OS Project Comparison Activity

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Title	OS Project Comparison Activity
Overview	In this activity, students compare and contrast three different open source projects (Android, Ushahidi, Red Hat). Students will gain a basic understanding of why these exist as open source projects, as well as the operating models and licensing used by each. Students will be provided with directed readings and will specific questions to develop the comparisons.
Prerequisite Knowledge	None.
Learning Objectives	* Learn the purpose of an open source project * Learn the different operational models and licenses under which projects are developed * Learn the reason a specific project is created * Learn how to contribute to an open source project

Is there background reading material?

Are there other activities the student should have done first?

What is the rational for this activity?

Include helpful hints to faculty here.

While this activity is tailored with three specific project, it can be used for any projects of choice if there is a point of comparison.

Given the following material for three different open source projects:

For each project answer the following questions:

What is the project about?
Why is the project open source?
What kind of open project is it? Describe the operating model and the license(s) used.
How can you contribute to the project?

Submit a report with your answers. Your responses for each project should be a page to a page and half long.

Criteria	Partial Credit	Complete Credit
Understanding the purpose of the project	Answer is not clear, some grammatical or logical errors. student does not comprehensively understand the purpose of a project	Answer is clear, using correct language, indicating the purpose of each project, including what need does the project fulfil
Understanding why the project is open source	Answer is not clear, some grammatical or logical errors or not enough supporting arguments	Answer is clear, using correct language and supporting arguments
Understanding the different licences using for each project	Answer is not clear, some grammatical or logical errors or partially answer the question	Answer is clear, using correct language and correctly answers the question
Understanding how to contribute to the project	Answer is not clear, some grammatical or logical errors or partially answer the question	Answer is clear, using correct language and correctly answers the question

What should the instructor know before using this activity?

What are some likely difficulties that an instructor may encounter using this activity?

Knowledge Area/Knowledge Unit	Social Issues and Professional Practice/Intellectual Property
Topic	Foundations of the open source movement [Familiarity]
Level of Difficulty	Introductory
Estimated Time to Completion	3-4 hours
Materials/Environment	Internet access required
Author	Darci Burdge, Ruby El Kharboutly, Gina Likins, Lori Postner
Source	N/A
License	Under which license is this material made available? (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/)

Suggestions for an open source community member who is working in conjunction with the instructor.