Open Source
A few years ago Open Source was a real buzz – the future of software well beyond education. While the movement is still very active, the breakthrough promise hasn’t been realized. Yet. There are many who believe that the critical mass of openness – including new dimensions such as Open Data, Open Licenses, Open Innovation, Open Educational Resources, etc, is just around the corner.
Opportunity Statement
Learning technologies ventures based on an Open Source model are compelling in thought but challenging in practice. Analogous to social media applications, they depend significantly on cultivating a community committed to the value proposition. This is a not an unreasonable assumption in the education marketplace.
Prediction Source(s):
Posted in: Emerging Markets Poll
mackenzie 1:35 am on May 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Although ahead of the times, open source is just too tantalizing and revolutionary to not be at the forefront of my interest. With more and more computer programmers and other professionals creating free software, products and services in their spare time, open source is becoming the new way to give back to society and opens endless possibilities for the future.
Yves Mainville 8:48 am on May 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I have been an OSS fan for some time and feel that it should be a consideration when acquiring new software. Many boards won’t touch anything OSS for the lack of a single entity in the way of support, communication, liability, etc. There is a compromise with the use use of VARs (Value Added Resellers) to help with planning, deployment, and support, but this is still a somewhat incomplete solution for many organizations.
With the proliferation of devices, apps, services, software applications, many of which are ‘homegrown’ a change of ‘perspective’ will be required to take advantage on a broader scale of available resources available to us via OSS.