Thanks all for a great discussion last night. I appreciate those who spoke up on my behalf; there was real opportunity there for sabatoge, and you did well in your restraint. :-)
I sensed that the issues that we walked out of the meeting with were
as follows:
- We need to identify Free Software projects that are unique to BYU
and are significant enough to put BYU on the map.
- We need to find ways to encourage students to become involved in
Free Software projects.
It was expressed that he didn't feel anything was really getting done
in terms of the Latter-day Saint Open Source Software group. It
appears that I am the only one who submitted code (LDSDPS), and
Dr. Woodfield felt that it was largely redundant with what the Church
has already done (at least that was the impression I got from him;
feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). As the chief architect and
contributor to the project, I beg to differ. LDSDPS provides one
vital feature that the Church software does not: extensibility.
The Church software is designed for use in Church buildings on Church
equipment. LDSDPS, on the other hand, is designed for use in the
homes of the members. It is a plugin-oriented swiss army knife
application, which can be extended and modified *by the members
themselves* to adapt to any and all special needs. That's what Open
Source is all about!
The Church software's source code is kept secret, and so the members
are at the mercy of whoever the Church contracted to write the
software in the first place to provide features for them. In this
respect, LDSDPS is a whole different ball game from the Church's
already written software.
Secondly, the standard distribution of LDSDPS does not, and will
never, handle critical information for the Church (like tithing or
disciplinary information) without the Church's express blessing. It
will handle other general information, like contact info and current
callings. But members are currently using their own (inefficient and
insecure) means of doing so anyway.
Based on my personal observations, members all over the world are
creating and re-creating a hodgepodge of spreadsheets and databases to
manage data related to their callings. In any given ward, 5 or 6
separate spreadsheets can exist all containing basically the same
information exist among the Elder's Quorums, Bishoprics, Young Men's
Presidencies, Missionary Committees, etc., and members scramble trying
to keep everything in sync manually. It's just silly. And it's
because the members like he convenience of being able to work with
that informaton on their home computers.
LDSDPS aims to replace and streamline all these efforts on a per-ward
basis, employing technical measures to provide some degree of privacy
and security to the data, which doesn't exist at all at the moment. I
cringe to think about how often bishopric members and stake
presidencies send around sensitive information in plain text e-mail
all the time. LDSDPS can manage communications (which inevitably take
place) outside of the Church-owned systems in a secure and coordinated
manner.
LDSDPS scratches an itch, for which nothing currently exists to
scratch it. That's what Open Source software is all about. That's
why it gets created in the first place - to fill a niche that the
existing solutions fail to address. It is not a re-implementation of
the Church software. It is designed to be used *in addition to* the
software that currently exists in such a manner that allows the
members themselves to contribute and coordinate their organizational
efforts. This can only occur effectively in the context of an Open
Source project like LDSDPS.
Now, in terms of providing incentives to BYU students to contribute to
Open Source projects, CS428 is a great place to start. They can learn
about Open Source software development methodologies (mailing lists,
patches, bug reports, documentation, etc). But the spirit of Open
Source development needs to bleed over into the entire program. It
should be an undercurrent in all classes and research. Students
should be constantly motivated to seek out opportunities to contribute
to Open Source projects whenever possible. Getting a patch accepted
to a major project can bolster the student's sense of accomplishment
as well as his resume. All professors in the program should have
these kinds of ideas in the back of their minds, and make occasional
mention of them in class. They can even integrate occasional
assignments with Open Source development efforts.
Just some thoughts.
Mike
.___________________________________________________________________.
Michael A. Halcrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Security Software Engineer, IBM Linux Technology Center
GnuPG Fingerprint: 05B5 08A8 713A 64C1 D35D 2371 2D3C FDDA 3EB6 601D
Nothing is ever a total loss; it can always serve as a bad example.
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