[TOS] IEEE on Open Source

[Mel Chua]

IEEE computer society this month does a special snapshot series on open 
source:

http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/archive/december2010

A couple articles I thought were interesting:

"Choosing an Open Source Software License in Commercial Context: A 
Managerial Perspective" 
(http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/1210/theme/euromicro2010) 
was illuminating to me, not because the article itself was written in 
THRILLING PROSE!!! but because it was an academic-formatted (and cited!) 
discussion of *exactly* the same sort of discussion I'm used to 
having/hearing with hackers, except in a way more formal format with 
less rapid chattering while pointing at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_licenses and 
the FSF and OSI homepages. (Notably, it doesn't really step you through 
*how* to pick a license - I could be a hacker, read this article, and 
still not know what license my project should use.) Fascinating cultural 
difference point here, for me.

"Open Source Data Collection in the Developing World" might be of 
interest to folks here involved in HFOSS. 
(http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/1210/theme/computer) It 
mentions OpenMRS.

"A Comparative Analysis of Open Source Software Usage in Germany, 
Brazil, and India" is, again, not the most THRILLING PROSE!!! ever, but 
perhaps an example of the sort of student write-up that could be made in 
humanities fields, informatics classes, or whatever other disciplines 
would tackle a project like 
http://blog.melchua.com/2010/09/30/student-project-where-in-the-world-is-open-source-policy/. 
(http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/1210/theme/cscit2009)

Sadly, the most interesting (imo) article, "A Stage Model of Evolution 
for Open Source Software" (which "discusses the 3 generations of open 
source evolution through the maturity curve") requires IEEE login for 
full text.

--Mel