ltr: Vol. 43 Issue 3: p. 9
Chapter 3: Open Source Takes Shape
Casey Bisson
Abstract

Library Technology Reports 43:3 (May/Jun 2007)

“In the 70s, computer users lost the freedoms to redistribute and change software because they didn't value their freedom. Computer users regained these freedoms in the 80s and 90s because a group of idealists, the GNU Project, believed that freedom is what makes a program better, and were willing to work for what we believed in.” — “Linux, GNU, and Freedom,” by Richard M. Stallman, Free Software Foundation Founder

Casey Bisson, with the help of Jessamyn West and Ryan Eby, reports on open-source software (OSS) and its use and importance in libraries in the third issue of Library Technology Reports in 2007.

In “Open-Source Software for Libraries,” Bisson engagingly narrates the history of open source, explains how the OSS “movement” came about, details key players in OSS development, and discusses why and how open source can work for libraries.

Bisson also shares success stories from those in libraries using OSS including:

  • how Thomas Ford Memorial Library in Western Springs, IL, utilized OSS to build its popular and interactive Western Springs History Web site (www.westernspringshistory.org), which utilizes the widely used WordPress platform; and
  • why those at the Meadville (PA) Public Library (meadvillelibrary.org) started using OSS and how the librarians and library staff at that public institution have embraced and benefitted from OSS.

In addition to Bisson's insightful and interesting discussion of OSS, this issue of LTR includes the informative chapter “Open-Source Software on the Desktop,” by community technology librarian Jessamyn West. Also, Ryan Eby, “an active member of the Code4Lib community” provides an overview of open-source server applications, including that of ILS apps Koha and Evergreen; digital library and repository software, such as DSpace and FEDORA; and OPAC replacements, such as Scriblio and SOPAC.

About the Authors

Casey Bisson, named among Library Journal‘s Movers & Shakers for 2007 and recipient of a 2006 Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration for developing Scriblio (formerly WPopac), is an information architect at Plymouth State University. He is a frequent presenter at library and technology conferences and blogs about his passion for libraries, roadside oddities, and hiking in New Hampshire's White Mountains at MaisonBisson.com

Jessamyn West is a community technology librarian and a moderator of the massive group blog MetaFilter.com. She lives in Central Vermont, where she teaches basic computer skills to novice computer users and librarians. She maintains an online presence at jessamyn.com and librarian.net. Her favorite color is orange.

Ryan Eby is active member of the Code4Lib community and spends his days supporting distance learners and online courses at Michigan State University. He blogs at blog.ryaneby.com and can often be found on the #code4lib IRC channel. He enjoys brewing his own beer and roasting his own coffee.

Since all early software was assumed to be open source—open to improvement and reuse—and the technology of the time largely required that software be distributed in a form that allowed those uses, there was little need or drive to formalize the concept.1

Eventually, however, as software matured, the opportunity to charge for it emerged.

Unix was born in AT&T's Bell Labs in 1969, but it was raised at UC Berkeley, where students and faculty added many of the features we now recognize as essential to the operating system, including virtual memory and almost every aspect of modern networking.2 Berkeley's enhancements were distributed widely as a package called BSD (Berkeley software distribution), and over time they became as important to a Unix system as the licensed and purchased product from AT&T.3

But for all their work, Unix was still owned by AT&T, not Berkeley, and the complexities (and legal ambiguities) of that relationship highlighted the difficulty of working with and depending on software that that was not “free.” Not free in the economic sense, but in the legal sense.4

At about the same time, Bill Gates (yes, that Bill Gates) wrote a letter published in the January 31, 1976, issue of the Homebrew Computer Club newsletter describing how important it was to the future of computing that hobbyists support the development of a commercial software industry:

To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market?5

Much of the letter, however, attacks the community of sharing that was prevalent at the time:

As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?6

Commercialization of software might be seen as a natural evolutionary landmark, but it also reflected a profound philosophical shift: software that had been easy to copy, learn from, fix, and share was being restricted to fit the economics of scarcity.

The commercialization of software was happening, not in a graceful leap, but in lurched motions, and Richard M. Stallman was among the first to recognize it.

