Category Archives: CC-BY-SA 3.0

Teaching Materials for Agile Methods Course

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I finally put my teaching materials for my agile methods course on this website. The slides are available in “source” form, i.e. Open/LibreOffice format, as well as PDFs. I also added supplementary materials like the videos I use for illustration purposes. The slides are made available using the Creative Commons BY-SA license and are based on a course I’ve been giving several times now. It is far from being perfect but obviously good enough for a real course. Feel free to use or copy from the slides for your own courses!

My goal is to keep improving the slides. I expect there to be a new version every year or maybe every semester. For me, this is an experiment. I honestly don’t know how to collaborate around a format like ODP and ODT. It sure doesn’t feel like source code. So, my best suggestion is that if you find this useful and would like to see it improve in a direction that suits you, please let me know of your suggestions. I might then incorporate the suggested changes into the slide set. In general, my philosophy is that the content will grow, but ideally in a consistent fashion.

Teaching Note for Case "User-Generated Content Systems at Intuit(A)" E-381(A)

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Abstract: This is a teaching note for the free case “User-Generated Content Systems at Intuit(A)”, E-381(A), from the Stanford Free Case collection available at ECCH. The original case is a product management case in which Intuit, maker of consumer and small business financial software, faces the decision to “go social or not” for user help in its tax preparation software. The original case discusses the pros and cons of such a disruptive innovation. This teaching note provides pertinent questions to ask your students as well as my summary answers to these questions. I could not find an original teaching note hence I wrote this one. This is my first such note so any suggestions for improvement are welcome. The note is licensed CC-BY-SA 3.0; feel free to use it in your own teaching. The note’s home is my website. For attribution, please link to it.

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The Evolution of the Source Forge Home Page

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I was revising my talk on “Inner Source” when it occurred to me that it might be fun to review the changes to the sf.net (Sourceforge) homepage. Please find my collection of screenshots below. I only started saving them in 2007 so pointers to more and older screenshots are welcome! (In particular if they come with a CC license so that I can use them in talks, attribution is a given. I trust that Geek.net does not object…) Thanks!

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The Java IP Story

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Every year, I teach the AMOS class, a lab course on “Agile Methods and Open Source” that combines lectures with a real software project that ideally turns into a startup (see the AMOS Project concept, in German). To explain open source, I have to introduce students to intellectual property rights, of which most have been blissfully unaware of until then. Nothing teaches concepts better than a colorful story, and so I have been using the IP strategies around Java to make this dry topic come alive. For fun, comments, and corrections, I’m providing the short version of my talk below, including commentary. (You can also download a PDF version of the talk, licensed as CC-BY 3.0. If you find this useful for teaching, please tell me.) Students at this point have a basic working understanding of intellectual property and exclusion rights. Please let me know what you think! Finally, IANAL.

Java is an important technology powering the modern web and in particular enterprise applications. It has a checkered intellectual property history, and with the recent acquisition of Sun, the Java creator and owner, by Oracle, things only stand to heat up. This slide set discusses some of the more interesting issues around Java intellectual property and its strategic use in business.

  1. What is Java?
  2. Short Java IP Story Time-Line
  3. Three Substories
  4. Java’s Challenge to the Windows Platform
  5. Microsoft and Java
  6. The OpenJDK Strategy (Open Core Model)
  7. Certification of Compatible Implementations
  8. Threats to Commercial Revenue
  9. Main Tools to Curtail “Competitors”
  10. Problems for Alternative Implementations
  11. Problems for OpenJDK Forks
  12. Thank you! and References

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Linux-Tag Keynote Slides: A New Developer Career

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I just finished my Linux-Tag 2010 keynote and so I’m providing the talk slides here under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license. First title and abstract:

Open Source: A New Developer Career

Open source creates a new career ladder for software developers, orthogonal to the traditional career in software firms. Advancing on this career ladder can win developers broader recognition for their work, increase their salaries, and improve their job security. Software developers, project and hiring managers, and personnel departments alike need to understand this new dimension in a developer’s career. This talk explains the career and discusses what skills a developer should possess or train to be successful.

Then the slides as PDF or below embedded from Slideshare.

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Open Source Software Research Inaugural Lecture at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

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Last Friday, I presented my inaugural lecture at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, as is customary for a new professor. My topic was open source software research, and I’m making the slides available under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license. The talk took place on April 30th, 2010, during FAU’s 2010 Tag der Informatik (Day of Computer Science). Here is the abstract of the 45min talk:

Open source software has become ubiquitous. In this talk, I lay out a research agenda for my group. By reviewing prior work, I show that open source has not only become ubiquitous but also economically sustainable. I also show what further open source economics work needs to be done. Changing gears, I then address the software engineering research I see ahead for open source. Thanks to the public nature of open source, most relevant project information is easily accessible. I expect this to lead software engineering research to a golden age of empirically founded insights and conclusions. Beyond analysis, I address how our research will innovate new tools and practices using a software forge.

The talk slides are available as a PDF file and are licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.