Name:
Matt Crosslin

Email:
matt@mattcrosslin.com

Title:
Open Source Presents Benefits to Educators

Author:
Anne Kim

Journal:
THE Journal, August, 2002

URL:
http://thejournal.com/articles/16038/

Introduction:
The objective of this article is to examine some of the more obvious benefits of open-source technology.  I particularly like this article because I think that it covers an area that many open-source advocates miss.  I have always felt that open-source technology is important to education because it can be customized.  So many people focus on the cost benefits of open-source, which are impressive.  However, I feel that the education world would benefit greatly from being able to customize the technology it uses.

Brief Summary:
This article begins by examining the cost benefits of using open-source technology.  Real examples of savings are reviewed by the author.  These examples use actual countries that have switched to open-source technology.  Mixed in with these examples are some brief definitions of open-source and a description of one popular open-source application: StarOffice 6.0.

The author then switches gears and begins to examine how open-source technology can benefit educators.  The collaborative aspects of open-source technology are highlighted.  Also, the author examines briefly how the programs can be customized to meet individual school needs.
The article concludes by introducing some initiatives (started after the date of the article) that will examine how open-source technology can effect education.  These initiatives will examine some of the potential benefits of open-source technology that were outlined in the article.

Results:
According to the article, the government of Taiwan expects to save over $59 million dollars by switching to open-source technology.  These savings come mainly from not having to pay royalties to Microsoft for the use of Microsoft Office products.  The author also compares the cost of StarOffice6.0 (free) to the single license cost of Microsoft Office ($479).

Class Readings:
This article does contribute to our class discussions in a small way.  One theme that has emerged in our discussions is that schools are in great financial need.  If open-source technology can save as much as this article claims, then it can help with this problem.

Analysis:
This article contains a fairly short and straight forward analysis of open-source technology.  The reality of open-source is much more complex than this article maintains.  Most issues in education usually are.  Some of the issues that are brought up in other articles are not fully addressed in this article either.

Contributions:
Other than a few statistics that compare open-source programs with proprietary programs, this article does not really contribute anything new to the research field on this subject.  This article does provide a good starting point for someone new to the idea of open-source.  This article also gives enough information to help a researcher begin searching for information online.  Many of the debates and arguments about open-source are happening in chat rooms and on discussion boards on the Internet, rather than in journal articles and research, so this article does provide a good start for researchers who want to make the jump from online discussions to actual journal research.

General Critique:
I feel that the author did a good job of presenting a general overview of some open-source issues.  She provided some examples of actual cost benefits.  I have talked with many open-source advocates that can talk about how much you will save with open-source, but they are rarely able to provide actual numbers. The author even touched on the price of support for open-source programs – an issue that is some times the Achilles heel of open-source.

One of the strongest points of this article is the fact that author begins to explore the natural fit between education and open-source.  She writes about how the collaborative and open nature of open-source lends itself better to educational goals than the closed, protected nature of proprietary.  I feel that this is an important subject that could have entire books written about it.  I am glad that the author at least touches on it.
I think the major problem with this article is its brevity.  There are several other issues in the open-source community that need to be explored.  Even the issues that are explored are only superficially covered.  This may have been the point of the article, however – to wet the appetite for more.

Issues (listed by the author):
The author really does not go into open issues.  She does introduce plans for the SITE open source initiative, which at the time of the writing, had not begun yet.  She also briefly touches on how complex the cost benefits of open-source can be, but never really digs into it enough to let us know if she thinks it is still an open question or not.

Issues (in my opinion):
I feel that the customizable aspect of open-source technology is still an open issue.  Since any body can have access to the source code, an open-source program can be modified any way imaginable.  But what does this mean for education?  How can we train people to utilize this aspect?  I would suggest that we need to see a new sub field in world of education emerge – educators that know how to customize open-source technologies to fit any umber of needs.
Also, I feel that the cost benefits of open-source technology need to be explored more in depth – especially if they are so complex.  I would suggest that a system or chart would even need to be developed to help educators evaluate these benefits.

Impact:
I can not determine if this article has had an impact on the research community.  I could not find any articles that cite it.  However, the open-source community does appear to operate more in fluid mediums like chat rooms and discussion boards than research articles (at least in my observations).

Conclusion:
Open-source technology does provide an interesting alternative for schools that are experiencing budget shortages.  Some of the benefits that arise from switching to open-source, however, may not always be measurable in dollar signs.  All of the issues involved will need to be taken into account before a decision is made to switch.

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