Licensing and Business Models

License affects software companies’ business activities. While proprietary software vendors create custom licenses, open source companies have less flexibility. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) defines a list of 72 licenses as open source (“OSI approved”). For a project to follow open source licensing, it has to pick licenses from this set. Logically, we expect that an open source company defines its business model around the license that it selects. Thus, we can assume that business model decisions follow license choice. In our research we find that in some cases open source companies remove these license constraints for business reasons. We observed cases of open source companies moving from one OSI-approved license to another or companies innovating by adding additional terms. In all these cases, the decision of change is based on the license being a poor fit with their business goals. Not all open source companies are entitled to change the license because this option is available only to companies that own intellectual property. If they do not, they can try to reshape their business model, but that remains a suboptimal option. Whether cognizant of it or not, organizations are implicitly choosing a business model when they select a license. Therefore, it is very important to address licensing and business model decisions as one system instead of a disjointed two-step process. For this purpose we introduce (1) an evolutionary model where license selection and business model impact each other and (2) a taxonomy that addresses both licensing and business models. Our approach helps practitioners include revenue considerations in the licensing choice and researchers to more accurately study the antecedents and consequences of license choice.

ActiveBook: A Niche Browser as an Education Support Tool

The Internet has been an engine for innovations in many fields. This paper describes an innovative way to utilize the technologies and capabilities of the Internet to support activities of educational environment. The paper proposes a niche browser which employs a hybrid model of traditional web-based “pull” technology and emerging “push” technology. The browser as a framework goes beyond a simple software at client level. It is a complete solution with student client, instructor client and server level software

A Hybrid Push-Pull Model to Support Learning: An Empirical Evaluation

This paper utilizes two Internet technologies— traditional web-based “pull” technology and emerging “push” technology—to support learning beyond classroom environment through time and space. It describes a generic model that can be adapted to the specific requirements of different courses. We developed two systems based on the model for two courses. One hundred and forty students in six classes evaluated the systems. The evaluation suggests that the systems facilitated learning by providing critical course information in timely manner and in usable formats. The systems were user friendly and increased productivity and convenience of the students. Overall, the students found the systems useful and satisfactory

A Flexible, Low Cost Approach to Conduct Online Surveys Using Open Source Software

Comparing to traditional survey methods, online survey is much more efficient and cost effective due to the following reasons: zero printing, zero postage, automated data collection, and instant responses. However, successfully launching and administering an online survey also demands additional technical skills and software / hardware resources. In this tutorial, we will provide an overview of key issues with online surveys. Further, we will explain how the Open Source Software (OSS) process works and why we choose OSS as our preferred platform to conduct online surveys. Through a detailed, stepby- step case study, we will share tips and pitfalls we have learned from designing, developing and deploying our research instruments using OSS platforms. In particular, we will discuss how OSS technologies such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) provided us with a flexible, reliable, scalable and low-cost solution to gather data using survey instruments. We will further discuss the process of collecting de-identified responses. Code of Federal Regulations1 often requires that data be collected in a de-identifiable manner. We will also describe the process of obtaining all relevant pieces of software involved in building such applications, including sharing part of source code of our own application. At the end, a less technical alternative of launching online surveys using PHP Easy Survey Package will be presented and demonstrated. Participants: If possible, please bring a laptop with Wi-Fi capability

Wikis for Teaching and Learning

An academic course presents an opportunity for all participants to collaborate for improving their knowledge. This collective improvement of knowledge is typically documented via material provided by the instructor and notes and assignments prepared by students. Over the course of a semester, these materials provide not only the collective knowledge in that course, but also provide a chronological history of how the knowledge base evolved. The focus of this study is wiki collaboration in teaching & learning contexts. A wiki is a medium in which a group of individuals can work together asynchronously on an idea and easily capture the essence in a reusable format. Technically, a wiki is a collection of hyperlinked Web pages that are assembled with wiki software. With wikis, the line between reader and contributor is intentionally blurred. Further, wiki use reflects the view of an instructor as one who facilitates information sharing among learners rather than simply transmitting knowledge from themselves to their students. Our initial motivation to explore the usefulness of wikis for teaching and learning was driven by the fact that wikis provide a medium in which several individuals could asynchronously work together on an idea and easily capture the essence in a reusable format. We found that: (1) Wikis can be can be used for a variety of tasks ranging from signup sheet for students to self organize, to undertaking business analyses, to analyzing policy positions; (2) Instructor support and facilitation is key; and (3) Ease-of-use issues are present but do not preclude success

