2008 hfoss summer-internship program students and faculty, Trinity college ( http://2008.hfoss.org).
forge.net), the primary open-source
hosting site, lists more than 180,000
projects and 1. 7 million registered users worldwide. Many top software and
Internet–related companies, including Dell, Google, Hewlett-Packard,
IBM, Intel, and Microsoft, support the
FOSS model in one way or another. According to an August 2008 Linux.com
article, students are beginning to join
open source projects as a way to gain
relevant work experience needed for
many entry-level computing positions
( http://www.linux.com/archive/fea-
ture/143415).
The free-software movement is
characterized by the way it distributes
its products. The GNU General Public
License (GPL) was the first of many
free-software licenses stipulating how
the software can be freely used and
shared. As Stallman wrote, software
freedom, in this sense, is “a matter of
liberty, not price”; it is free as in free
speech and not (necessarily) as in free
beer. The free-software philosophy is
supported and promoted by the Free
Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.
org).
PhotoGraPh by elI fox-ePsteIn
The free-software movement is
also characterized by an open development process, a highly distributed,
nonhierarchical, peer-based activity.
The FOSS approach stands in sharp
contrast to the top-down, hierarchical, legacy-based model of traditional
commercial software development.
This distinction is often exemplified
by the difference between how Linux
and Microsoft Windows were devel-
oped. FOSS programmers collaborate
in loosely organized communities,
freely working on the projects and
problems that are of most interest to
them. The FOSS development process
is also closely tied to the user community and marked by frequent releases
closely monitored and tested by end
users. To use a metaphor coined by
Eric Raymond, author of The Cathedral and The Bazaar,
7 the free software
development process resembles a
“babbling bazaar,” unlike the “
cathedral” model historically employed in
commercial software development.
7
The free-software movement split
into two competing philosophies in
1998 when a group led by Raymond
and Bruce Perens co-founded the
Open Source Initiative (OSI) to make
free software more commercially attractive ( http://www.opensource.org).
OSI has since become the steward of
the open source definition and serves
(together with the FSF8) as a standards
body for vetting and approving open
source licenses, of which there are
dozens ( http://www.opensource.org/
licenses/alphabetical). As reflected in
its name, the HFOSS Project accepts
the principles and practicalities of
the FOSS movement as characterized
by both FSF and OSI.
Since spring 2006 the HFOSS Project has engaged students from Bowdoin College, Connecticut College,
Trinity College, Wesleyan University,
the University of Connecticut, and the
University of Hartford in a number of
software-development projects serv-
ing the community. Its main software-development activities take place
during its annual 10-week summer
internship program, now in its third
year (see the figure here). But students
also work on HFOSS projects in courses, independent studies, and thesis
projects (outlined in the sidebar).
Given its primary goal of contributing to the revitalization of undergraduate computing education, the
HFOSS Project has six specific objectives that, if met, would represent
significant progress toward its overall
community building and revitalization goal:
Introduce new concepts and ˲
methodologies;
Attract a new demographic; ˲
Debunk the computing-is-coding ˲
myth;
Unite town and gown; ˲
Contribute to society; and ˲
Create a portable and sustainable ˲
model.
concepts and methodologies
As a concept, HFOSS is clearly attractive to university computer science students and may help attract
new students to computing. This is
reflected not only in the interest that
has been generated in the summer
HFOSS Institutes, where typically two
to three times more students apply
than can be accommodated but also
in the feedback we receive from students in HFOSS software-engineering
and software-development courses
throughout the curriculum.