Sunday, June 22, 2008
Commercial Software V. Open Souce
Before reading this article, I would not have been able to define the term "open source." I read the article as an empty slate and was able to see the pros and the cons of both systems. I thought that commercial software was more on the safe side as the company is responsible for providing the training and necessary troubleshooting if problem arises. The limits are recognized and it made me question how often they would make upgrades to their program and if another set of licensing fees would be required. I like the idea of open source but my concerns lie in how feasible it is to expect your faculty to adapt to the program and modify it to fit their needs. If modification of the system is simple enough and people can alter it as they wish, I think it is a wonderful upgrade. In regards to the article on Web 2.0, open source might be a great way to ease into it. If the Internet is supposed to enhance the way people search for information, people will eventually want for their software to enhance how they go about using the software. As Web 2.0 shares, it needs to be straight forward so that things that are not needed don't come up; it works according to the user. So must open source be; it needs not make the use feel incompetent in modifying the capabilities, it needs to be efficient and simple.
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3 comments:
and therein lies the problem-seems like a lot of open source software needs so much customization (for obvious reasons) that-though people think it's a good idea-few have been willing to adopt it because of the manpower needed, etc. I think somehow open source software has to get demystified and become adopted successfully in a lot more places before we'll really see its power.
thanks for your comments on my blog. I am not going to use iFrame, cool as it is. Like you say, it doesn't really fit with my design. But I hope to use it in future. Hope your project is going well.
: )
I wish that ECT offered a course on how to install an open source content management system, such as Moodle or Drupal. I think demystification comes from direct instruction. I have used content management systems extensively, but I have never had full control (that is annoying when I want to push what the code can do)
I really like using open-source software. I find it is often better than what I could buy (more innovative) and as a teacher I find it is key to my students who cannot afford even Word. I like giving my students tools to create with.
See you in class!
I agree with you when you said that you had no idea what open source was before you read the article. Funny thing is, is that even though I had no idea what it was I have been using it for well over 5 years. I think that there are definitely pros and cons to using open source, but mostly its about having the appropriate IT staff knowledgeable to implement the new type of software. All in all, I think that even though there is a reluctance to switch over to open source, probably because cost is a huge issue, that is where things are headed.
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