There are lots of cases where epub can easily replace pdf. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Reply 1. He enjoys speaking at conferences. He has an MA in Medieval History and a passion for reading. What are the motivations of the open source community and does it align with our ethics and values?
How does proprietary software differ from open source software? Finally I will briefly touch upon other alternatives to open source software, hybrids, cloud computing, and consortiums buying associations. This paper will examine these questions and explore the articles regarding open source software and libraries. Paradoxically libraries embrace social networking which is a form of open source software. Web 2. Reviewing the literature of the older articles indicates there had been more focus on the failures, but the more recent articles provides evidence that there is more acceptance of open source software OSS.
The problem is there seems to be a prevailing inability to trust or unwillingness to change to an open source software format due to the fear of the unknown. The common opinions have been a wait and see what happens as oppose to being innovative and contributing in regards to our own technology needs that service a wide variety of library functions.
Although the literature indicates that open source is gaining popularity the majority of libraries still are reluctant implementing open source software. Dorman believes that open source is more attuned to library values and the movement is far more ethical and technical providing a strong foundation. Libraries favor proprietary software such as Voyager, Polaris, and Innovative software products.
Boulanger writes that proprietary software is licensed and the owner has exclusive copyright of that source code in which there are conditions of use, no modification are allowed, restricted usage, no access or inspection of the source code. Proprietary software development usually utilizes what is referred to as the waterfall model one; this process includes five stages according to Boulanger, The developer provides the feedback loop and the programmers find the solution to the problem, during this process, testing is ongoing as is the feedback loop according to Boulanger, Salve, Lihitkar, S.
Shareware falls under the category of proprietary software. Freeware can be downloaded, used and copied without restrictions, you still have no access to the source code, you have no community, no development, and no improvements are possible by the user, and again this is proprietary software that is usually given to non-profits or through deals with consortiums. The GNU or GLU is relatively easy to apply for there are restrictions attached to the licensing , the code is mature and has been around since , many programmers believe it is more reliable, performs better, offers more security, and the costs are reduced over the long term according to Salve, et al.
Open source software allows for customization, yet it requires knowledge of programming, extra effort to customize, and skills in project and enterprise wide management, as well as a rather large investment for an unknown and in some sense unproven software, this point is debatable as more libraries turn to open source software, due to previous issues with proprietary software, or out of necessity due to budgetary concerns, or they simply are aligned with the values of the open source software community.
Proprietary software provides comfort and reliability. Although costs of the current systems were of concern, exceeding budgets in most cases, few were willing to abandon their vendors, and the loyalty rates had risen. Library software is a niche market without a lot of competition; they can set their own costs, and apply their own timelines in regards to improvements. I believe it is counterintuitive to judge any software based upon comfort as oppose to its actual capability, usability, and function.
The study further reinforces the need to explore and contribute to open source software as way to circumvent sub-standard programming. There are proprietary software companies that are utilizing user support, claiming they have the similar values of the open source community, but the majority of the benefits go the company. LibLime claims to be open source software, but is proprietary software and a subscription platform, and Polaris ILS has user group enhancement with the acronym of PUG Polaris Users Group which seems a bit of dichotomy since it is propriety software, yet the only benefit the group receives is improved software that has been tweaked by the PUG members.
Polaris is receiving the benefits from those very people they charge for their proprietary software. Proprietary and open source software can be outsourced to independent companies that specialize in that particular software platform according to Salve, Lihitkar, S.
Another reason to consider open source software is that proprietary software is costly and creates user dependence on the developer, the high costs are due to the initial purchase, installation, maintenance, reconfigurations of the updates, the software is not customable, one size fits all, and you have no say in regards to modifications according to Wang One could argue that the software you buy, you own, but that is not necessarily true, you have license to use the proprietary software or technology, but you never truly own it, you have no say in updates and how the software is reconfigured, or how quickly the software you just bought becomes outdated and of little use, you will continue to have to pay for the updated versions.
There are always the additional added costs of the learning curve and reconfiguration of the software, in regards to new software updates. For profit corporations may offer certain perks to non-profit institutions like iPads, laptops, or free software but the cost is always paid ten-folds in their software licensing fees, nothing is ever free and no one truly owns proprietary software technology and the benefits may compensate for the negatives.
Colford believes that the LIS students he teaches understand compiled language with more ease versus a scripting language. Koha, Evergreen, Drupal, Kuali, and other open source software ILS are only being utilized by libraries like the Georgia Public Library System, King County Library System, as well as other larger libraries, but smaller institutions or countries that may not have significant funding have turned to open source due to the cost effectiveness and the availability.
Higher educational institutions as well non-profit businesses have turned to open source software due the lower costs and the stability of the source code as well as aligning with the values, reliability and preference throughout the world according to Silver Proprietary software has high costs with no customization abilities, but offers safe and reliable peace of mind. Open Source Software has had problems throughout its history. But the open source software OSS allows for individual and community customization to meet the needs of librarians and staff.
The OSS community members and contributors are from all over the world with their own unique perspectives and talents. Members volunteer time and expertise by the thousands to help develop better source code.
