Open Source Textbooks

Bob Brown reports a Brigham Young University study indicating that open source textbooks may improve course completion rates.

The study by Fischer, Hilton, Robinson and Wiley (2015) observed a student population of 15,727 students at ten universities, of whom 4,909 used open source materials. There were few disadvantages from using open source materials.

-DD

Open Source Software

InfoWorld Staff suggest the ten best open source software products of 2015.

-DD

Standards Enabling Open Source Cloud Storage

Lucas Mearian sees large vendors developing standards for open source cloud storage . Mearian explains that new technologies are developing new services that were difficult to index before, such as video and photos. He describes these technologies, which require new data standards and huge storage capacities:

Object-based storage addresses a world of unstructured data where pictures, movies, e-commerce, games, and archives are all searchable through metadata or descriptive data. In the new storage paradigm, information is stored, read and deleted but never modified.

It appears that if these technologies are implemented and open access, information will be far more accessible than using search engines such as the current Google. There will still be a place for knowledge specialists maintaining standard index terms to be used for the metadata, though the indexing itself I envision being done through automation.

-DD

Microsoft Open Source Software

J. Peter Bruzzese praises Microsoft's open source codeplex library.

-DD

Test Proctoring

Jeffery Young reports on new tech developments seen at the EDUCAUSE Conference . Key new technologies involve automated exam proctoring and open source textbooks.

-DD

TrueCrypt Abandoned by Its Creators

Ellen Messmer reports that the open-source security tool True Crypt was suddenly abandoned by its secretive creators. The creators are reported to have sent a message to the open source community stating that "Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues." Messmer reports that the abandonment of TrueCrypt leaves computer users with no free alternative for encypting files.

This episode highlights the lack of accountability or support for some open source products. My recommendation would be to limit freeware or open source purchases to those with contact information to a responsible party, just as I would want an author listed for data I was going to rely upon.

-DD

Boundless Lawsuit Continues

Jake New reports that the lawsuit against "free" textbook publisher Boundless is set to continue.   The litigating publishers claim that the process where students use open-source content to mimic a traditional textbook results in a product that is almost a duplicate of the commercial product.

-DD

Software Management and Documentation

Mary K. Pratt shares how even open source software requires documentation and management. The software may appear to be free, but licensing restrictions may restrict deployment. And a roster of available software can be useful.

-DD

MOOCs and Librarians

Jennifer Howard discusses how "For Libraries, MOOCs Bring Uncertainty and Opportunity ." Her article is based on an OCLC conference held in Pennsylvania on March 18, 2013. Howard encourages librarians to participate in a MOOC in order to authoritively discuss their possibilities and limitations. She also reports that:

Several panelists said that working on MOOCs can be a great way to heighten instructors’ awareness about open access and the licensing of course materials. Jennifer Dorner is the head of instruction and user services at the University of California at Berkeley. “This is a real opportunity [for librarians] to educate faculty about the need for owning the rights to their content and making it accessible to other people,” Ms. Dorner said in one session. “This is a really good place for us to educate them about open source and push them in that direction.”

-DD

Omeka Archival Data Server

Konrad Larson wrote for the Chronicle of Higher Education a review of Omeka, an open source server for archival products.

-DD