University Business - December 2012 - (Page 39)

By Elizabeth Millard The Myth: If you use open source, you’re The Reality: At Indiana State University, on your own. where open source is used for mobile application development, administrators recently launched an app with the help of Modo Labs, which offers mobile solutions and support services based on the Kurogo open source mobile platform. The project has gone so well, officials are looking at open source for development of a content management system, as well as creation of “sandboxes” for students who want to develop their own apps. Santhana Naidu, web services director at ISU, notes that his first experience with open source was 10 years ago, when he was using the Linux open source platform. Then, if he had an issue with the code, he’d have to post a question on online support forums and read through opinions culled from around the world. “That was the experience of many people using open source back then,” he says. “Unfortunately, there’s a belief that it’s still that way. But these days, there are so many companies, like Modo, that provide comprehensive support.” In the last decade, firms such as Modo, rSmart, and Red Hat have popped up to provide services around open source platforms, and their offerings range widely. Some can simply be on call if an application is acting buggy, but others can guide an institution through every phase of software development, from planning to execution to maintenance. “The team here had concerns initially because we’re not a very big team,” says Naidu. “But Modo took care of the hardcore programming and provided support, and we didn’t feel at any point like we’d be stuck surfing the online support forums.” The misperception that open source isn’t ready for the big time tends to persist throughout higher education, and in the enterprise sphere, as well. That might be in part because hugely popular open source systems like Linux were developed and refined by a community of software enthusiasts. For example, Linux was created by a computer science student at the University of Helsinki (Finland) as part of his thesis. That led many to see open source applications and systems as hobbyist endeavors that weren’t well suited to mission-critical applications. But over the past decade, adoption and development have propelled open source onto campuses, both in higher education and in business. Research firm Gartner predicted that 99 percent of Global 2000 enterprises would include open source in their software portfolios by 2016. That’s a big leap from 2010, when 75 percent included open source. The Myth: Open source gurus are tough to find—and they eat up IT budgets. The Reality: Perhaps in the early days of open source, finding the appropriate level of support meant competing with other universities to nab those highly skilled strategists who specialized in the platform. But the popularity of open source has created a rich ecosystem of contractors and service vendors that allows for an “a la carte” selection of developers, consultants, and support personnel, according to Clay Fenlason, director of educational technology at Georgia Institute of Technology. “We have a pretty broad set of choices and we can knit them together in ad hoc ways,” he says. “We have to give a little more thought to each project, because we’re cobbling together the skills of three or four outside people, but it creates much more efficiency for us in the long run.” universitybusiness.com December 2012 | 39 http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - December 2012

University Business - December 2012
Contents
Editor’s Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Money Matters
Independent Outlook
5 Reasons Flipped Classrooms Work
Test Driving Mobile
Open Source Myth Busters
Models of Efficiency
1st Annual Readers’ Choice Awards
Education Innovators
Viewpoint
Endowments: New Questions
End Note

University Business - December 2012