Overview of Open Source Software OSS

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Overview of Open Source Software (OSS)

• Objective To identify examples of OSS that can
  be used to support SARIS (South African Research
  Information Service)

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Content

• What is Open Source Software?
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Electronic resource management
• Electronic publishing
• Electronic collections
• Searching
• Academic tools
• Portal interface
• OSS Websites
• Conclusion

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What is Open Source Software?

• In the thirty years from 1970 to 2004, open
  source software (OSS) has evolved into a
  sophisticated movement that has produced some of
  the most stable and widely used software packages
  ever produced, eg Linux Operating System Apache
  Web Server (http//www.ala.org/ala/lita/litapublic
  ations/ital/volume21no1.htm)
• OSS refers to software that is developed, tested,
  or
• improved through public collaboration and
  distributed with
• the idea that it must be shared with others,
  ensuring open
• future collaboration. OSS has emerged as a
  powerful new
• way of generating knowledge and economic
  value.(http//www.oss.gov.za/docs/OSS_Strategy_v3.
  pdf)
• With open source you get both the executable
  version of a program and the source code-text
  files
• SA Government supports the use of OSS
  (http//www.oss.gov.za/)

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OSS Advantages

• Cross-platform simplicity
• Easing of licensing restrictions
• It can significantly help bridge the digital
  divide

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OSS Disadvantages

• The support costs for OSS can be more
  than the
  costs for equivalent commercial software
• Most (but not all) OSS is not as fully developed
  as commercial
  software with similar functionality
• Guidelines for evaluating criteria
  http//www.libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layoutart
  iclearticleidCA304084publicationlibraryjournal
  http//www.oss.gov.za/

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Electronic resource management (1)

• The Scout portal toolkit It allows groups or
  organizations that have a collection of knowledge
  or resources they want to share via the World
  Wide Web to put that collection online without
  making a big investment in technical resources or
  expertise. (http//www.dlib.org/dlib/november02/al
  masy/11almasy.html)
• Download http//scout.wisc.edu/Projects/SPT/downl
  oads.php

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Similar to e-resources application on UPs
INFOportal
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Electronic resource management (2)

• iVia is an open source Internet subject gateway
  system. It has been developed by and is the
  platform for INFOMINE, a scholarly virtual
  library collection of over 26,000
  librarian-created and 80,000 machine-created
  records describing and linking to academic
  Internet resources (http//www.dlib.org/dlib/janua
  ry03/mitchell/01mitchell.html)

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Electronic resource management (3)

• MyLibrary MyLibrary is a user-driven,
  customizable interface to collections of Internet
  resources (http//dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/h
  andout.pdf http//www.infomotions.com/musings/sig
  ir-99/ )
• Download http//dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/do
  wnload/b

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Electronic publishing (1)

• DSpace. It functions as a repository for the
  digital research and educational material
  produced by members of a research university or
  organization (http//www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/s
  mith/01smith.html)
• Download http//dspace.org/implement/operate.html
  

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Electronic publishing (2)

• EPrints.org. Is dedicated to opening access to
  the refereed research literature online through
  author/institution self-archiving.
  (http//www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue32/eprint-archives/
  )
• Download http//software.eprints.org/

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Electronic publishing (3)

• Open Journal Systems It is a journal management
  and publishing system that has been developed to
  expand and improve access to research. It assists
  with every stage of the refereed publishing
  process, from submissions through to online
  publication and indexing.(http//jodi.ecs.soton.ac
  .uk/Articles/v04/i02/Willinsky/)
• Download http//www.pkp.ubc.ca/ojs/

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Electronic collections

• Greenstone Greenstone is a suite of software for
  building and distributing digital collections.
  It provides a new way of organizing information
  and publishing it on the Internet or on
  CD-ROM.(http//www.dlib.org/dlib/october01/witten/
  10witten.html)
• Download http//www.greenstone.org/cgi-bin/librar
  y?ep-en-home-utfZz-8appdownload

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Search (1)

• SiteSearch SiteSearch consists of two main
  components WebZT, which is a Z39.50
  client/server component used to create an
  interface to information resources, provides the
  basis for federated searching functionality, and
  Database Builder provides tools to build local
  databases in various record formats from
  community information to digital objects,
  including sound and video files
  (http//www.libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layoutar
  ticlearticleidCA304084publicationlibraryjourna
  l )
• Download http//www.sitesearch.oclc.org/projects/
  ssbasecode

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Search (2)

• Lucene Jakarta Lucene is a high-performance,
  full-featured text search engine written entirely
  in Java. It is a technology suitable for nearly
  any application that requires full-text search,
  especially cross-platform.
• Article http//www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-09-
  2000/jw-0915-lucene.html
• Download http//jakarta.apache.org/lucene/docs/in
  dex.html

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Academic tools
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Portal interface

• uPortal. (http//mis105.mis.udel.edu/ja-sig/uporta
  l/index.html)
• It has been designed and built within the higher
  education community.
• It is based on open standards (Java, XML, JSP and
  J2EE) which means that it will work on any
  platform.
• It is open source and therefore free to license
  and there is free access to the source code.
• There is a large community that has implemented
  uPortal, with many more in the process of doing
  so. (Franklin, T. 2004. Portals in Higher
  Education concepts and models.
  http//www.obhe.ac.uk/products/reports/ )

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OSS Websites

• http//www.freshmeat.net
• http//www.sourceforge.net
• http//www.oss4lib.org

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Conclusion

• This is an overview of some OSS applications that
  could be relevant for SARIS implementation
• In-depth evaluation by an OSS expert will be
  necessary before deciding on which applications
  to use