OpenSource

OS Software & Content

The Google Browser?

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Seth Godin comments on the fact that the key developer of the open source Mozilla Firefox browser is now going to work part-time with Google:

Lessons?


1. Running a successful open source effort is a great idea. I can’t think of an individual who has invested the time and not had a great personal outcome as well.


2. Google understands what I failed to persuade Yahoo! of a long time ago–owning the browser is a home run. Microsoft has botched their ownership of IE, because they think like bullies, and you can’t bully consumers into doing what they don’t want to do. The idea of a Google browser is powerful from both a user and a commercial perspective, mainly because Google’s culture will make it work.

This goes to show that open source is a viable business model for the individual as well as the company, and that with the Web, corporate dominance can easily be usurped. I bet that Firefox will overtake IE in 12 months.

Don’t miss Seth’s ultimate lesson.

Open Source 2005

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Please don’t take it from me; just read this article if you still think that open source software is a fringe movement and will have no impact on the software development business. By Steven Vaughan-Nichols at eWeek:

Sometimes people don’t know when a revolution has happened until afterwards. Then, the historians tell us that 2004 was the year that open source started to become computing’s mainstream.

From e-Learning to s-Learning

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James Farmer has started an excellent conversation on learning management systems and how new systems can be developed on a looser configuration of individual controlled nodes by using blogging software. The general theme is that less management is better, and that individual learners could write all of their posts, assignments and papers from their own site, and these could be directed to each class as web feeds. The classes would aggregate the feeds from all the students and instructors. The beauty of this kind of system is that each student keeps all of his/her content, and it does not get locked away in an inaccessible archive of a centrally controlled LMS.

Boris Mann and Will Pate add their comments, especially from the Drupal perspective, with Will pushing for a move away from electronic learning to social learning. I think that a shift of focus (and development effort) away from the management aspects of learning and more on the social aspects of learning can only be positive for the learner.

We have the technology to do this, and Drupal only needs a few more functions in order to be a “learning community in a box”. It’s exciting to know that we are getting to the point of having a real alternative to the LMS. I have tried in the past year to convince some organisations to move away from the LMS model, but the alternatives have been a bit messy, especially for the IT department. Rob Paterson’s course at UPEI showed that an online course could work without an LMS. The development of an “off-the-shelf” social software tool, designed for formal learning interventions, could really kick-start a new direction for learning technologies.

Update — and the Drupal development community has begun to discuss the creation of a module for educational sites, starting with quizzes, but ending who knows where.

Why Moodle?

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From Global Literacy is an overview of comparisons of the Moodle learning system with several others. Moodle is multilingual, SCORM compliant, based on a constructivist pedagogical model and is free (as in free beer and free source code). We (Mancomm) have been using Moodle rather successfully with a group of Montreal area nurses, who are co-developing their knowledge base on a new nursing care methodology.

Via incsub

Claroline 1.5.2

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I recently received an update on the Claroline open source learning system, which is available in 28 languages.
It is now at version 1.5.2, the administration has been improved since 1.3, and the developers consider it an easy system for those with little Internet experience.

A Viable Business Model for Open Source Learning Technologies?

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A while back, on my previous blog, I said that: I believe the next great business model for an elearning entrepreneur is to provide high quality installation and support services for a select group of open source learning systems. Your customers will soon realize that you are not trying to sell them the next upgrade to get more cash, because the software is free. You will be selling your knowledge, experience, and customer service. Many IT departments would be more apt to use open source if they knew that it was strongly supported. Also, there is a lot less conflict of interest when you remove the vendor from the ongoing support.

I just came across a new business venture that has been 16 months in development, Spike Source. This company is positioned to be the Underwriter Laboratories (UL) of Open Source.

SpikeSource offers validated and certified open source stacks (both pure and commercial hybrids) with add-on functional features designed for faster implementation and applications manageability. We offer vendor neutrality and improved developer productivity using open source software. SpikeSource delivers certified product releases, periodic updates, technical support, and managed upgrades.

If you want more details on the business model, download the one hour interview on the Gillmor Gang  with CEO Kim Polese. It’s worth your time. I knew that this model would soon be taken by someone, but what I found interesting in the interview is that there is room for many more of these companies. I would also wager that there is room for companies using this business model in the learning market. So if you’re looking for a new business model, check this one out.

Plus ça change …

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Rick Bruner, of Business Blog Consulting, notes that enterprise vendors, like Canada’s own OpenText are moving into the bloggging space to sell their products. I have the same question as Rick though; ” … but I don’t understand why any company would pay $50,000 and $150,000, according to the article, for blog software ...” It seems to be that the hype cycle around blogging is growing, and companies will spend a lot of money on “blog” software without first doing their homework. Like learning management systems (LMS) and later learning content management systems (LCMS), some organisations will spend a significant amount on “enterprise blog applications” only to find out that it’s not so much the technology as the processes and implementation that are really important.

My advice is stick to the open source (e.g. Drupal) or ASP’s (e.g. TypePad) for your blogging pilot projects. After a good test period you can decide whether to adopt a platform, modify an OSS one, or purchase an enterprise version for big bucks. With so many low cost options for blogging, there is an existing solution for most organisational requirements.