scholarly journals Community and Commercial Strategies in Open Source Software

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony I. Wasserman
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Proprietary Software ◽  
Open Source License ◽  
Software Companies ◽  
Primary Focus

AbstractThis paper describes the recent evolution of business strategies used by companies offering products and services based on free and open source software (FOSS). The primary focus is on companies that develop and release products under an open source license. The paper compares their practices with traditional proprietary software companies and with community-based open source projects, and identifies growing overlaps between the different kinds of software companies. Finally, the paper describes the likely impact of recent technology developments in mobile and cloud computing on open source software and related business.

Making Money with Open-Source Business Initiatives

2008 ◽  
pp. 1344-1352
Author(s):  
Paul Benjamin Lowry ◽  
Akshay Grover ◽  
Chris Madsen ◽  
Jeff Larkin ◽  
William Robins
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
General Public ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Disruptive Technology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Proprietary Software ◽  
Open Source License ◽  
General Public License

Open-source software (OSS) is software that can be used freely in the public domain but is often copyrighted by the original authors under an open-source license such as the GNU General Public License (GPL). Given its free nature, one might believe that OSS is inherently inferior to proprietary software, yet this often is not the case. Many OSS applications are superior or on par with their proprietary competitors (e.g., MySQL, Apache Server, Linux, and Star Office). OSS is a potentially disruptive technology (Christensen, 1997) because it is often cheaper, more reliable, simpler, and more convenient than proprietary software.

Making Money with Open-Source Business Initiatives

2011 ◽  
pp. 555-561
Author(s):  
Paul Benjamin Lowry ◽  
Akshay Grover ◽  
Chris Madsen ◽  
Jeff Larkin ◽  
William Robins
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
General Public ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Disruptive Technology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Proprietary Software ◽  
Open Source License ◽  
General Public License

Open-source software (OSS) is software that can be used freely in the public domain but is often copyrighted by the original authors under an open-source license such as the GNU General Public License (GPL). Given its free nature, one might believe that OSS is inherently inferior to proprietary software, yet this often is not the case. Many OSS applications are superior or on par with their proprietary competitors (e.g., MySQL, Apache Server, Linux, and Star Office). OSS is a potentially disruptive technology (Christensen, 1997) because it is often cheaper, more reliable, simpler, and more convenient than proprietary software.

scholarly journals Factors influencing the adoption of free and open-source software for electronic records management by municipalities in Gauteng Province, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 43-54
Author(s):  
Mahlatse Shekgola ◽  
Jan Maluleka ◽  
Antonio Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Open Source ◽  
South African ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Electronic Records ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Records Management ◽  
The South ◽  
Proprietary Software ◽  
Electronic Records Management

The South African cabinet adopted policy recommendations from the Government Information Technology Officer's Council pertaining to Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS). Even though the South African Cabinet has shown support for the use of FOSS through the enactment of a policy, the adoption of open source software in electronic records management seems to be slow. Proprietary software continues to be adopted and used by most public institutions, including local and provincial municipalities in South Africa. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate factors that may influence the adoption and use of FOSS for electronic records management by South African municipalities. The study adopted a qualitative research approach to collect data from 10 purposively selected municipalities in Gauteng. Data were analysed and presented thematically to address the research question. The findings of this study suggest that municipalities in Gauteng are not adopting FOSS for electronic records management as expected. This study established that top management support, reliability, affordability of the software, inadequate capability, contracts with proprietary software providers, organisational culture and organisational support are some of the factors that contributed to the low uptake when it comes to the adoption of Free and Open-Source Software by the municipalities.

Participation in community-based free/libre open source software development tasks: the impact of task characteristics

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kangning Wei ◽  
Kevin Crowston ◽  
U. Yeliz Eseryel
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Task Characteristics ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Individual Participation ◽  
And Task ◽  
Development Tasks

PurposeThis paper explores how task characteristics in terms of trigger type and task topic influence individual participation in community-based free/libre open source software (FLOSS) development by considering participation in individual tasks rather than entire projects.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative study was designed using choose tasks that were carried out via the email discourse on the developers' email fora in five FLOSS projects. Choice process episodes were selected as the unit of analysis and were coded for the task trigger and topic. The impact of these factors on participation (i.e. the numbers of participants and messages) was assessed by regression.FindingsThe results reveal differences in participation related to different task triggers and task topics. Further, the results suggest the mediating role of the number of participants in the relationships between task characteristics and the number of messages. The authors also speculate that project type serves as a boundary condition restricting the impacts of task characteristics on the number of participants and propose this relationship for future research.Research limitations/implicationsEmpirical support was provided to the important effects of different task characteristics on individual participation behaviors in FLOSS development tasks.Practical implicationsThe findings can help FLOSS participants understand participation patterns in different tasks and choose the types of tasks to attend to.Originality/valueThis research explores the impact of task characteristics on participation in FLOSS development at the task level, while prior research on participation in FLOSS development has focused mainly on factors at the individual and/or project levels.

Open Source Software Adaptation in Africa

2017 ◽  
pp. 1708-1722
Author(s):  
Abubakar Diwani Bakar ◽  
Abu Bakar Md. Sultan ◽  
Hazura Zulzalil ◽  
Jamilah Din
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Global Network ◽  
African Continent ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Software Adaptation ◽  
Proprietary Software ◽  
Wide Availability ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Software Practitioners

The African continent has long benefited from adopting OSS in its private and public organizations that have changed their way of development, the use and how to acquire proprietary software. This frequency of adaptation does not appear to be in balance with the contribution to the OSS community. Using views from experienced software practitioners working in different organizations across two African countries it has been observed that neglected infrastructure, a wide availability of proprietary software and misconceptions of a clear meaning of Open Source Software across Africa have been an obstacle towards the participation in the OSS technology in the global network.

An Open Source Primer

2011 ◽  
pp. 278-298
Author(s):  
Brian Still
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Future Trends ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Proprietary Software ◽  
Introductory Overview ◽  
Professional Environment ◽  
Technical Communicators ◽  
History Of

This chapter serves as an introductory overview of Open Source Software (OSS) and the Open Source movement. It is geared primarily for technical communicators. To provide a thorough overview, this chapter defines OSS, explains how OSS works in comparison to proprietary software, looks at the history of OSS, and examines OSS licensing types, applications in business, and overall strengths and weaknesses when compared to proprietary software. Lastly, it evaluates the practical potential of OSS as well as emerging and future trends relating to it. From this general but thorough overview the intended audience of technical communicators will gain the solid understanding needed to work successfully in an academic or professional environment where OSS continues to grow in popularity, spurring more organizations to rely on it or the Open Source ideas that have inspired and continue to drive its creation and growth.

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