DOCSLIB.ORG

A Framework for Open Source Projects

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Framework for Open Source Projects A Framework for Open Source Projects Master Thesis in Computer Science submitted by Gregor J. Rothfuss [email protected] of Zurich, Switzerland Register No. 97-711-915 Supervisor: Prof. K. Bauknecht Department of Information Technology University of Zurich Zurich, November 12, 2002 Abstract The historical roots of Open Source are outlined. A comparison between Open Source projects and classical projects highlights strengths and weaknesses of both, and defines their attributes. Existing Open Source theories are evaluated, and the requirements for a framework for Open Source projects are determined. The framework introduces the notions of actors, roles, areas, processes and tools, and depicts their interrelationships in a matrix. Each aspect of the framework is then further developed to serve both as a conceptual foundation for Open Source and a help for organizing and managing Open Source projects. Die Geschichte von Open Source wird aufgezeigt. Ein Vergleich zwischen Open Source und klassischen Projekten beleuchtet Stärken und Schwächen beider Ansätze, und definiert deren Atribute. Existierende Open Source Theorien werden evaluiert, und die Anforderungen für ein Rahmenwerk über Open Source ermittelt. Das Rahmenwerk führt die Begriffe Akteur, Rolle, Bereich, Prozess und Werkzeug ein und illustriert deren Zusammenspiel in einer Matrix. Die einzelnen Aspekte des Rahmenwerks werden vertieft und dienen als konzeptuelle Grundlage für Open Source sowie helfen bei der Organisation und dem Management von Open Source Projekten. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Kurt Bauknecht, head of the “Information Management” research group at the Department of Information Technology at the University of Zurich who made this master thesis possible. I would like to thank for valuable discussions and suggestions Carl P. Corliss, Curtis Hays, Steven McGregor, Daniel Mettler, Andrew Vogel, Benjamin Voigt and Eric Wiseman. Special thanks to the participants in the PostNuke and OSCOM Open Source projects who inspired me to write this thesis in the first place, and to the University of California Berkeley for hosting me during the writing of this thesis. A special thanks to Carl P. Corliss for careful spell checking and helping with the layout. 3 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. 3 Table of Contents..................................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures.......................................................................................................................... 7 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... 8 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... 8 1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Why Open Source is relevant....................................................................................... 9 1.2 Goals of this paper.......................................................................................................10 2. The Open Source Phenomenon ........................................................................................11 2.1 Historical Overview ....................................................................................................11 2.1.1 The early days ......................................................................................................11 2.1.2 The rise of UNIX .................................................................................................11 2.1.3 The GNU Project .................................................................................................14 2.1.4 Linux.....................................................................................................................15 2.1.5 To the mainstream................................................................................................16 2.2 Fundamentals...............................................................................................................16 2.2.1 Intellectual Property Concepts............................................................................16 2.2.2 The significance of Contracts..............................................................................19 2.2.3 Definitions of Open Source.................................................................................19 2.2.4 Open Source Software Licenses..........................................................................23 2.3 Theories about Open Source.......................................................................................26 2.4 The Open Source Community....................................................................................27 2.4.1 Sociology..............................................................................................................28 2.4.2 Software Engineering ..........................................................................................29 2.4.3 Economy...............................................................................................................33 2.5 Open Source Projects..................................................................................................35 2.5.1 Developers............................................................................................................36 2.5.2 Project Lifecycle ..................................................................................................37 2.5.3 Example OSP .......................................................................................................40 3. Open Source Projects versus Classical Projects..............................................................42 3.1 Underlying Trends.......................................................................................................43 3.1.1 New Communication Technologies....................................................................43 3.1.2 More powerful Hardware ....................................................................................44 3.1.3 Higher-level Languages.......................................................................................44 3.1.4 Ubiquitous Standards...........................................................................................45 3.2 Defining Open Source Projects ..................................................................................46 3.2.1 Resources..............................................................................................................47 3.2.2 Coordination.........................................................................................................51 3.2.3 Structures..............................................................................................................55 3.3 Defining Classical Projects.........................................................................................61 3.3.1 Resources..............................................................................................................61 3.3.2 