Open Source: Sensible solutions for empowering the masses

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Open Source: Sensible solutions for empowering the masses

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Title

Open Source: Sensible solutions for empowering the masses

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Description

One of the most significant and exciting trends on the computing landscape is Open Source Software (OSS). Eric Raymond's groundbreaking essay, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", was an early description of the processes that made up the OSS phenomenon, and described two fundamentally different software development styles, the "cathedral" model, representing most commercial software projects, versus the "bazaar" model of Open Source. Bazaars are urban creations, the noisy, crowded spaces that Raymond used to characterize OSS software development suggests the need for a network of software developers and an extended community of contacts for reviewing code and picking up projects to keep them going. These communities have been smaller and more dispersed in memory institutions than in many other types of organizations, but a critical mass has emerged, and more is happening with OSS in libraries and similar institutions than ever before. This session describes the latest developments in OSS and explores how they could impact libraries and access to information.

Date

2006