Linux on the Desktop

After my previous post, I received a few comments about the “real costs” of open source, a-la, “open source isn’t free,” and “open source actually costs more due to a loss in productivity.” Basically folks said to run Linux on the desktop, required a high skill set, and that “the average user” could not maintain

It’s “Revise, Remix & Redistribute” not, “Repeat, Redo & Replicate.”

I just updated my desktop from Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04 LTS) to Precise Pangolin (12.04 LTS) and like always after any new version or functionality from Ubuntu (Linux), excited by the new features, I can’t help but leap up on my soap box (well, to be honest, my “high horse“) to bemoan the lack of awareness and

Innovation or Replication?

Why those excited by the Stanford & edX open source platform collaboration (and many other “open” initiatives) don’t get it. It’s “reuse, revise, remix, redistribute,” not “reinvent, redo, redundant, replace.” The below article appeared just this week, in 2004 [May, 2014]. Sakai Project [EdX] launches groundbreaking open source collaboration By Nancy Connell of News Service

He who laughs last…

At the 2010 Educause National Conference, two colleagues, David Staley and Ken Udas, and I presented “The University as an Agile Organization” (see presentation PDF here). Within the session, we supposed how the organization and operation of a college or university might be enabled–and benefit–through the principles behind the Agile Manifesto, especially in light of

OSS Watch launches Open Source Options for Education Index

Mark Johnson recently posted to the Moodle Forums an announcement of the creation of the “Open Source Options for Education” index to compliment the UK Cabinet Office’s Open Source Procurement Toolkit.

I’d like a (selfish) vacation

I need to get away! OK, I know this is going to sound greedy (I am literally on vacation now–check out that 20+ lbs striped bass caught off Cape Cod), self-centered (I actually do love hanging out with the extended family and friends: 19 in total over the last two weeks) and probably lame (boring)

I’ve been in this really good MOOC for the past 20 years, it’s called “The Internet.”

I’d like to suggest a great MOOC that has been around for years. It is “massive” (nearly a half million members); it is open–as in free (no charge); it is open–as in anyone can participate (no enrollment requirements/restrictions); it is open–as in shareable/reusable (there is no copyright: all content by all contributors is in the

“Codesera” Offers Repository for Some of Higher Educations’s Most Common Programs

Last fall, two Stanford computer-science professors helped create an online code repository that opened some of the university’s locally developed software, interfaces and configurations to the entire world. Hundreds of thousands of developers enrolled free of charge. Their start-up, Codesera, which grew out of that effort, now seeks to give millions a taste of top-quality

Everyone has an opinion on the Blackboard move into Open Source… so do I.

This post was originally an email to the Educause CIO listserv, in response to Ethan Benatan, Vice President for IT & Chief Information Officet at Marylhurst University, specifically questions about the impact of various licensing options: I expanded the discussion.

The “Ultimate” Benefits of Open Source List

Frequently I catch presentations on the benefits of open source software, or even other open initiatives like open educational resources, open courseware, open access, open etc. Usually, the greatest benefit in the adoption of open source software cited by the presenter (especially when talking about applications within higher education) is related to cost savings realized