Open Source Software

 

“Open Source Software (OSS) refers to software that is released under one of several licenses, the most prevalent of which is GPL (General Public License) from the Free Software Foundation.  According to the license, users have the freedom to run an OSS program for any purpose, have access to its source code, may modify the code, and may redistribute copies of either original or the modified code without having to pay royalties to previous developers.” – Birman, A. and Ritsko, J. “Preface to the Special Issue on Open Systems,” IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 44, 2, 2005. p. 213.

 

 

This group should investigate:

  • The history of open source systems
  • The major technical components. Explain to business people the functions of IP (open networks), HTML (open publishing), XML (open data), J2EE (open programming), open interchange (Web services), and open operating system (Linux).
  • Compare and contrast the advantages of open systems from proprietary systems.
  • Explain how the major software vendors have changed their competitive strategy as a result of open systems (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, etc.)
  • Explain the Total Cost of Ownership of proprietary and open source software
  • Most importantly, what are the lessons companies need to know as they shift from proprietary to open systems or use a combination of both.

 

The best way to generate these lessons is through case studies of companies that have adopted open systems.  At least on of these cases should be based on original interviews. UMSL could always be one case study, as we have both open and proprietary software on our platform—our IT staff would be happy to talk about it. International students are highly encouraged to interview business managers in non-USA organizations on this topic.

 

For each organization studied, provide the company background by including:

  • Size of company in terms of sales and profits
  • Major products the company sells
  • General characteristics of their customers
  • Organizational chart--who does the CIO report to?
  • How many people work for the IT organization?
  • What is the annual IT budget?

The open systems portion of the case should include:

  • Reasons the company adopted open systems
  • People responsible for open systems
  • The challenges the company faced while implementing open systems (people’s resistance to change, technology challenges, etc)
  • What are the perceived benefits,  limitations, and risks of  open systems as described by IT managers you interviewed
  • What plans does the organization have for the future of open systems?
  • Lessons learned by the company

The group should end the presentation on best practices for implementing open systems, then map how your cases fit into best practices.  This is essentially a cross-case comparison that integrates your primary (case studies) and secondary (journal articles & books) research.

 

I am sure that your group will have many creative ideas, so please feel free to discuss them with me.