open source software (OSS)
See the following -
How Linux and Makerspaces Can Strengthen Our Social Fabric
In recent years, we've seen the rise of makerspaces, a new social invention where people with shared interests, especially in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math), gather to work on projects and share ideas. I was intrigued when I learned about a makerspace in my community, because I had never heard of such a concept before. I've since learned that makerspaces offer so much more than just a place to learn and build. A well-run makerspace also knits together a community and its social fabric—and, most importantly, invites in people who might otherwise be marginalized...
- Login to post comments
How New OSS Communities And Code Bases Are Developed From Old Ones
Open source software developers modify significant amounts of source code for a variety of different reasons. Depending on the amount of modification, the number of developers doing the fragmentation (sometimes called a “fork” in the code), the status of these developers in the community, and the intention of the development community, the results could be just a few lines of updated code, or it could be a complete fork of the code base that takes the open source project in an entirely new direction. Read More »
- Login to post comments
How Open Source Builds Distributed Trust
This distillation of collective experience allows what we refer to as distributed trust and is collected through numerous mechanisms on the internet. Some, like TripAdvisor or Glassdoor, record information about organisations or the services they provide, while others, like UrbanSitter or LinkedIn, allow users to add information about specific people (see, for instance, LinkedIn's Recommendations and Skills & Endorsements sections in individuals' profiles). The benefits that can accrue from these examples are significantly increased by the network effect, as the number of possible connections between members increases exponentially as the number of members increases.
- Login to post comments
How Open Source Helped Beat Ebola
More than 10,000 dead, hundreds of thousands affected, and a world paralyzed with fear at the prospect of contagion. It is hard to fully grasp the impact of the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the valor of those who put their own lives on the line to save the lives of others. But among the countless stories of human tragedy and heroism, it's now known what a vital role open-source software played in supporting doctors during critical times...
- Login to post comments
How Open Source Is Changing the Pace of Software Development
...as new computing architectures and approaches rapidly evolve for cloud computing, for big data, for the Internet of Things (IoT), it's also becoming evident that the open source development model is extremely powerful because of the manner in which it allows innovations from multiple sources to be recombined and remixed in powerful ways. Consider the following examples...
- Login to post comments
How Open Source Is Enhancing Healthcare
With the recent development in software technology, many application systems are now competing for medical attention. Healthcare (or what we can call it as medical software) is evolving rapidly through communications, record-keeping system to a source of decision support, consequently, playing an active role in clinical service. However, unlike many other services, medical software is not very well regulated and places like a safety burden and cost of ineffective use solely depend on the physicians...
- Login to post comments
How Open Source Mobile Health Technology Aided Ebola Response
When the Ebola epidemic spread across West Africa in early 2014, organizations around the world sent thousands of health workers to combat the outbreak alongside local medical personnel and volunteers. Over the past two years, many of these teams have seen the benefits of using mobile health technology for disaster response. Some of the most important tasks in responding to a healthcare disaster are collecting, analyzing, sharing and acting upon data gleaned from patients. That was one job of Partners in Health (PIH), a nonprofit based in Boston, which worked in the affected countries to train medical staff, provide patient care, and survey patients and their families.
- Login to post comments
How open source software is fighting COVID-19
Since the end of January, the [open source] community has contributed to thousands of open source repositories that mention coronavirus or COVID-19. These repositories consist of datasets, models, visualizations, web and mobile applications, and more, and the majority are written in JavaScript and Python. Previously, we shared information about several open hardware makers helping to stop the spread and suffering caused by the coronavirus. Here, we're sharing four (of many) examples of how the open source software community is responding to coronavirus and COVID-19, with the goal of celebrating the creators and the overall impact the open source community is making on the world right now.
- Login to post comments
How Open Source Software Will Drive the Future of Auto Innovations
Automotive companies are shifting from bending metal to bending bits. Soon they will be offering software and services to complement their manufactured metal. As these companies become software-driven, open source will become a staple to drive innovation faster and more reliably. Today’s cloud is powered by open source software: 78 percent of businesses run open source software in some form. With the convergence of automobiles and the cloud (supporting autonomous systems and connectivity), it’s quite clear this open source paradigm that took over the cloud will take over the automobile...
- Login to post comments
How Open Source Start-Ups Can Get Funding (And Go Viral)
Need funding for your open source start-up? Venture capitalist, Salil Deshpande, says build something that leaks up through the floorboard, then support it Read More »
- Login to post comments
How Open-Source Software is Flexing its Power
Is there a connection between open-source and delivering value in the “connected economy?” Definitely, says Chris Latterell, VP of marketing at software engineering company Open-Xchange. Like his company’s flagship product, OX App Suite, open source is people centric and responsive. In this interview he discusses game-changing open-source trends. Read More »
- Login to post comments
How OpenMRS is Used to Fight Malaria in Endemic Areas
Children receiving care at a health clinic using OpenMRS in rural Uganda. Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that malaria is still the leading cause of death in Uganda, accounting for over 27% of deaths. OpenMRS is an electronic medical record platform designed to be used in low-resource environments where malaria and many other deadly diseases are endemic such as Uganda, where malaria is the primary cause of death in children. OpenMRS is currently used in over 1,800 medical clinics in 64 countries, providing the health information technology infrastructure that is foundational to over 6.3 million patients...
- Login to post comments
How Percona Has Built a Successful Open Source Business Based on Support and Services Revenues
The open source community is a diverse and fractious collection of individuals and organizations. In its infancy, in many ways it could be compared to the hippie movements of the '60s: a lot of passion, a lot of fun, a lot of weirdness, and not a lot of organization. Over the last decade or so, it has evolved into a respected software development force that relies on the support of its members. As it's grown and diversified over the last decade, it has gotten more mainstream in the sense that there are now many different players that are making quite a bit of money based on open source principles. It has more prestige and a lot more respectability. As they say, money changes everything...
How Praekelt.org and Open Source Provide Critical Services to Enable Social Change
In Eastern and Southern Africa, women are still dying unnecessarily during the basic, natural act of giving life. According to Unicef, “In 2010, close to 58,000 women lost their lives during pregnancy and childbirth, accounting for more than one fifth of all such deaths in the world.” Gustav Praekelt, founder of the South African design and development firm Praekelt.com, was deeply affected by the high maternal mortality rate in his country and realized in 2007 that open source software and mobile phones could help provide critical information and services to combat poverty and maternal mortality rates -- among other social issues -- across the continent and potentially around the world.
- Login to post comments
How Radio Can Be A Conversation (Not A Lecture) And A Jukebox (Not A Playlist)
Airtime is an awesome piece of software [which] lets radio stations take control of programming via the web. [...] To mark World Radio Day 2013, FrontlineSMS:Radio‘s Amy O’Donnell wrote a post for Sourcefabric’s blog on how this scheduling tool can be complemented by channels including SMS to help to make radio interactive. Read More »
- Login to post comments