FOSS = Free and Open Source Software

Definition & details, see: Wikipedia or Free Software Foundation Europe

Free? Libre? Open?

Free Software is defined by “The 4 Freedoms”.

The right to:

• USE it for any purpose.
• STUDY how the program works and understand it.
• SHARE copies of the software.
• IMPROVE the program and distribute these changes.

Free as in ‘free speech’

FOSS can be commercial.

Opposite = Proprietary

May run anywhere on anything

Highly adaptable

User (and resource) friendly

Highly professional

The way to go.

I’m not a developer.

What’s in it for me?

The Distant Future: The Year 2000!

Digital is omnipresent.

We all depend/rely on ‘IT’.

• interoperable?
• sustainable?
• modifiable?
• repairable?
• affordable?
• adaptable?
• robust?
• …

Who decides what?

I’m an archivist.

Benefits for long-term preservation?

How long is “long term”?

• 10 years?
• 50 years?
• 100 years?
• longer?
• or: 3-5 years?
  = market lifetime of digital products

Imagine: If buildings were software

The archival domain

• Relatively small market (niche).
• Off-the-shelf products often focus on different use cases.
• Highly specialized demands.
• High potential for vendor dependence…

With FOSS:

• Reusability of existing solutions
• Free choice of (local) support/suppliers
• No black-box / reverse engineering
• Common tools/codebase = larger userbase
• Less “forced” upgrades
• Sustainable software ecosystem
• You decide how (long) to use, study, share or improve ‘IT’.

How come FOSS ain’t the default?

btw: In the beginning, every software actually came with its source code.

(Similar to farming: started organic, then industrialized, now back to organic)

Perceived professionalism and quality

• Price = quality?
• GUI = quality?
• Professionals using it?
• Ongoing support?
• Responsibilities?
• Who you’re gonna call?

– How FOSS? –

“Prefer, demand and support FOSS and open formats. It’s good for you.”

The next step:

Professionalization of Free Software

Paying for Free Software

Best of both worlds:

• Better support/updates
• Pooling resources
• Improvements available “upstream”
• Designed for your use-cases
• Overall better cost-effectiveness

Professionalizing FOSS:

• Make support contracts
• Paid installation/integration
• Hire developers, raise funds
• Non-financial contributions:
  • Documentation / Tutorials
  • Design graphics
  • Testing / bug-reports / helping others

What’s the value of ‘IT’?

Quality, Value & Price: Food? Air? Water? Space? Roads? Bridges?

“Free, publicly available source code is the infrastructure on which all of digital society relies.”

Source: https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/learning/research-reports/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure/

Infrastructure & Taxes?

See: publiccode.eu/

Taken for granted?

• Who of you is using FOSS? (Mediainfo, VLC, Wikipedia, Firefox, FFmpeg, QCTools, GNU/Linux, LibreOffice, etc etc etc..?)
• How can they afford to spend time on FOSS code?
• What if they disappear? 😱
• What’s your (institution’s) plan to keep these applications alive and kicking?

Collaboration welcome

We archivists have:

• Common interests.
• Common challenges.
• Common solutions?

You *are* ‘The Community’

– The End –

Comments?

Questions?

Peter Bubestinger-Steindl

(p.bubestinger @ arkthis.com)

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