OS Project Comparison Activity
| Title |
OS Project Comparison Activity |
|---|---|
| Overview |
In this activity, students compare and contrast three different open source projects (Android, Ushahidi, Fedora). Students will gain a basic understanding of why these exist as open source projects, as well as the operating models and licensing used by each. Students will be provided with directed readings and will answer specific questions to develop the comparisons. |
| Prerequisites |
None |
| Learning Objectives |
After successfully completing this activity, the learner should be able to:
|
| Process Skills Practiced |
Background
While this activity is tailored to compare and contrast three specific projects, any open source project can be used if there is a point of comparison.
Directions
Given the following material for three different open source projects:
- Android Development Platform
- Ushahidi
- RedHat
For each project answer the following questions:
- What is the project about?
- Why is the project open source?
- What kind of open project is it? Describe the operating model and the license(s) used.
- In what ways can one contribute to the project? Are there any limitations?
Deliverable
Submit a report with your answers. Your responses for each project should be a page to a page and half long.
Assessment
| Criteria | Partial Credit | Complete Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Understand: | ||
| The purpose of the project | Answer is not clear, some grammatical or logical errors. Student does not comprehensively understand the purpose of a project | Answer is clear, uses correct language, indicates the purpose of each project, including what need the project fulfills |
| Why the project is open source | Answer is not clear, some grammatical or logical errors or not enough supporting arguments | Answer is clear, uses correct language and provides supporting arguments |
| The different operating models and licenses using for each project | Answer is not clear, some grammatical or logical errors or partially answers the question | Answer is clear, uses correct language and correctly answers the question |
| How to contribute to the project | Answer is not clear, some grammatical or logical errors or partially answer the question | Answer is clear, uses correct language and correctly answers the question |
Comments
The instructor should have a basic understanding of open source models and licensing. If you're partnering with an open source project, you might consider adding that project to the list of projects being examined.
Additional Information
| ACM BoK Area & Unit(s) |
Social Issues and Professional Practice/Intellectual Property |
|---|---|
| ACM BoK Topic(s) |
Foundations of the open source movement [Familiarity] |
| Difficulty |
introductory |
| Estimated Time to Complete |
3-4 hours |
| Environment / Materials |
Internet access |
| Author(s) |
Darci Burdge, Ruby El Kharboutly, Gina Likins, Lori Postner |
| Source |
N/A |
| License |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
|
Suggestions for the Open Source Project
If you can provide this same set of information to your instructor partner and/or discuss it with the students (over IRC, for example), it would provide an opportunity for students to ask questions about project decisions that they otherwise might not have the opportunity to.
