http://mfeldstein.com/blackboard-contributing-code-to-open-source-project/ What We Are Learning About Online Learning...Online Fri, 18 May 2012 06:39:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://mfeldstein.com/blackboard-contributing-code-to-open-source-project/#comment-3906 Weekly Research Index | December 18, 2009 « The Xplanation Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:38:04 +0000 http://mfeldstein.com/?p=1259#comment-3906 [...] Blackboard Contributing Code to Open Source Project — Michael Feldstein reports that “a) Blackboard may be incorporating open source code into their product, and (b) they are contributing some of the modifications they made to that code back under an open source license.” [...] [...] Blackboard Contributing Code to Open Source Project — Michael Feldstein reports that “a) Blackboard may be incorporating open source code into their product, and (b) they are contributing some of the modifications they made to that code back under an open source license.” [...]

]]> http://mfeldstein.com/blackboard-contributing-code-to-open-source-project/#comment-1667 John Fontaine Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:46:49 +0000 http://mfeldstein.com/?p=1259#comment-1667 BIRT is used in the Blackboard Learn code. The Blackboard 9.0 platform uses the BIRT reporting tool to provide reporting capabilities for various modules of Blackboard Learn. We are excited to provide this code back to the BIRT community. As a technology company Blackboard has used open source technologies from the earliest days of CourseInfo. We've been heavy users of Linux, Apache, Eclipse and other open source tools and frameworks in support of and as part of our software. We include the licenses for these frameworks as part of our overall license and provide links to appropriate sources when requested by customers. We review the license requirements of each open source technology components with our legal team to ensure we are comfortable with the obligations outlined within their licenses. We also use a number of commercial technologies as part of our stack such as the Oracle database. For most of the technologies we use (open source, commercial, other) we have partnerships that ensure we have relationships with the people who develop and maintain the software. For example when we used Perl more heavily we had a support relationship with ActiveState. The decision to use an open source technology vs. a commercial one has always been about specific capabilities of the technology and the best way to meet the needs of our customers over the long term. We've had mixed experiences with open source solutions, but then we've also had mixed experiences with commercial ones as well. They key thing has been to have the right partnership in place before adopting the technology. As part of this partnership we've had to develop code for open source projects ourselves sometimes; but most of the time we've focused on how to consume the technology in a sustainable way. Sustaining the technology has typically meant paying someone somewhere to give us support, advice and training required to integrate and use the embedded technology. BIRT is used in the Blackboard Learn code. The Blackboard 9.0 platform uses the BIRT reporting tool to provide reporting capabilities for various modules of Blackboard Learn. We are excited to provide this code back to the BIRT community.
As a technology company Blackboard has used open source technologies from the earliest days of CourseInfo. We’ve been heavy users of Linux, Apache, Eclipse and other open source tools and frameworks in support of and as part of our software. We include the licenses for these frameworks as part of our overall license and provide links to appropriate sources when requested by customers. We review the license requirements of each open source technology components with our legal team to ensure we are comfortable with the obligations outlined within their licenses.
We also use a number of commercial technologies as part of our stack such as the Oracle database. For most of the technologies we use (open source, commercial, other) we have partnerships that ensure we have relationships with the people who develop and maintain the software. For example when we used Perl more heavily we had a support relationship with ActiveState.
The decision to use an open source technology vs. a commercial one has always been about specific capabilities of the technology and the best way to meet the needs of our customers over the long term. We’ve had mixed experiences with open source solutions, but then we’ve also had mixed experiences with commercial ones as well. They key thing has been to have the right partnership in place before adopting the technology. As part of this partnership we’ve had to develop code for open source projects ourselves sometimes; but most of the time we’ve focused on how to consume the technology in a sustainable way. Sustaining the technology has typically meant paying someone somewhere to give us support, advice and training required to integrate and use the embedded technology.

]]> http://mfeldstein.com/blackboard-contributing-code-to-open-source-project/#comment-1666 Blackboard Contributing Code to Open Source Project | Open Hacking Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:16:54 +0000 http://mfeldstein.com/?p=1259#comment-1666 [...] here:  Blackboard Contributing Code to Open Source Project This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Software, [...] [...] here:  Blackboard Contributing Code to Open Source Project This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Software, [...]

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