The motivations for OSS contributors were how creative a person feels, intellectual stimulation, and improving their programming skills, the majority of our respondents are skilled and experienced professionals working in IT-related jobs according to Lakhaini and Wolf Because open source software is about collaboration and the surveys suggest that most of open source software contributors are from North America and Europe, the common perception is that most of the contributors are from third world countries, which is simply not the case.
Cassell writes that there is a misunderstanding that OSS is public domain and therefore it is free without strings attached, which is not necessarily true. But FOSS software is not public domain; it imposes legal conditions through licensing. FOSS users must agree to conditions "copyleft or non-copyleft" according to Cassell, Programs with copyleft protection is when the users agree if they modify the code and redistribute it, they must relicense the new version of source code, this is GNU or GPL General Public License according to Mustonen Other types of FOSS use a license that does not impose the condition of subsequent licensing.
Non-copyleft is when someone can download the software, modify it, and then sell the modification as proprietary an example of this is the Apache web server Mustonen, FOSS is essentially software that is free in the sense that you have the freedom to examine, modify, and share it with others, Perens states that Foss is likened to "Free as in free speech not as in free beer.
LibLime, and the current trademark and licensing disagreement. Yang and Hoffman did a comparative study on the OPACs of Koha, Evergreen, and Voyager which focused on ten features that the next generation library catalogs should encompass, there specifications were to have a single point of entry, state-of-the art intuitive search comparable to Google and Amazon, enriched content, faceted navigation, simple keyword searching box, relevancy and ranking, spell checker or term recommender, recommendations and related materials, user contributions such as ratings, reviews, comments, and social tagging, and lastly RSS feeds.
Koha met six out of ten requirements, Evergreen met four out of ten, and Voyager by ExLibris met three out of the ten requirements for the next generation library catalog OPAC. Koha 3.
Open source software OSS provides libraries an opportunity to customize and add features that proprietary software does not, OSS outperforms and is far more customizable then software that you have no legal access to do any necessary tweaking, nor does it seem it has the capability to perform on the same level.
This example provides another reason for why librarians should step out of their comfort zone and look at the alternatives and potential financial savings that could be applied elsewhere in the library. The first reason not to change is that the majority of libraries utilize similar programs, they want it for the comfort or perceived reliability and are familiar with the software and there is no learning curve, as well having access in which they perceive as excellent customer service according to Breeding and Yelton, , Chapter 4.
The caveats as with any new system are the costs of implementation, training, and customization of the codes and how you want your system to perform according to Breeding and Yelton, , Chapter 2. This is no easy task, and many of the new versions of open source software are still in the beta testing stages, not quite there, but almost ready according to Rapp Yang and Hoffman believe that libraries should consider the costs of installing new software whether it is open source software or proprietary, as well time and training, overall investment, and libraries need to contemplate whether open source software can work within their system throughout their library.
Proprietary and open source software OSS have similar drawbacks; there is the learning curve, configurations, time, cost, project management, contracting with a vendor or the process of installing the software in house within the library, and the training OSS entails. Although proprietary software has similar issues, the costs overtime in regards to OSS would be significantly less.
Another problem is during the learning curve OSS can look a bit clunky and dated, but with the right programming and adding in additional modules or other OSS sources the CMS format will often be comparable to proprietary software, if not better. I agree with many of her points in regards to the potential and proven results OSS has made monumental strides, more so than proprietary software.
Boulanger writes that there has been an argument on both sides about the security and reliability of FOSS and proprietary software which has been up for debate and the two specific issues are the availability of the source code and the defects from so many contributors. Reports have been funded by proprietary software companies which claimed that FOSS poses security risks. This implied that proprietary source code was safer due to the fact that it is closed, therefore safe. That is not the case due to the fact that proprietary source code had been leaked as well as hackers can find vulnerabilities and they have the tools needed to exploit defects.
Furthermore there are two groups that know the source code, the small group of developers and the large group of hackers that are motivated to discover and exploit the vulnerabilities. But FOSS is not immune and have had problems of worms infected , the first one effected 6, of 60, systems. Koha utilizes an integrated library system ILS that is fully functional in all aspects of library services.
Happily, this restriction does not prevent users from freely working with GIF files on the Internet through Unisys-accredited software. Unlike lossy compression, lossless files retain all of the original audio data, so they usually sound a lot better.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. An open format is a file format for storing digital data , defined by a published specification usually maintained by a standards organization, and which can be used and implemented by anyone. There are many proprietary image file formats which contain JPEG data. Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard were among the contributors to the format.
The basic types of content in a PDF are: Text stored as content streams i. Raster graphics for photographs and other types of image. Multimedia objects in the document. A file with the. PDFs are typically used to distribute read-only documents that preserve the layout of a page. They're commonly used for documents like user manuals, eBooks, application forms, and scanned documents, to name just a few. PDF Portable Document Format is a file format that has captured all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that you can view, navigate, print, or forward to someone else.
A PDF file usually stores an image as a separate object an XObject which contains the raw binary data for the image. These are all listed in the Resources object for the page or the file and each has a name ie Im1.
They are not. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe to create a portable document format. This format can be used to exchange and distribute documents. Also PDF files are very small, the content can be stored compressed. So it is the best solution if you want to upload and distribute a document to the internet.
0コメント