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The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and teaching of graduate courses providing in‐depth experiential learning employing commercial supply chain management software. The benefits of teaching such courses are described, the challenges in offering such courses are identified, and some solutions to overcome the challenges are offered.

The experiences of the authors in developing and teaching supply chain management courses utilizing commercial software provided a basis for discussing the benefits and challenges associated with teaching students the management of modern supply chains using commercial decision‐support software.

Incorporating commercial software in university programs presents a myriad of challenges and therefore is rarely done. However, providing students with in‐depth knowledge of commercial logistics and supply chain management software improves their understanding of supply chain issues and provides a key differentiator in the marketplace. Modeling real‐world supply chains using commercial software enhances student's education by providing relevant experiential exposure to real‐world problems and decision‐support tools.

The observations of the authors in developing and teaching courses in supply chain management utilizing commercial software afford a unique viewpoint and roadmap for others regarding teaching supply chain management in academic environments.

There has been a recent surge of interest in open source software development, which involves developers at many different locations and organizations sharing code to develop and refine programs. To an economist, the behavior of individual programmers and commercial companies engaged in open source projects is initially startling. This paper makes a preliminary exploration of the economics of open source software. We highlight the extent to which labor economics, especially the literature on career concerns’, can explain many of these projects’ features. Aspects of the future of open source development process, however, remain somewhat difficult to predict with off-the-shelf’ economic models.

This paper aims to compare the automatic segmentation of medical data and conversion to stereolithography (STL) skull models using open-source software versus commercial software.

Both open-source and commercial software used automatic segmentation and post-processing of the data without user intervention, thus avoiding human error. Detailed steps were provided for comparisons and easier to be repeated by other researchers. The results of segmentation, which were converted to STL format were compared using geometric analysis.

STL skull models produced using open-source software are comparable with the one produced using commercial software. A comparison of STL skull model produced using InVesalius with STL skull model produced using MIMICS resulted in an average dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of 97.6 ± 0.04 per cent and Hausdorff distance (HD) of 0.01 ± 0.005 mm. Inter-rater study for repeatability on MIMICS software yielded an average DSC of 100 per cent and HD of 0.

The application of open-source software will benefit the small research institutions or hospitals to produce and virtualise three-dimensional model of the skulls for teaching or clinical purposes without having to purchase expensive commercial software. It is also easily reproduceable by other researchers.

This study is one of the first comparative evaluations of an open-source software with propriety commercial software in producing accurate STL skull models. Inaccurate STL models can lead to inaccurate pre-operative planning or unfit implant.

How are institutional logics transgressed in the organizational fields of open source software and of commercial proprietary software, respectively, by developing a new practice of commercial open source software? I argue that by combining a Critique of Ideology Critique and a Critique of New Institutional Organizational Theory, we become better equipped for understanding institutional change in organizations applying concepts such as institutional entrepreneurs, discursive devices, and meaning arenas. The analysis show that many institutional entrepreneurs apply discursive devices to convince actors in the two organizational fields of the legitimacy of the new practice. This happens in many different meaning arenas such as in the market, in the public discourse, and in concrete open source projects. I advance the assumption that a relation established between institutional entrepreneurs of different legitimacy in the two original fields renders possible their institutional work.

The purpose of this paper is to review use of open source software in the public sector in Botswana and South Africa. South Africa is Botswana's neighbor and both countries are leading economies in Africa.

The paper draws on a survey that was carried out in information communication technology (ICT)‐intensive government ministries in Botswana in May 2008. The study sought to establish availability of policy framework, level of usage of open source software, government support, motivations for implementing open source software in government, availability of skills, attitude of it managers in government toward open source software and challenges of open source software deployment in the public sector. The population of the study consisted of information technology (IT) managers who were purposively selected from ICT‐intensive government ministries and interviewed. The study was extended to cover South Africa through review of literature on the same issues as those studied in Botswana.