Coordination.........................................................................................................63 4 3.3.3 Structures..............................................................................................................66 3.4 Strengths of Open Source Projects.............................................................................71 3.4.1 Release frequency ................................................................................................71 3.4.2 Customer Input.....................................................................................................72 3.4.3 Scalability.............................................................................................................72 3.5 Weaknesses of Open Source Projects ........................................................................73 3.5.1 Communication....................................................................................................73 3.5.2 Redundant Efforts ................................................................................................73 3.5.3 Lack of Priorities..................................................................................................74 3.5.4 Lack of Conventions............................................................................................74 3.5.5 Lack of focus........................................................................................................74 3.5.6 Dependency on key persons................................................................................74 3.5.7 Leadership ............................................................................................................75 3.6 Strengths of Classical Projects ...................................................................................75 3.6.1 Predictability ........................................................................................................75 3.6.2 Standards ..............................................................................................................76
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Åtta Licenser För Öppet Innehåll En Bilaga Till Internetguiden ”Copyright – Copyleft”
    Åtta licenser för öppet innehåll En bilaga till Internetguiden ”Copyright – Copyleft” Innehåll Innehåll Licenserna i sin helhet 5 Free Art License 1.3 .............................................................. 5 GNU Free Documentation License ...................................... 8 SPARC Author Addendum ................................................. 14 Open Database Licence Agreement (ODbL) ...................... 15 Kopimi ................................................................................. 23 The FreeBSD Documentation License ............................... 24 Open Game License ............................................................ 25 Creative Commons-licensen Erkännande- IckeKommersiell-DelaLika v2.5 Licens ............................. 27 bilaga till copyright – copyleft 3 Licenserna i sin helhet Free Art License 1.3 Preamble The Free Art licence authorises you to freely copy, spread, and transform creative works while re- specting the author’s rights. Far from ignoring such rights, the Free Art License recognizes them and protects them. It reformu- lates their application byallowing each and every creative use of the mind’s creation, regardless of their genres and the forms in which they are expressed. While the application of copyright law commonly results in restricting the public’s access to the mind’s creation, the Free Art License facilitates. Its intent is to allow the use of the resources constitu- tive of a work; to enable new conditions for creation in order to amplify the possibilities of creation.
    [Show full text]
  • What Would Google Do?
    ·G""gl~ i, ""t just a rompany. it is an entirely ""... ...~y oj thh'klng. Jarvi. h.... """" Iklml1hing "'~lIy imlJOrian~ ,-",,,...J that ~pp"""'h tu ~ ........ ;ond <'UltUI\'. ",,,,"'ing iu" how ..... oIutionary it;'" - CHIUS AND(KSQ:-l. au~oI Tlorloolg TMl Jeff Jarvis What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis For Tammy, Jake, and Julia Contents WWGD? 1 Google Rules 9 New Relationship 11 • Give the people control and we will use it • Dell hell • Your worst customer is your best friend • Your best customer is your partner New Architecture 24 • The link changes everything • Do what you do best and link to the rest • Join a network • Be a platform • Th ink distributed New Publicness 40 • If you’re not searchable, you won’t be found • Everybody needs Googlejuice • Life is public, so is business • Your customers are your ad agency New Society 48 • E l e g a n t o r g a n i z a t i o n New Economy 54 • Small is the new big • The post-scarcity economy • Join the open- source, gift economy • The mass market is dead—long live the mass of niches iv Contents • Google commodifi es everything • Welcome to the Google economy New Business Reality 70 • Atoms are a drag • Middlemen are doomed • Free is a business model • Decide what business you’re in New Attitude 82 • There is an inverse relationship between control and trust • Trust the people • Listen New Ethic 91 • Make mistakes well • Life is a beta • Be honest • Be transparent • Collaborate • Don’t be evil New Speed 103 • Answers are instantaneous • Life is live • Mobs form in a fl ash New Imperatives 109
    [Show full text]
  • Table of Contents
    Table of Contents Preface . ix 1. Open Source Licensing, Contract, and Copyright Law . 1 Basic Principles of Copyright Law 1 Contract and Copyright 3 Open Source Software Licensing 4 Issues with Copyrights and Patents 7 The Open Source Definition 8 Warranties 11 2. The MIT, BSD, Apache, and Academic Free Licenses . 14 The MIT (or X) License 14 The BSD License 15 The Apache License, v1.1 and v2.0 17 The Academic Free License 24 Application and Philosophy 30 3. The GPL, LGPL, and Mozilla Licenses . 34 GNU General Public License 35 GNU Lesser General Public License 49 The Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL 1.1) 62 Application and Philosophy 81 4. Qt, Artistic, and Creative Commons Licenses . 85 The Q Public License 85 Artistic License (Perl) 90 Creative Commons Licenses 98 vii 5. Non-Open Source Licenses . 114 Classic Proprietary License 114 Sun Community Source License 120 Microsoft Shared Source Initiative 144 6. Legal Impacts of Open Source and Free Software Licensing . 147 Entering Contracts 148 Statutory Developments Related to Software Contracts 150 The Self-Enforcing Nature of Open Source and Free Software Licenses 151 The Global Scope of Open Source and Free Software Licensing 153 The “Negative Effects” of Open Source and Free Software Licensing 154 Community Enforcement of Open Source and Free Software Licenses 158 Compatible and Incompatible Licensing: Multiple and Cross Licensing 159 7. Software Development Using Open Source and Free Software Licenses . 164 Models of Open Source and Free Software Development 164 Forking 171 Choosing an Open Source or Free Software License 174 Drafting Open Source Licenses 176 Appendix: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License .