Stallman was a software developer in MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab when he was faced with a dilemma: the systems and servers their software was built on had been eclipsed, and new systems depended on commercial software. Stallman and others in the lab would be required to sign nondisclosure agreements that would prevent them from sharing not only any improvements they made, but also anything they learned about the systems.7

Stallman identified that, as software became more important in our lives, a user's freedom to choose how to use, modify, and improve it became more important.8

Rather than join the world of proprietary software, Stallman chose instead to resign from MIT to form the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to develop an operating system and related software and promote the following four essential software freedoms.9

  • The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
  • The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
  • The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.10

Among the FSF's successes are the development of a collection of applications that helped make Linux a complete operating system, and most significant, the development of the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL legally codified Stallman's four essential freedoms and allowed those who applied the license to their software to trust that their work would be contributing to the community.

As open-source software evolved and matured, the economic benefits became clearer. VA Linux founder Larry Augustin believes that open-source software became a real option just as the proprietary software market was reaching a crisis where the cost of market exceeded the cost of development.

My favorite is Salesforce.com. In 1995 they spent under $10 million in R&D and over $100 million in sales and marketing. That doesn't work.

Open source enables people to reach all those customers. It's a distribution model. The people who create great software can now reach the rest of the world.11

And what was the essential component? What made it all happen? Augustin pointed to Richard Stallman and the GNU General Public License.

It's hard to overestimate Stallman's influence on computing. Speaking on how history will view him, biographer Sam Williams remarked:

Nobody but him could have had the patience, and the stubbornness, and the will to build something this big. There are other people writing free software, but he's the one that made it an issue. He's the one that provided the initial gravitation that everybody else could gather around.12

Notes
1. Richard Stallman, “The GNU Project” (originally published in the book Open Sources), on the GNU Operating System Web site, www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html (accessed Mar. 19, 2007).
2. Dennis M. Ritchie, “The Evolution of the Unix Time-sharing System,” on the archival Web site for Bell Labs computing sciences research,http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/hist.html (accessed Mar. 19, 2007; paper first presented at Language Design and Programming Methodology conference at Sydney, Australia, Sept. 1979; conference proceedings published in Computer Science #79: Language Design and Programming Methodology, Springer-Verlag, 1980; this rendition based on version reprinted in AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal 63, no. 6, part 2 [Oct. 1984]: 1577–93).
3. David Pescovitz, “Berkeley Unix and the Birth of Open-Source Software,” in Lab Notes 1, no. 2 (Oct. 2001), on the Web site of the College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/history_unix.html (accessed Mar. 19, 2007); “Berkeley Software Distribution,” Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution (accessed Mar. 19, 2007).
4. Andrew Leonard, “BSD Unix: Power to the People, From the Code,”The Free Software Project, chapter 2, part 1, on the Salon.com Web site, http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/fsp/2000/05/16/chapter_2_part_one/index.html (accessed Mar. 19, 2007); Thor Olavsrud, “Novell Challenges SCO Over Unix, Linux,”May 28, 2003, in “DevX News,” on the DevX Web site,www.devxnews.com/article.php/2213031 (accessed Mar. 19, 2007).
5. William Henry Gates III, “An Open Letter to Hobbyists,” Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter 2, no. 1 (Jan. 31, 1976), on the DigiBarn Computer Museum Web site,www.digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/V2_01/gatesletter.html (accessed Mar. 19, 2007).
6. Ibid.
7. Stallman, “The GNU Project.”
8. Richard Stallman, “The Free Software Definition,” Free Software Foundation Web site,www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html (accessed Mar. 19, 2007).
9. Stallman, “The GNU Project.”
10. Stallman, “The Free Software Definition.”
11. Larry Augustin, quoted in Dana Blankenhorn, “Augustin Still Believes in Open Source Values,”June 9, 2006, ZD Net Web site, http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=675(accessed Mar. 19, 2007).
12. Sam Williams, quoted in Bruce Stewart, “How Will History View Richard Stallman? An Interview wth Sam Williams,”Feb. 28, 2002, ONLamp.com Web site, www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2002/02/28/williams.html(accessed Mar. 19, 2007).
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