[vox] a course on managing open source...

[timriley]

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu>
Reply-To: "LUGOD's general discussion mailing list" <vox at lists.lugod.org>
Date:  Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:06:30 -0700

>Dear LUGoD members,
>I will be teaching a course titled "Managing Open Source" at San 
>Francisco State University. This course is being offered as a 
>graduate/undergraduate cross-listed course by the Information Systems 
>department in the College of Business. As the title suggests, the focus 
>of the course will be business-oriented for most part. A proposed course 
>outline is listed at the end of this e-mail.
>
>I would really appreciate feedback from the community.
>
>1) What would you like to see in a course like this?
Missing from the course outline below that I'd be interested
in would be "Important open source applications"

>2) What is the most critically needed area of education that an analyst 
>or manager should get with respect to open source?
I'm going to answer a slightly different question. The most critically
needed skill coming from MIS graduates is the ability to design
databases conceptually, not just build MS Access applications.

>3) Would you expect a course like this to be a "Get the Facts" type or 
>more along the lines of a "We report, you decide" ?
Again, I'm going to answer a slightly different question. I would
start with the legal aspects of software licensing, followed by
the building blocks of information systems (i.e. database and
process designs), and finally how to get and install the open
source tools out there to run both the front and back offices
of an enterprise.

>4) What kind of activities would be more suitable: Hands-on, exams, 
>papers, presentations?
Of course hands-on, but that's time consuming.

>5) Do you expect such a course to fly in a business curriculum?
I would like to think so. Good luck, and maybe it'll catch on
here at Sac. State where I'm taking business classes.

>
>(I am posting this to several lug lists, so bear with me if you see many 
>of these)
>
>cheers,
>Sameer
>
>-- 
>Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
>Asst. Professor of Information Systems
>San Francisco State University
>San Francisco CA 94132 USA
>http://verma.sfsu.edu/ 
>http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>
>
>Here is the proposed course outline:
>
>COURSE OBJECTIVES: The student will be able to:
>A. understand the similarities and differences between open and 
>proprietary software;
>B. evaluate licensing, copyright, intellectual property rights and 
>business models related to open source software;
>C. identify issues such as standards, interoperability, and source code 
>management in managing a heterogeneous Information Systems environment;
>D. describe the challenges in integrated management of open source and 
>proprietary software in the Information Systems infrastructure;
>E. use Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) 
>approaches in the acquisition and use of open source software.
>
>COURSE CONTENT: (12 Weeks)
>A. (1 week) Basics of Open Source: Philosophy, Methodology, Software.
>B. (1 week) Licensing as a driver of diffusion and adoption.
>C. (2 week) Open source business models.
>D. (2 week) Source code management approaches.
>E. (1 week) Comparison with other methods of software development.
>F. (1 week) Methods of Support for Open Source Software.
>G. (2 week) Managing proprietary and open source applications.
>H. (1 week) Evaluating maturity of an open source project.
>I. (1 week) Assessing viability using the ROI and TCO approach.
>
>PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE: Knowledge of the basic components of an IS 
>environment.
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