OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
The Greatest Success of Open Source is its Philosophy
W
By Jordan Erickson
hen it comes down to it, we work for the future of our children. The very purpose of our jobs, regardless of whether you are a superintendent, teacher, systems administrator or custodian, is to aid in the education of our youth so that they may be prepared, motivated and creative in their adult lives. Working in schools gives us a unique perspective as to the forming of minds and how they solve problems now and later on in life. What we do to solidify what we teach our students is important in an almost subliminal sense (a “practice what you preach” approach, if you will). Remember that—to the student—teacher and school are synonymous. If a health class teacher points out the importance and benefits of consuming natural juices instead as opposed to soda, it is hypocritical for the student to see vending machines filled with carbonated sugar water at lunch. It then becomes a choice of whether they listen to their teacher or opt for the convenience of the campus-provided vending machine 20 feet away. It undermines the importance of the message you are communicating when your words aren’t backed up in the real world. Okay, let’s talk technology. Beyond the long drawn-out and inconclusive arguments of technical superiority or inferiority of proprietary versus open source software, there is the less obvious (but, in my humble opinion, much more important) examination of how people perceive technology as a whole. There is an overwhelming mentality of most nontech geeks that computers are sealed black boxes.
14 DataBus • Summer 2010
The language of software end-user license agreements alone is enough to make you want to contact your lawyer before you click on the “I Agree” button. This creates a “hands-off” mentality of the end user when operating a computer, and that mentality is dangerous when you want to learn as much as possible. It instills fear, uncertainty and doubt, and manifests into an attitude of shying away from digging deeper into how technology actually works. If there are security alarms embedded in the program, it is probably best to not tinker. Open source software is quite the opposite in that the philosophy behind it promotes (and the license legally enforces) the open sharing, copying and modification of program code. It engages the students on a technological level and tells them, “Hey, if you want to change how I work, go ahead. If I crash, feel free to dig into my code and fix it. If you do, please share your work with everyone so we can benefit from it too!” It also openly encourages the involvement and participation of everyone interested in the project to help create documentation, help out other users online, and generally become part of how the software evolves and gets better. This is a very important idea—from the ground up, open source software projects rely on the involvement of its community to prosper. By laying out every piece of the puzzle for everyone to see, discuss and collaborate on, there are no secrets and everyone is on the same level. This creates a motivation to give back to the community who provided the software for you, as you feel mor-