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Free and Open Source Software for Business: An Introduction James Kariuki Njenga Department of Information Systems University of the Western Cape Introduction to general concepts, and business ideas of FOSS
James Kariuki Njenga University of the Western Cape [email_address] ;  [email_address] http://www.elearningfundi.net http://www.uwc.ac.za Introduction to general concepts, and business ideas of FOSS
About Me Born 4 ones, 1 zero years ago
Lecturer in Information Systems
eLearning consultant  www.elearningfundi.net  ?? FOSS entrepreneur???
Your Expections Given the title “ An introduction to general concepts and business ideas of FOSS ”, what would you like to achieve from it?
Objectives By the end of the session, you should be able to Define floss
Explain the different freedoms as enshrined in the FOSS
Differentiate between FOSS and Proprietary software
Identify some FOSS business cases in your context
Identify some FOSS software that you could make business with
Module 1.1 General FLOSS Concepts
What is FLOSS Free/Libre and Open Source Software
“It is all about FREEDOM”: It can be: What is FOSS to you? A business model
An industry
A philosophical argument
A social movement
A development methodology
A service An ethical choice
A resource
A better alternative
An enemy
Just another jargon
An ideal
Freedoms in Free Software "Free software" is a matter of  liberty , not price. To understand the concept, you should think of " free " as in " free speech ," not as in " free beer " Richard Stallman freedom 0:Run the program, for any purpose.
freedom 1:study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs.
freedom 2: Redistribute copies to help others.
freedom 3: improve the program, and release your improvements to the public What are the preconditions to freedoms 1 & 3?
Preconditions for Freedom: Licensing Access to source code is fundamental in FOSS
There are a number of FOSS licenses ....
.... which are *almost* similar on practical terms Examples of FOSS Licenses: GNU General Public License (GPL)
BSD-style licenses
Mozilla Public License (MPL) Does providing source code make a software Open Source?
FOSS vs Proprietary FOSS: community benefit motive
Access to source code
Freedom to modify
Freedom to redistribute
Freedom to study
Freedom to use it for any purpose Proprietary software: commercial benefit motive
No/Limited access source
You may not modify
You may not redistribute
You may not study it
You may not use for any other purpose other than the one it was made for. Can you make money in FOSS as you can in proprietary?
The Linux Story - Movie Watch the first 19.41 minutes of the movie “Revolution OS”: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409 Identify the key learning points based on the following: Motivation for establishing a FOSS project
Requirements of a hacker
What is the FOSS hacker philosophy
Role of Management
Role of community
Access to computing resources and the Internet
The Linux story Page 8 of your module reader:

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Free and Open Source Software for Business: An Introduction