Compared with other countries in developed and developing countries including South Africa, there is limited use of open source software in the public sector in Botswana. However, IT managers in government of Botswana demonstrate a positive attitude toward open source software, and seem to have adequate understanding of its potential benefits. Comparatively, South African government provides support for harnessing open source software; awareness among top government officials is high and attitude toward open source software seems positive; skills are generally available and hardly any challenges of using open source software were identified.

This study was limited to purposively selected government ministries which are ICT‐intensive in Botswana, while for South Africa, the study was based on secondary sources of data and focused on deployment of open source software in government agencies.

Despite the increasing deployment of open source software in government across the world, the Botswanan government is yet unlikely to put in place an enabling open source software policy to harness the potential of the Software.

Open source software deployment in government across the world is gaining momentum purportedly to enhance universal access, reduce costs associated with commercial software bridge the digital divide, grow indigenous IT skills, etc. Botswana and South Africa are the economic frontline states in Africa, and their leadership role in this matter among counterparts on the African continent is pertinent.

In this essay we argue that the current social and ethical structure in the Open Source Software (OSS) Community stem from its roots in academia. The individual developers experience a level of autonomy similar to that of a faculty member. Furthermore, we assert that the Open Source Software Community’s social structure demands benevolent leadership. We argue that it is difficult to pass off low quality open source software as high quality software and that the Open Source development model offers strong accountability. Finally, we argue that Open Source Software introduces ethical challenges for universities and the software development community.

Computer software does not have to be expensive. Thousands of programs are available free, or for very low prices. There are some catches, but free software can be of high quality, and an excellent value. The author discusses free software, urges readers to join microcomputer user groups, and recounts his own experiences with free software as these relate to Frederick Michels' article on “user‐supported” software (see Library Hi Tech, number 10). The author reviews several books that can provide further information.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the professional opinion of LIS with reference to open source software (OSS) adoption, status, problems and future measures in research and academic libraries of Beijing, China.

Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted among 20 academic and 20 research libraries in Beijing, China. The convenient sampling technique was used to collect data. The data collected were interpreted using descriptive statistics and independent t-test.

The results reveal that Chinese research and academics libraries depend mostly upon commercial software and place a great deal of trust on locally produced free software. This situation may be caused due to the lack of professional knowledge in OSS and lack of appropriate technical expertise. Although there were a sufficient number of librarians who have shown interest in OSS, they did not enthusiastically agree to implement it in their libraries. Furthermore, the interviews highlighted the professionals’ opinion that most librarians are reluctant to adopt OSS due to the risk factor, lack of professional expertise, insufficient interest of the Chinese Government and lack of professional training.

The findings are useful for the Chinese LIS community, software developers, technology administrators and library administrators. In particular, it is beneficial for research and academic libraries of China to adapt OSS for library management and provide better library services and sources to their library users.

We contend that software developers have an ethical responsibility to strive for reliable software. We base that obligation on long standing engineering traditions that place the public good as a central tenant and on the professional relationship between a software developer and the users of the software developed.

As a practical engineering method, earthquake response spectra play an important role in seismic hazard assessment and in seismic design of structures. However, the computing scale and the efficiency of commercial software restricted the solution of complex structures. There is a clear need of developing large-scale and highly efficient finite element procedures for response spectrum analysis.

In this paper, the kernel theories for earthquake response spectra are deduced and the corresponding parallel solution flow via the modal superposition method is presented. Based on the algorithm and the parallel data structure of JAUMIN framework, a parallel finite element (FE) solution module is established. Using the solution procedure on a supercomputer equipped with up to thousands of processors, the correctness and parallel scalability of the algorithm are evaluated via numerical experiments of typical engineering examples.

The results show that the solution module has the same precision as the commercial FE software ANSYS; the maximum solution scale achieves 154 million degrees of freedom (DOFs) with a favorable parallel computing efficiency, going far beyond the computing ability of the commercial FE software.

The solution scale in this paper is very challenging for the large-scale parallel computing of structural dynamics and will promote the dynamic analysis ability of complex facilities greatly.