    [Show full text]
  • Free As in Freedom (2.0): Richard Stallman and the Free Software Revolution
    Free as in Freedom (2.0): Richard Stallman and the Free Software Revolution Sam Williams Second edition revisions by Richard M. Stallman i This is Free as in Freedom 2.0: Richard Stallman and the Free Soft- ware Revolution, a revision of Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software. Copyright c 2002, 2010 Sam Williams Copyright c 2010 Richard M. Stallman Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled \GNU Free Documentation License." Published by the Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St., Fifth Floor Boston, MA 02110-1335 USA ISBN: 9780983159216 The cover photograph of Richard Stallman is by Peter Hinely. The PDP-10 photograph in Chapter 7 is by Rodney Brooks. The photo- graph of St. IGNUcius in Chapter 8 is by Stian Eikeland. Contents Foreword by Richard M. Stallmanv Preface by Sam Williams vii 1 For Want of a Printer1 2 2001: A Hacker's Odyssey 13 3 A Portrait of the Hacker as a Young Man 25 4 Impeach God 37 5 Puddle of Freedom 59 6 The Emacs Commune 77 7 A Stark Moral Choice 89 8 St. Ignucius 109 9 The GNU General Public License 123 10 GNU/Linux 145 iii iv CONTENTS 11 Open Source 159 12 A Brief Journey through Hacker Hell 175 13 Continuing the Fight 181 Epilogue from Sam Williams: Crushing Loneliness 193 Appendix A { Hack, Hackers, and Hacking 209 Appendix B { GNU Free Documentation License 217 Foreword by Richard M.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Content Licensing
    Open Content Licensing Open Content Licensing From Theory to Practice Edited by Lucie Guibault & Christina Angelopoulos Amsterdam University Press Cover design: Kok Korpershoek bno, Amsterdam Lay-out: JAPES, Amsterdam ISBN 978 90 8964 307 0 e-ISBN 978 90 4851 408 3 NUR 820 Creative Commons License CC BY NC (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) L. Guibault & C. Angelopoulos / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2011 Some rights reversed. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise). Contents 1. Open Content Licensing: From Theory to Practice – An Introduction 7 Lucie Guibault, Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam 2. Towards a New Social Contract: Free-Licensing into the Knowledge Commons 21 Volker Grassmuck, Humboldt University Berlin and University of Sao Paulo 3. Is Open Content a Victim of its Own Success? Some Economic Thoughts on the Standardization of Licenses 51 Gerald Spindler and Philipp Zimbehl, University of Göttingen 4. (Re)introducing Formalities in Copyright as a Strategy for the Public Domain 75 Séverine Dusollier, Centre de Recherche Informatique et Droit, Université Notre- Dame de la Paix (Namur) 5. User-Related Assets and Drawbacks of Open Content Licensing 107 Till Kreutzer, Institute for legal questions on Free and Open Source Software (ifrOSS) 6. Owning the Right to Open Up Access to Scientific Publications 137 Lucie Guibault, Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam 7. Friends or Foes? Creative Commons, Freedom of Information Law and the European Union Framework for Reuse of Public Sector Information 169 Mireille van Eechoud, Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam 8.
