Patrick Masson (@massonpj) is currently serving as the General Manager for the Open Source Initiative after working within higher education IT for over twenty years, ranging in roles from Programmer Analyst at UCLA, to Chief Technology Officer in the University of Massachusetts' Office of the President.Patrick also teaches within the College of Computing and Information at the State University of New York at Albany on subjects related to open source software.Patrick has worked to promote the awareness and adoption of open source throughout his career, serving on the Jasig Foundation's Board of Directors, and is currently on the Apereo Foundation's Advisory Council. He is the co-founder and current chair of the EDUCAUSE Constituency Group on Openness and author of the Openness Index.
Authored Comments
Gregg,
Thank you for your thoughts. Indeed, the first step to introducing open source options within an organization often includes the very discussions you outline, that is, "making the case." It sounds like you've made that case and have moved on to implementation across your district--congratulations on your achievements.
Considering where you are, beyond the introductory phase of "awareness and advocacy," I would be very interested to hear about your experiences (i.e. a case study) with transitioning from, or implementing open source solutions in your district, i.e. "adoption." While there are still many more discussions to have with folks who may be leery of moving to open source software, there are--thankfully--more and more organizations who are ready to embark. For example, what were your experiences in identifying open source software options like Ubuntu? Why not SUSE, Red Hat, etc? And, are you using support from Canonical? Why or why not? The same with Moodle over other options and support? How was/is your IT staff impacted? Beyond selection and support, how did you migrate content, train the teaching and administrative staff and provide end-user support?
I would think a few reference implementations (both the good and the bad) would serve those looking at moving to open source well, not only helping those entering the space to understand the issues with transitioning, but also helping the broader open source community as well. Each reference (case study) will help to inform and improve the adoption process, i.e. sharing and improving the implementation process, through a... well... very "open source" approach.
Thanks,
Patrick
There must be something in the water in Albany, New York. Siena College Physics professor, <a href="http://www.sos.siena.edu/physics/People/Faculty_Profiles/McColgan,_Michele/">Dr. Michele McColgan</a> has been teaching with Raspberry Pi (as well as several other creative, hands-on tools) not only in her classes to undergrads, but as part of a larger summer camp and "Urban Scholars" program.
Dr. McColgan is an inspiring and energetic educator, exactly what STEM, open source, the maker movement, women in technology needs. How about an article on her and her efforts?