Quality in Use Analysis to Evaluate User Experience of Open Source Software Compatible with MATLAB

This chapter discusses various ways that open source software (OSS) methods of software development interact with the corporate world. The success achieved by many OSS products has produced a range of effects on the corporate world, and likewise, the corporate world influences the success of OSS. Many times, OSS products provide a quality product with strong support, providing competition to the corporate model of proprietary software. OSS has presented the corporate world with opportunities and ideas, prompting some companies to implement components from the OSS business model. Others have formed companies to support and distribute OSS products. The corporate world, in turn, affects OSS, from funding labs where OSS is developed to engaging in intellectual property disputes with OSS entities. The consumer of software is sometimes baffled by the differences in the two, often lacking understanding about the two models and how they interact. This chapter clarifies common misconceptions about the relationship between OSS and the corporate world and explains facets of the business models of software design to better inform potential consumers.

An open source software (OSS) is the software whose source code has been public, usually through the Internet, so that everybody can use and modify it freely. A lot of companies, governments, and universities are now using OSS technologies because of the advantages they bring. However, the use of an OSS is actually hard for its beginners, because many OSSes have few good manuals, where they have usually been developed by volunteers. Besides, the installation of an OSS package sometimes requires installations of multiple OSS packages to be integrated together. In this paper, we propose a method of automatically generating an installation manual of an OSS package, including the one requiring the integration of multiple OSS packages. Then, we implement the proposed method for evaluations. Our experimental results in installations of OSS packages including the one requiring the integration of four packages by generated manuals verify the effectiveness of our method.

The Move to the Middle: Convergence of the Open-Source and Proprietary Software Industries

This study is an examination of features of the four most popular digital library open source software packages against a set of predetermined criteria that is deemed to be essential for the development of a digital library. While analysing and identifying the similarities, differences, strengths, and weakness of the open source software packages, it is indicated that open source digital library software still lacks certain functionalities that are perceived to be important. Each software package has its own individual strengths and weaknesses that will appeal to organizations and stakeholders with different needs. The study is expected to help those library professionals, seriously interested in implementing a digital library by providing a checklist to evaluate how well a particular software fits into their specific implementation requirements. Certain good features of the four open source software packages have also been pointed out via a comparison analysis.

An Open Source Software (OSS) project can be considered as a new type of business entity involving various roles and stakeholders, e.g., project managers, developers, and users, who apply individual methods. The project managers have the responsibility to manage the OSS development in a way that the OSS product can be delivered to the customers in time and with good quality. This responsibility is challenging, because the heterogeneity of the data collected and analyzed from different stakeholders leads to the complexity of efforts of the project managers to measure and manage OSS projects. In this paper, we propose a measurement framework (OSMF) to enable the project managers to collect and analyze process data from OSS projects efficiently. Initial results show that OSMF can help project managers to manage OSS business processes more efficient, hence improve the decision on OSS project quality.

A few open source software (OSS) products exhibit an abrupt and significant increase in downloads. However, the majority of OSS products fail to gain much interest. Identifying early success is important for catalyzing growth in OSS markets. However, previous OSS research has not examined early product success dynamics and assumes adoption to be a continuous process. We propose OSS takeoff in adoptions as a measure of eventual product success. Takeoff is a nonlinear inflection point separating the early development from the growth phase in the product lifecycle. Using arguments from the signaling literature, we propose that community activities send signals about product quality and reduce information asymmetry faced by potential adopters of OSS products. Estimating a Cox proportional hazard model using a large sample of OSS products from SourceForge, we find that takeoff times are significantly associated with signals of quality deficiency and improvement. Further, we find that target audience and product innovativeness moderate this relationship.

Open Source Software (OSS) is defined as a computer software that is freely provided and which permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in a modified or an unmodified forms. OSS is developed in a highly social online environment where developers are dispersed in space and time, but rarely interact in a face-to-face manner. Literature in this field specifies many successful OSS implementations in Academic Institutions globally. Educational Institutions have diverse opinion on the academic use of OSS. The concept of open access and the proliferation of academic blogs have broken down many barriers in the educational sector. With the reference of studies conducted in various countries such as Switzerland, USA, Australia, UK etc., it can be said that there are two distinct views on the academic acceptance of OSS. One view is in favor of the use of OSS, while the other is hesitant about OSS thinking that it could suppress the creativity of individuals. OSS represents a social dimension of Learning through a Persistent, Unified, Massively Multi-User, and Self-Organizing Virtual Environment extending beyond the traditional classroom into the universities common areas where learners build knowledge and understanding through serendipitous and collaborative exchanges both within and across subject area boundaries. The digitization of education is a relatively new phenomenon but has already transformed the education sector .Most Educational Institutions are operated on a non-profit basis and many of them are government funded. Open Source Software’s are freely available on well-known OSS Project community providers such as www.SourceForge.net and hence can be implemented in Educational Institutions at no procurement costs. This research is an attempt to examine the differences between the implementation of OSS and Proprietary software’s in Educational Institutions. Findings of this study could facilitate Universities and Educational Institutions to evaluate the options of using OSS for their Information Technology or Information Systems requirements.

