[Patents] [OS-Community] NSF Workshop on Open Source Research

[community@opensource.mit.edu (Karim R. Lakhani)]

Hi All,

The NSF is sponsoring a workshop on setting an agenda for open source
research.
Please contact Brian Kahin (bk90@umail.umd.edu) if you would like to
attend as a participant or observer. 

Happy Holidays and Peace in the New Year!

Karim

Here are the details:

Advancing the Research Agenda on Open Source

                                                               
                                                        January 28, 2002
                                           at the National Science
Foundation, Arlington, Virginia
 
       
Open source software is one of the unique phenomena of the digital
economy.  Enabled by the Internet, it has grown dramatically over the
past decade.  It includes a major operating system (Linux), the dominant
web server software (Apache), and thousands of individual projects.  It
has been embraced by major computer companies and has been hailed a
paradigm shift in software development.  
       
These successes, the unusual nature of open source development, and the
benefits claimed for open source software – security, reliability,
adaptability, as well as economy and openness – create opportunities for
complementary businesses and pose important policy questions.  While
there is still little published research on the open source phenomenon,
there is a large amount of work in progress.  Open source has already
inspired far-ranging speculation and debate about institutional
economics, information architectures, intangible assets, innovation
processes, standards, ethics, contracts, and intellectual property
policy.  At the same time, there are divergent views of open source
reflected in differences in license, motivation, and business
orientation within the developer community.  
       
The Center for Information Policy at the University of Maryland is
organizing a one-day workshop to advance the research agenda on open
source.  It will explore the issues raised by open source development,
its relationship to other forms of enterprise and community, and the
implications for institutions and public policies in a digital society. 
The workshop is intended to help develop a vigorous global research
community around open source with connections to the open source
development community and industry.  It seeks to enhance the visibility
of open source studies within the social sciences and professional
disciplines and to help policy makers better understand the
enterprise-transforming nature of the Internet and the special
characteristics of Internet-enabled innovation.
       
20-25 invited participants will submit their views on research
priorities in advance; these statements will be used to structure the
substantive discussion and will be made available on the Web.  The
workshop will be open to observers.  It will result in a summary report
outlining research options and priorities based on the submissions and
discussion.  
       
Support for the workshop is provided by an NSF grant from the Program on
Societal Dimensions of Engineering, Science, and Technology and the
Program on Digital Society and Technologies.   For further information,
see the home page for the workshop at http://cip.umd.edu/os.htm or
contact Brian Kahin at bk90@umail.umd.edu.


-- 
===================================
Karim R. Lakhani
MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Open Source Research Project
e-mail: lakhani@mit.edu
voice:  617-851-1224
fax:    617-344-0403
http://opensource.mit.edu
http://mit.edu/lakhani/www
===================================
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