Open Source Assignment

Open Source Assignment

Software is big business. Microsoft is a very wealthy company and Bill Gates is a pretty rich fellow.

Here is a picture of the Microsoft team in 1978.

Can you find the CEO?

Microsoft makes money by designing, writing, and selling software. But there are people who do this for free. In

fact there is a whole movement devoted to it. It's called the “open source” software movement. In fact, if you

use the Firefox browser or Wikipedia you are using software that was designed and programmed by many people

all over the planet, all for free. Your assignment is to research and write about this movement.

Start by reading about Richard Stallman:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_stallman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3uX5XwdN_8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sJUDx7iEJw&feature=related

Read about the Open Source Movement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_movement

Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorfgQlEJv8 See here for a discussion about how two kids wrote the Firefox browser in their spare time:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/firefox.html

Watch a video about the ideas and technology behind Wikipedia:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/37

Can anyone make money with open source software?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vthdc42WaAE&feature=related

Question: From the above sources (and whatever else you might have found) discuss the history, impact, and

likely future of the “open source” software movement by answering the following 5 questions.

History of the “open source” software movement:

1. What were the contributions of the two different groups established in the 1970s to the Open Source Software Movement?

a. The GNU project and the Free Software Foundation from the U.S. east coast. b. The Computer Science Research Group from the U.S. west coast.

2. What is the history of the “open source” software movement in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

The impact of the “open source” software movement:

3. How has the “open source” software movement made an impact on society as a whole? 4. How has the “open source” software movement made an impact, personally, on you and your life?

Future of the “open source” software movement:

5. What is the likely future of the “open source” software movement?

Assignment Submission Here is all the information you need to create and properly submit the assignment to your lab instructor.

You’ll type your answers into a Word document (DOC or DOCX), plain text (TXT), or rich text format (RTF)

file. A minimum of 2 paragraphs for the answer to each question: double spaced, font size: 12 point.

1. Copy the questions and other text from the following webpage into your Open Source Assignment file: http://eniac.cs.qc.cuny.edu/cs12/OpenSourceAnswerFile.txt

2. Save your file with the filename having the following format: your last name, followed by an underscore _, followed by your first name, followed by an underscore _, followed by the word Open.

For example, if your name is John Doe then the filename would be: Doe_John_Open

3. Make sure you type your full name at the location given on the first line of your file.

4. Type your answer to each question (in your file) at the location given right below the question.

You submit your file to your lab instructor via your CUNY Blackboard account.

Follow these instructions:

1. Log onto your CUNY Blackboard account. 2. Click on the CSCI 12 course link in the list of courses you're taking this semester. 3. Click on Assignments in the green area on the left side of the webpage. 4. You will see the Open Source assignment. 5. Click on the assignment. 6. Upload your file and then click the submit button to submit your assignment.

Due Date: Submit this assignment by Tuesday, December 8, 2015.