If you're considering an open source platform for your school, this is a great place to start.
Perhaps you've researched and looked at many different platforms, and in your search you've come across an open source solution. It may not have the fanciest sales pitch or the shiniest marketing page, but it has something the other platforms don't have: it's free and it's open.
The goal of this guide is to help schools make an informed decision when choosing between a paid proprietary platform and an open source platform.
What does open source really mean? What are the benefits and drawbacks? What happens next when school administrators decide to use an open source school platform?
On an organizational side, this guide includes sections on needs assessment, creating a narrative for change, and developing support strategies. On the technical side, it includes a starter guide for establishing a team of people who will manage the server and administration of an open source platform.
Contents
<aside> 💡 Who should read this?
This is a guide for anyone considering an open source platform for their school. Although it has been created for and by the Gibbon community, it is aimed to be general enough to apply to many different open source contexts.
Skip ahead and zero-in on the topics that matter to you. There's a lot of material here and it doesn't need to be read top-to-bottom. Please use the table of contents to the left to jump to a section of interest.
This guide is provided under a Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
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<aside> 💬 Your feedback is welcome! You can comment on this document by selecting a section of text and sharing your thoughts. To facilitate collaboration, I've added a ReadMe.txt section to this document, which contains background information and a discussion section. Check it out if you'd like to share your suggestions or workflows. Thanks!
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<aside> 💡 If you're new to open source or unsure about how it works, this section is for you. It aims to clarify why open source is free and how community-oriented development works.
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The best place to start is with questions. Read here, search the internet, or ask a friend. Many of the myths surrounding open source can be dispelled with some good questions and answers.
The folks at opensource.com have a great definition:
"The term open source refers to something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible."
"The term originated in the context of software development to designate a specific approach to creating computer programs. Today, however, "open source" designates a broader set of values—what we call "the open source way." Open source projects, products, or initiatives embrace and celebrate principles of open exchange, collaborative participation, rapid prototyping, transparency, meritocracy, and community-oriented development" (opensource.com, n.d., para. 2).
Read more about what open source is, or check out the following video from the folks at Mozilla, creators of the Firefox web browser:
What Is Open Source? (Mozilla, 2017)
What Is Open Source? (Mozilla, 2017)