    [Show full text]
  • A Creative Commons License Filter
    The future of BootCaT: A Creative Commons License Filter egon w. stemle & verena lyding <{egon.stemle, verena.lyding}@eurac.edu> Institute for Specialised Communication and Multilingualism European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC) June 24th, 2013 The Problem "Copyright issues remain a gray area in compiling and distributing Web corpora" William H. Fletcher, 2011 Notwithstanding all the good intentions of a researcher who collects web data for building a corpus in the name of fair use (i.e. without committing an act of piracy), redistributing data taken from the web without the permission of their creator is — strictly speaking — illegal. Marco Brunello, 2009 (adapted) egon, verena (ComMul@EURAC) CC license filter June 24th, 2013 2 / 12 The Problem . solved? "If a Web corpus is infringing copyright, then it is merely doing on a small scale what search engines such as Google are doing on a colossal scale" Adam Kilgarriff, Gregory Grefenstette, 2003 "Starting August 1, Google News in Germany will only index sources that have decided to explicitly opt-in to being shown on the search giant's news-aggregation service. Google News remains an opt-out service in the other 60 countries and languages it currently operates in, but since Germany passed a new copyright law earlier this year that takes effect on August 1, the company is in danger of having to pay newspapers, blogs and other publishers for the right to show even snippets of news" TechCrunch, June 21st, 2013 The problem (with the "Leistungsschutzrecht" Law) is that it is not clear when a few words become a snippet.
    [Show full text]
  • Stephen Downes
    Free Learning Essays on open educational resources and copyright Stephen Downes National Research Council Canada 2 Free Learning Free Learning Essays on Open Educational Resources and Copyright Stephen Downes Copyright (c) 2011 This work is published under a Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA This license lets you remix, tweak, and build upon this work non-commercially, as long as you credit the author and license your new creations under the identical terms. View License Deed: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 View Legal Code: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode Stephen Downes 3 I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumbrance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle. Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be. This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence. This is what I aspire toward, this is what I work toward. 4 Free Learning Free Learning Introduction .................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Torah (/ˈtɔːrəˌˈtoʊrə/; Hebrew: הרָוֹתּ, “Instruction, Teaching”)
    Torah Sefer Torah at old Glockengasse Synagogue (reconstruction), Cologne ,Instruction“ ,ּתֹוָרה :Torah (/ˈtɔːrəˌˈtoʊrə/; Hebrew Teaching”), or the Pentateuch (/ˈpɛntəˌtuːk, -ˌtjuːk/), is the central reference of the religious Judaic tradition. It has a range of meanings. It can most specifically mean the first five books of the twenty-four books of the Tanakh, and it usually includes the rabbinic commen- Silver Torah Case, Ottoman Empire Museum of Jewish Art and taries. The term Torah means instruction and offers a way History of life for those who follow it; it can mean the continued narrative from Genesis to the end of the Tanakh, and it can even mean the totality of Jewish teaching, culture and generation to generation and are now embodied in the practice.[1] Common to all these meanings, Torah con- Talmud and Midrash.[2] sists of the foundational narrative of the Jews: their call According to rabbinic tradition, all of the teachings found into being by God, their trials and tribulations, and their in the Torah, both written and oral, were given by God covenant with their God, which involves following a way through Moses, a prophet, some of them at Mount Sinai of life embodied in a set of moral and religious obliga- and others at the Tabernacle, and all the teachings were tions and civil laws (halakha). written down by Moses, which resulted in the Torah we In rabbinic literature the word “Torah” denotes both the have today. According to a Midrash, the Torah was cre- Torah that is ated prior to the creation of the world, and was used as the“ ,תורה שבכתב) five books, Torah Shebichtav -blueprint for Creation.[3] The majority of Biblical schol תורה) written”), and an Oral Torah, Torah Shebe'al Peh Torah that is spoken”).