PurposeThe majority of LCA studies begin with the drawing of a process flow diagram, which then needs to be translated manually into an LCA model. This study presents an initial image processing pipeline, implemented in an open-source software package, called lcopt-cv, which can be used to identify the boxes and links in a photograph of a hand-drawn process flow diagram and automatically create an LCA foreground model.MethodsThe computer vision pipeline consists of a total of 15 steps, beginning with loading the image file and conversion to greyscale. The background is equalised, then the foreground of the image is extracted from the background using thresholding. The lines are then dilated and closed to account for drawing errors. Contours in the image are detected and simplified, and rectangles (contours with four corners) are identified from the simplified contours as ‘boxes’. Links between these boxes are identified using a flood-filling technique. Heuristic processing, based on knowledge of common practice in drawing of process flow diagrams, is then performed to more accurately identify the typology of the identified boxes and the direction of the links between them.Results and discussionThe performance of the image processing pipeline was tested on four flow diagrams of increasing difficulty: one simple computer drawn diagram and three photographs of hand-drawn diagrams (a simple diagram, a complex diagram and a diagram with merged lines). A set of default values for the variables which define the pipeline was developed through trial and error. For the two simple flow charts, all boxes and links were identified using the default settings. The complex diagram required minor tweaks to the default values to detect all boxes and links. An ‘unstacking’ heuristic allowed the diagram with merged lines to be correctly processed. After some manual reclassification of link directions and process types, the diagrams were turned into LCA models and exported to open-source LCA software packages (lcopt and Brightway) to be verified and analysed.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that it is possible to generate a fully functional LCA model from a picture of a flow chart. This has potentially important implications not only for LCA practitioners as a whole, but in particular for the teaching of LCA. Skipping the steep learning curve required by most LCA software packages allows teachers to focus on important LCA concepts, while participants maintain the benefits of experiential learning by doing a ‘real’ LCA.

SUMMARY Interest in the open source software model as a means of developing software for the library community has developed considerably in the last few years. Fortunately, much of the software that has been developed for libraries can be used to provide extended library services to distance learning students. This article provides an overview of both the open source software movement and how that movement relates to providing library services. In addition to describing some software packages that related to specific areas of service for distance learning students, the article includes some guidelines for distance learning librarians to consider when making a choice to use open source software packages.

Taxonomic markers such as the 16S ribosomal RNA gene are widely used in microbial community analysis. A common first step in marker-gene analysis is grouping genes into clusters to reduce data sets to a more manageable size and potentially mitigate the effects of sequencing error. Instead of clustering based on sequence identity, marker-gene data sets collected over time can be clustered based on temporal correlation to reveal ecologically meaningful associations. We present Ananke, a free and open-source algorithm and software package that clusters marker-gene data based on time-series profiles and provides interactive visualization of clusters. Ananke is able to cluster distinct temporal patterns from simulations of multiple ecological patterns, such as periodic seasonal dynamics and organism appearances/disappearances. We apply our algorithm to two longitudinal marker gene data sets: faecal communities from the human gut of an individual sampled over one year, and communities from a freshwater lake sampled over eleven years. Within the gut, the segregation of the bacterial community around a food-poisoning event was immediately clear. In the freshwater lake, we found that high sequence identity between marker genes does not guarantee similar temporal dynamics, and Ananke time-series clusters revealed patterns obscured by clustering based on sequence identity or taxonomy. Ananke is free and open-source software available at https://github.com/beiko-lab/ananke.

Because licensing an open source software (OSS) product restricts its reuse, the developer of the product has to consider the impact on reuse when choosing the license. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no quantitative studies on the impact of software licenses on software reuse. To identify the impact, this paper presents a quantitative investigation into the relationship between the software license and copy-and-paste reuse on actual OSS products. The results show that the license of a product affects the frequency of reuse. On the other hand, copy-and-paste reuse occurs mostly in the source files distributed under the same license.

Open source software ecosystems: A Systematic mapping

This Article denies the sharply diametric rhetoric characterizing the debate over the viability of open source software. Rejecting the extremes, Satchwell argues that a middle solution exists whereby a properly formed intellectual property regime will incentivize the production of quality open source software while ensuring the stability of the open source paradigm and without disrupting more traditional intellectual property structures. To this end, this Article discusses the necessary focus and form of such an open source IP regime and shows that by concentrating exclusively on attribution and vertical stability a path may be steered between the tragedies of the commons and anticommons that will enable and promote open source as a viably sustainable production method. Finally, a possible form for such a system is suggested and its benefits discussed.

Radiomic Biomarkers Evaluation of the High Dose Arm of RTOG 0617

The study of dynamic electrical physics among first-semester students is often unpopular because it is considered abstract and difficult to relate to real-world applications. To foster a positive attitude and interest in the subject matter, contextual and technology-based learning strategies are needed. This study aims to apply a simulation of a BLDC electric motor using the open-source software GNU Octave in the context of electric vehicles, as well as to describe students' affective responses after participating in the learning activity. The study employs a quantitative descriptive approach with participants being students from the Physics Education and Vocational Mechanical Engineering Education programs. The simulation was developed based on the mathematical model of the BLDC electric motor and visualized using numerical methods in GNU Octave. After participating in the simulation-based learning activity, students were asked to complete a questionnaire measuring affective aspects such as interest, motivation, and attitude toward physics learning based on applications. The questionnaire results indicated that the majority of students responded positively to the use of simulations. The research results indicate that over 90% of students demonstrated interest, motivation, and positive attitudes toward simulation-based physics learning on electric motors. Students also evaluated GNU Octave as an attractive, free, and relevant tool for learning needs in the digital age. Thus, the application of GNU Octave as a simulation medium not only supports conceptual understanding indirectly but is also effective in fostering students' affective aspects toward physics and electric vehicle technology learning.