Building Collaborative Knowledge Bases: An Open Source Approach Using Wiki Software in Teaching and Research

To open-minded students and professors alike, a classroom is an experience in which all participants collaborate to expand their knowledge. The collective knowledge is typically documented via a mix of lecture slides, notes taken by students, writings submitted by individuals or teams, online discussion forums, etc. A Wiki is collection of hyperlinked web pages that are assembled with Wiki software. It differs from the traditional process of developing a web site in that any registered participant can edit without knowing how to build a web site. It enables a group to asynchronously develop and refine a body of knowledge in full view of all participants. The emergence of Wikipedia and Wikitravel demonstrate that this collaborative process is scalable.1 In this tutorial, we will provide an overview of the Wiki collaboration process; explain how it can be used in teaching courses, and also how it provides an efficient mechanism for collaborating researchers to document their growing body of knowledge. For teaching, students can collectively post and refine each others writings. Participants: If possible, please bring a laptop with Wi-Fi capability

An Online KAP Study to Access Contraceptive Use Among Reproductive Females in North-Western India

INTRODUCTION: The use of contraceptives has been practiced since thousand of years and if used correctly can lead to birth control. AIM: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of contraceptive of reproductive females aged 18 years and above.MATERIALS AND METHOD: The present study was cross-sectional in nature and included married females above 18 years of age were asked to fill up an online questionnaire, divided into 4 sections and containing 17 questions. After application of descriptive statistics, the multivariate logistic regression and Pearson’s correlation was applied. p value was significant when it was ≤0.05RESULTS: Most respondents has poor knowledge (54.5%) of contraceptives with the most preferred method of contraception being OCP (36.3%) closely followed by condoms (36.1%). Awareness regarding emergency use on contraceptives was mostly seen to be poor (43.9%). The most common method used for contraception was condoms (49.7%%), followed by IUDs (15.6%),Injectables (14.3%) and OCPs(12.7%). Only a few (5.3%) did not practice any method for contraception and 2.4% underwent sterilization. the multivariate logistic regression revealed a significant relation (p=0.03) while and Pearson’s correlation (p=0.76) revealed a strong association. CONCLUSION: There is a need to educate females more about the various methods of contraception to promote their reproductive healt

Towards a Scalable Digital Skills Training Architecture for Resource-Constrained Environments: The Case of Ayitic Goes Global in Haiti

In developing countries such as Haiti, which are marked by high unemployment and gender inequality, online education has the potential to change lives. Returns on education are particularly high in Information Communications Technology (ICT)-intensive jobs and IT outsourcing offers opportunities for remote employment, providing alternatives for economic diversification and job creation that are particularly relevant for youth and women. However, the problem faced by many developing countries, is that traditional models, frameworks, architectures and platforms for online learning do not lend themselves well to their context and, therefore, it is important to develop context specific platforms. This need for suitable platforms has motivated the research question that this paper seeks to address, that is, “What is the appropriate architecture that supports learning strategies for delivering scalable digital skills training in a resource-constrained environment?” We propose an architecture that was developed specifically for blended learning in resource-constrained environments and describe how a prototype for this was designed, built, and deployed in Haiti. The initial findings from the application of the architecture have been extremely positive and are reflected not only in the testimonials of the participants but also by the interest of other countries of the region to adopting the proposed architecture

Open Source Adoption and Use: A Comparative Study Between Groups in the US and India

Open source software communities work in a loosely knit organizational structure that works primarily on the motivations of gift and contribution of source code. They communicate using modern Internet-based applications and organize themselves into self-guided virtual communities. Several methods of collaboration and development of intellectual property through software within these communities are quite unique and innovative. Current research effort mainly focused on understanding the individual motivations, collaboration mechanisms, and associated project management challenges of various OSS projects. However, as open source software usage moves mainstream and becomes more and more widespread, factors drive its diffusion and adoption deserve more research attention. Using the concepts of innovation adoption, we attempt to examine the possible drivers that influence adoption of open source software within different open source communities. In particular, the results from two user groups - one from an OSS community in United States, one from an OSS community in India, are extensively compared and contrasted to gain better understanding of factors that lead to adoption and use of open source software