    [Show full text]
  • Creative Commons Licenses Legal Pitfalls: Incompatibilities and Solutions
    INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION LAW Creative Commons Licenses Legal Pitfalls: Incompatibilities and Solutions Melanie Dulong de Rosnay Institute for Information Law University of Amsterdam i Version 1.0 1 September 2010 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Nederland license available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nl/ ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary..................................................................................................................vii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Sources of legal incompatibilities .................................................................................... 3 1.2 Scope, methodology and outline ...................................................................................... 4 2. Creative Commons licenses diversity .................................................................................... 7 2.1 Creative Commons: an organization and a set of licenses............................................... 9 2.1.1 The licensing infrastructure: a technical standard..................................................... 9 2.1.2 Creative Commons policy strategy: not quite a legal standard............................... 12 2.2 The different licenses available...................................................................................... 14 2.2.1 The licenses formats...............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Internet Est Un Don De Dieu ?,Papa
    Geektionnerd : Internet est un don de Dieu ? Sources : Internet est un don de Dieu selon le pape François sur Numerama Tweet d’Alexandre Delaigue L’avocat du diable sur le Geektionnerd Crédit : Simon Gee Giraudot (Creative Commons By-Sa) Papa twittos, Google cupidus Sources : le pape twitte son premier message (Numérama) Fier d’échapper au fisc (Numérama) Crédit : Simon Gee Giraudot (Creative Commons By-Sa) Ce que le libre apporte à la plus ancienne religion du livre Croire ou être de telle ou telle religion c’est d’abord s’inscrire dans son histoire et sa tradition. C’est aussi évidemment la vivre et l’éprouver au sein de sa communauté dans le temps présent de son propre chemin personnel et spirituel. On puise dans le passé, dont subsistent ici avant tout des traces écrites, pour s’y forger individuellement et collectivement hic et nunc sa propre connaissance et expérience des choses. Ce double mouvement peut être favorisé ou au contraire freiné par le contexte social et culturel d’une époque. C’est ici que le Libre peut éventuellement trouver sa place, comme en témoigne cet entretien avec Aharon Varady, à l’initiative d’un projet original et probant autour du judaïsme[1]. Le potentiel et les promesses du judaïsme open source The Potential and Promise of Open-Source Judaism Alan Jacob – 12 juin 2012 – The Atlantic (Traduction Framalang : Goofy, Lamessen, Isammoc, pbegou, Hikou, Aa) L’effort pionnier d’une communauté pour rendre ses matériaux de culte plus largement disponibles et adaptables. Les nouvelles technologies sont naturellement et généralement controversées, mais sans doute nulle part autant qu’au sein des communautés religieuses.
    [Show full text]
  • Creative Commons Licenses Legal Pitfalls: Incompatibilities and Solutions
    INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION LAW Creative Commons Licenses Legal Pitfalls: Incompatibilities and Solutions Melanie Dulong de Rosnay Institute for Information Law University of Amsterdam Version 1.1 20 December 2010 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Nederland license available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nl/ TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword .................................................................................................................................... 1 Executive summary .................................................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Sources of legal incompatibilities .................................................................................... 9 1.2 Scope, methodology and outline .................................................................................... 10 2. Creative Commons licenses diversity .................................................................................. 13 2.1 Creative Commons: an organization and a set of licenses ............................................. 15 2.1.1 The licensing infrastructure: a technical standard .................................................. 15 2.1.2 Creative Commons policy strategy: not quite a legal standard ............................... 18 2.2 The different licenses available ....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 2013 Limmudboston Program Book
    4th ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF JEWISH LIFELONG LEARNING THE ENERGY OF LIMMUDBOSTON IN A K-8 SCHOOL You know who would love LimmudBoston? Your kids. See how Rashi nurtures Jewish souls and inspires a love of Judaism, every day. The Rashi School Boston Area Reform Jewish K-8 Independent School Dedham MA | 617-969-4444 | www.rashi.org December 8, 2013 Welcome to LimmudBoston 2013—the annual, volunteer-driven celebration of Jewish lifelong learning. Today’s communiversity includes over 100 amazing presentations, panels and performances. As one of over 80 Limmud conferences throughout the world, it is an honor to bring Limmud International values and principles to New England. LimmudBoston is built on volunteer power: Thank you to the LimmudBoston 2013 Program Team, headed by Wendy Liebow and Barbara Posnick, whose leadership, humor and diligence led the group that created today’s program. Other team leaders are Jeri Robins and Deb Barsel—Music Team; Bonnie Greenberg— Storytelling; Maureen Mintz—Food Team; Emma Stitcher, Barbara Miller and Alex Spivak—Logistics, Site & Signage; Sally Bock—Volunteer Outreach and Terri Swartz Russell, who created Camp Limmud while overseeing the program as conference co-chair. Yes, there are more. You will find their names throughout this program book. These team leaders need your help! That’s the Limmud way! Inspired? Join a planning team. You will meet wonderful people and have the opportunity to bring next year’s LimmudBoston conference to life. Got Limmuditude? Pitch in, take part, discover something new. Give Limmuditude! Join a team for next year! Enjoy LimmudBoston 2013, and save the date for LimmudBoston 2014—December 7, 2014.
    [Show full text]