Open Source

Citation

du Preez, M. (2007), "Open Source", Online Information Review, Vol. 31 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2007.26431eae.001

Open Source

Open Source: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Moreno MuffattoImperial College PressLondon2006245 pp.ISBN 1860946658US$58.00 (hard cover)Series on Technology Management, 10 (Available from World Scientific Publishing Ltd, 57 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9HE)

Open Source Database Driven Web Development: A Guide for Information Professionals

Isaac Hunter DunlapChandos PublishingOxford2006230 pp.ISBN 183341611Price not reported (soft cover)

The open source phenomenon is quite young and changing very fast. It basically started as a protest against proprietary commercial software. It also brings together many other phenomena that affect human lives, such as the digital revolution and economics of digital products, the controversies over intellectual property rights, the Internet, and the new ways of organising the production of products and services

Two interesting and very different books focusing on the open source phenomenon were published during 2006. The first book, Open Source: A Multidisciplinary Approach by Moreno Muffatto, attempts to answer questions regarding the organisation of the open source community, the effects open source has had and might have on the future of the IT industry, companies and government policies. The second book, Open Source Database Driven Web Development by Isaac Hunter Dunlap, is an outgrowth of a professional journey bent on finding the most efficient, economic and effective means of managing and publishing information in a web environment.

In many ways, Muffatto found writing his book a mix of work and play, and a job he did with great passion. He starts off by sharing the history of open source software and moves on to define software and describe its characteristics by focusing on intellectual property rights. The next three chapters consider the open source community, the development of open source software within and outside the open source community and open source projects and product quality. The different users of open source software receive attention in Chapters 6 and 7. Chapters 8 and 9 interpret the phenomenon from an organisational point of view and use the theory of complex adaptive systems. In conclusion, Muffatto explores the current and potential applications of the concept underlying open source software in other fields.

Dunlap’s book seeks to fill a gap in the print resources that provide an adequate general overview along with the necessary details required to begin developing open source database-driven web solutions. He first explains what open source software is, where it came from, why it is being used, who is using it and how to take advantage of it. Dunlop found it necessary to know why this type of software exists and how it continues to be maintained and developed in order to place open software in an historical context. The later chapters provide guidance on tool selection, standards conformity, database design, basic coding practices and illustrative “real-world” case studies. Throughout the book, he guides readers towards reliable open source tools and methods that have been proven to work.

Both books are well researched, read easily and include lists of references. Muffatto’s book has comprehensive table of contents and in a way this compensates for its lack of an index. Readers should find Open Source: A Multidisciplinary Approach useful and a stimulus for further research on the open software phenomenon. Open Source Database Driven Web Development, on the other hand, has a practical approach and guides readers in developing database-driven web applications, concluding with a number of case studies that represent “real-world” projects that were assembled to take advantage of the possibilities provided by open source database-driven web development tools such as PHP and MySQL.

Madely du Preez University of South Africa