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.