establish the Open Source Software adoption levels among university students in Kenya as well as the factors affecting Open Source Software adoption in this population. The author further aimed to assess the applicability of popular technology acceptance models in the adoption of the software in the population under study. The study employed literature review, quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study also used both descriptive and explanatory research designs in answering the research questions. The Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology was used as a theoretical framework because it has synthesised all its major predecessors and accommodated all the predecessors constructs. The other reason The Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology was used is because the model was developed specifically for predicting voluntary technology adoption. This study established that the adoption of Free Open Source Software products in Kenya is very low and existing literature revealed that this is also the case in other developing countries. The study concluded that the factors affecting adoption of desktop Open Source Software by Kenyan university students are usability, user training, Open Source Software compatibility, social influence, prior experience, social economic status, job market demands, proprietary software piracy culture and patent and copyright laws. Hence the study suggested that the existing technology adoption models are not appropriate in predicting technology adoption in an Africa setup. The study proposed and validated an appropriate model that fits in this context.School of ComputingD.Phil. (Information Systems

Large-scale migration to an open source office suite: An innovation adoption study in Finland

Avoimeen lähdekoodiin perustuvat ohjelmistot ovat nousseet kaupallisten ohjelmistojen rinnalle sekä liiketaloudellisesti että teknisesti merkittävinä ratkaisuina. Avoimen lähdekoodin ominaisuuksiin sisältyvät mm. ohjelmiston veloitukseton saatavuus ja laajat käyttöoikeudet sekä oikeus ohjelmiston kehittämiseen ja edelleen jakeluun. Organisaatioiden tietohallinnolle ominaisuudet avaavat mahdollisuuksia kustannussäästöihin, yhteisölliseen kehittämiseen sekä toiminta- ja kilpailuttamismahdollisuuksien lisäämiseen. Tunnettuja avoimen lähdekoodin ohjelmistoja ovat esimerkiksi Linux-käyttöjärjestelmä, Firefox-selain sekä OpenOffice.org -toimisto-ohjelmisto. Väitöskirjatutkimus kohdistuu Suomen suurimpaan avoimen lähdekoodin toimisto-ohjelmiston ja asiakirjojen avoimen tallennusmuotostandardin käyttöönottoon. Tutkimuksen kohteena oleva OpenOffice.org -ohjelmiston käyttöönotto käsittää yli 10 000 työaseman tietoteknisen ympäristön oikeusministeriössä ja sen hallinnonalalla. Seitsemän vuoden ajanjakson 2003-2010 kattavassa pitkittäistutkimuksessa sovelletaan suunnittelututkimuksen ja innovaatiotutkimuksen perusteita. Tutkimuksella on sekä teoriaa että käytäntöä palvelevia tuloksia. Tutkimuksen perusteella on perusteltua esittää muutoksia tutkimuksessa testattuun innovaatioiden käyttöönoton yleiseen prosessimalliin. Avoin lähdekoodi alhaisine lisenssikustannuksineen vaikuttaa prosessimalliin tutkimuksen mukaan niin, että vaiheiden ennalta määrätty järjestys ja vaiheiden selkeä erottelu ei ole aina perusteltua. Tutkimus on tuottanut avoimeen lähdekoodiin pohjautuvien innovaatioiden käyttöönottoon tarkoitetun täydennetyn prosessimallin ja siihen liittyvän dokumentointi- ja analysointikehyksen. Tutkimus vahvistaa useita aikaisempia tutkimustuloksia, jotka korostavat mm. organisaation johdon tukea, avoimen lähdekoodin omaksumiskyvyn kasvattamista ja organisaation sisäisen muutosagentin merkitystä avoimen lähdekoodin käyttöönotossa. Käytännön tuloksena tutkimus osoittaa, että avoimen lähdekoodin toimisto-ohjelmistoon siirtyminen on toteutettavissa myös suuressa organisaatiossa ja että siirtymisellä on saavutettavissa merkittäviä etuja. Kustannusten pienentäminen on organisaatioiden useimmin esittämä etu avoimen lähdekoodin käyttöönotosta. Strategisina etuina tuodaan usein esille tietohallinnon itsenäisen aseman vahvistuminen ja toimittajariippuvuuden vähentyminen avoimen lähdekoodin ratkaisuilla ja avoimilla standardeilla. Tutkimuksessa käsitellään useita avoimen lähdekoodin käyttöönotossa tärkeitä näkökohtia, kuten ohjelmiston toiminnallisuutta ja yhteentoimivuutta, kustannusvaikutuksia, ohjelmiston asennusta ja konfigurointia, monikielisyyden tukea, käyttöönottoa tukevia lisäosia, käyttäjäkoulutusta ja -tukea, teknistä tukea ja ohjelmiston käytön seurantaa. Tutkimuksen tulosten mukaan kohdeorganisaatio saavuttaa merkittäviä kustannussäästöjä avoimen lähdekoodin toimisto-ohjelmistoon siirtymisellä verrattuna kaupallisen toimisto-ohjelmiston käyttöön. Tutkimuksessa sovelletut käytännön menetelmät ja monipuolinen toteutuksen ja sen hallinnan kuvaus ovat avuksi organisaatioille niiden harkitessa avoimen lähdekoodin toimisto-ohjelmistoon siirtymistä.This study investigates the largest transition in Finland to an open source office suite and to an open standard for office documents. The IT environment of the open source OpenOffice.org migration involves more than 10 000 workstations in the Finnish Ministry of Justice and its administrative sector. Methodologically, the research is a longitudinal innovation adoption study covering the 7-year time span from 2003 to 2010. The study applies and tests the organizational innovation adoption process model originally developed by Everett Rogers. In addition to the theory-testing approach, the study includes artifact-building and artifact-evaluation activities of design research. The research view of the study introduces a participatory researcher's implementation perspective where the researcher as a staff member of the organization has been in charge of the adoption of the innovation in the organization. The findings of the study provide contributions both to IS research and practice. The events of the study give reason to suggest that the characteristics of the open source software with low-cost licenses call for improvements in the organizational innovation adoption stage model. The findings suggest that the predefined order of stages in the innovation process and sharp distinctions between stages should not be expected in organizational innovation adoption. As a new model and method, the study provides a complementary framework for the instrumentation and documentation of the open source innovation process in the organizational context. The study confirms several results from previous research and practice, especially the importance of top management support, systematic open source skill building and the presence of innovation champions in the adoption of open source solutions. For IS practice, the study shows that the transition to an open source office suite is feasible in a large-scale context and that substantial benefits can be achieved as the result of the transition. For the user organizations of open source software, lower cost has been the most commonly cited benefit and one of the main reasons for adopting open source. Other often cited considerations include strategic goals like the facilitation of more sovereign IT governance and the reduction of vendor dependence through open source solutions and open standards. The study addresses several practically important issues involved in the adoption of open source, e.g., the analysis of software functionality and interoperability, cost evaluations, installation and configuration issues, local language support issues, additional tools to support the migration, user training and support, technical support, and software usage measurements. The evaluation of costs in the study indicates that the migration to the open source office suite platform will benefit the target organization of the study with impressive cost savings when compared to the deployment of a comparative proprietary office suite platform. The study applies numerous best practice approaches which together with the rich insight provided by the research should benefit other organizations considering open source office suite adoptions both from the perspectives of management and implementation