Blog and Infographic Project (Activity)

Revision as of 20:46, 26 May 2015

Background:

Increasingly, infographics are being used to summarize information on a topic in a succinct and visually appealing way. For this project, students will create their own unique infographic based upon research into Open Source Software. You should not just copy an infographic on your topic that you found online. This is an opportunity to use your creativity to experiment with an increasingly popular format for marketing on the Web.

Here's a link that describes characteristics of successful infographics: http://sociallysorted.com.au/7-superpowers-of-a-knockout-infographic/.

This blog describes a number of free tools that will help you to create infographics: [[1]]. Several students have found particular success in using PiktoChart.com

Notes to faculty:

• Under the topic description, intentionally keeping this open-ended to encourage students to find interesting research without boxing them in. If the student asks for more direction, please consider in advance how you will answer that question.
• Infographics typically are high on numeric data. Some of the topics below may be more or less quantifiable. May need to allow for some more like a compacted slide/summary instead of a traditional infographic.

NOTE TO SELF: Add a source article or blog post for each topic

Directions:

Step 1: Select a Topic

Choose from one of the following topics

• Estimate how much open source software is used by businesses (versus proprietary software; provide specific examples)
• Why should businesses care about open source software?
• When you are buying and implementing a software system, what are all the costs associated with it? Compare open source software vs. proprietary. Examples to consider include support, training, consulting, patching security issues, etc.
• What are the different types of software licenses available? How does each benefit society? What if you use software licenses improperly?
• Business Model -- what makes open source business modesl sustainable and profitable? Example: Red Hat
• Why might a major business contribute to open source? For example: allowing paid employees to use work time to work on improving open source software.
• What are the market and economic pressures that drive business to consider an open source solution? Be sure to consider flexibility of the software, the ability to quickly respond to customer requirements, being able to attract and retain highly qualified technical employees. Source article: https://docs.google.com/a/redhat.com/document/d/11kZeoU5xAdVvGYOsfBmNk0ggTrBg0VPGl12HW6bXJfY/pub
• What motivates people to contribute to open source software projects?
• Learn more about a specific humantarian open source project

1. Ushahidi ( www.ushahidi.com )
2. OpenMRS ( www.openmrs.org )
3. Sahana ( www.sahanafoundation.org )
4. Humanitarian FOSS Project ( www.hfoss.org )

Step 2: Identify Characteristics of an Effective Infographic

Step 3: Collect Data

Step 4: Create Infographic

Step 5: Blog Post

Deliverables:

Assessment:

Comments:

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