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While I think the author draws to strong of a line between Open Source and Closed Source, there is a good book about evaluating Open source software by Bernard Golden called "Succeeding with open source" [1]. Edward [1] http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55124574 Brett Bonfield wrote: > I really like this topic, and I like how you're thinking about it. I > tried to ask similar questions in an article I published in July: > http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2009/w-e-b-s-i-t-e-find-out-what-it-means-to-me/ > > I think Jonathan and Nicole nailed it with community health, though > this leads to an additional consideration that I think is more nuanced > than the application/system vs library/module distinction. Scriblio > and SOPAC are built on top of very healthy (from a developer community > perspective) software that has been created with moderately technical > end-users in mind. > > This also gets back to Jonathan's very good generalization of your > point about LAMP: "What are its requirements and level of difficulty > for deployment?" When the first few steps are as comparatively easy > for non-developers as a "Five Minute WordPress Install," I think that > has to count for something. > > Brett Bonfield > > On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Nicole Engard <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> I'm with Jonathan on the community health, one of the things I stress >> when teaching my open source classes is that the developer and user >> community is essential to the success and life of the product. >> >> Nicole C. Engard >> >> On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 12:51 PM, Jonathan Rochkind <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> >>> Quality of code in general: How well-designed is the code architecture, >>> for maintenance and debugging? [This not only matters if you plan to do >>> in-house development with it, but matters for predicting how likely the >>> product is to stay 'alive' and continue to evolve with the times, instead of >>> you just being stuck with exactly the version you first installed forever.] >>> >>> Developer Community: Is there a developer community around this software, >>> with multiple people from multiple institutions contributing? Or is it just >>> one founder maintaining it? [One founder maintaining it _can_ work fine, as >>> long as that founder keeps maintaining it. MarcEdit is a great example. But >>> the more of a community there is, again, the higher the reliability that the >>> software will continue to evolve in the future, even if the founder bows out >>> for some reason. ] >>> >>> A related topic: Do individual institutions do extensive local >>> customization to core code, which does not end up merged back into the >>> 'main' distribution? Again, this effects long-term sustainability of the >>> software. >>> I wrote a bit on judging one aspect of open source in a Library Journal >>> article here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6611591.html >>> I also compiled some opinions from me, Bill Dueber, and others, in what >>> 'good code' looks like in open source here: >>> http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Category:Patterns >>> >>> I could also pick nits with some of your criteria, but, hey, if they're >>> important to someone they're important to someone. Some of htem are less >>> important to me (For instance: "Is it deployed on LAMP" I'd generalize to >>> "what are it's requirements and level of difficulty for deployment?" We are >>> quite capable of deploying non-PHP solutions, but that doesn't mean that all >>> non-PHP solutions are equal for ease of deployment either!. ) >>> >>> Eric Lease Morgan wrote: >>> >>>> What qualities and characteristics make for a "good" piece of open source >>>> software? And once that question is answered, then what pieces of >>>> library-related open source software can be considered "best"? >>>> >>>> I do not believe there is any single, most important characteristic of >>>> open source software that qualifies it to be denoted as "best". Instead, a >>>> number of characteristics need to be considered. For example, a program >>>> might do one thing and do it well, but if it is bear to install then that >>>> counts against it. Similarly, some software might work wonders but it is >>>> built on a proprietary infrastructure such as a closed source compiler. Can >>>> that software really be considered "open"? >>>> >>>> For my own education and cogitation, I have begun to list questions to >>>> help me address what I think is the "best" library-related open source >>>> software. [1] Your comments would be greatly appreciated. I have listed the >>>> questions here in (more or less) personal priority order: >>>> >>>> * Does the software work as advertised? >>>> * To what degree is the software supported? >>>> * Is the documentation thorough? >>>> * What are the licence terms? * To what degree is the software easy to >>>> install? >>>> * To what degree is the software implemented >>>> using the "standard" LAMP stack? >>>> * Is the distribution in question an >>>> application/system or a library/module? >>>> * To what degree does the software satisfy some >>>> sort of real library need? >>>> What sorts of things have I left out? Is there anything here that can be >>>> measurable or is everything left to subjective judgement? Just as >>>> importantly, can we as a community answer these questions in light of >>>> distributions to come up with the "best" of class? >>>> >>>> 'More questions than answers. >>>> >>>> [1] There are elaborations on the questions in a blog posting. See: >>>> http://tinyurl.com/ybk2bef >>>> >>>> >>>>