Cultural Research

UberStudent: Open Source Learning Platform Combines Linux OS, Moodle and Numerous Research and Productivity Apps

UberStudent announced its first non-beta release this summer and that's potentially great news for academics interested in open source operating systems and learning platforms. Uberstudent is a:

free, user-friendly Linux distribution for learning, doing, and teaching academic success at the higher education and advanced secondary levels. It is supported by a free Moodle-based virtual learning environment...

UberStudent fundamentally redefines what it means to be an operating system for education. At core, it is a cohesive academic success curriculum integrated into an installable, easy-to-use and ready-to-go learning platform.

UberStudent is developed by professional educators around a core skills approach. These are research and writing, study, and self-management skills, essentials to students regardless of their academic major. UberStudent can additionally be extended for specific academic disciplines using its on-board tools to finding and installing additional software.

ProfHacker takes a look at UberStudent:

Those who are committed to the open source philosophy and/or those in the market for a new OS, however, will find much to like here. The price (free) can’t be beat, the OS can run on older equipment (the minimum memory requirement for the full version is 512MB) and I honestly can’t think of any application I’d absolutely need to work with on a regular basis that doesn’t come preinstalled. Though the applications in UberStudent are mostly available for other platforms, it takes far less time and effort to install the entire OS than it would to download and install each application or FireFox extension individually. If you’re in the market for a new OS, this one’s definitely worth a look.

Dedoimedo has an even more complex review illustrated by quite a number of screenshots and an overview of available apps. Though D. found a few glitches, he too has a positive response.

I don't use an open source OS but I'm certainly an open source advocate and open source software underlies much of my daily web experience. Direct use of open source products always seem to involve a learning curve that becomes a stumbling block for me. However, I am drawn to the concept of UberStudent and see it as one likely entry point given the enticing combination of research apps and learning platform.

Furthermore, higher ed is heading towards such integrated systems from multiple angles and, if one doesn't go open source with such critical infrastructure, one will find vendors benefiting from the pricing advantage that comes from lock-in.

Official Site: UberStudent

Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson - Free: The Future of a Radical Price

I recently completed Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price in fragmented bits of reading. It's a great book for thinking one's way into the implications of free as a price and such related concepts as freemium pricing strategies.

At the same time, it's a rather frustrating book if evaluated from an academic perspective with few proper citations and open-ended, uncited use of chunks of Wikipedia and other writers' content!

It's a rare book that merits serious consideration after such excesses have been exposed but Free is just that kind of book. Of particular relevance for this blog, studying ways to monetize free content is very much on the minds of open access advocates searching for sustainable business models. Free offers a great brainstorming tool with notes from related efforts including open source software.

"Free use but paid via other means" is also a key pricing strategies for libraries supported by taxes, donations, student fees and the like. We don't pay each time we take out the books but we or other folks like us pay by other means. Open access business models often take similar routes.

The interrelationship of free web content and open access publishing also was explored in the release of free editions of Free for limited time in digital formats.

So, yes, I'm recommending Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price with reservations because, if taken for what it's worth, it's quite a good book!

Chris Anderson blogs or blogged at The Long Tail where you can currently find a downloadable list of "notes and sources for the book" Free.

Wired Magazine:
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

Working with Koha at Cleveland Library

I've finished my fourth week at Cleveland Library where I'm currently focused on cataloging the collection using the Koha Open Source ILS. It's my first experience of cataloging "in the wild" and it's also my first experience with Koha. The system was set up for the library prior to my arrival but not a lot has been done since that point. We also have a number of questions about using Koha and about cataloging procedures that I'm doing my best to sort out.

The Cleveland Library setting is unique in that it's run by an all-volunteer staff and it's based, literally, in a thrift shop. The folks that founded the library, led by Ron Still, have a very down-to-earth, make things happen approach that often results in unexpected outcomes.

For example, they asked for book donations from the community to get the library started, rapidly amassed 50,000+ volumes and decided to go ahead and make them available as soon as they could get them on the shelves. So it's a wide open setting in which I take my laptop out on the floor and catalog whatever's currently checked in while the library and thrift store are open to the public!

I think this situation would be difficult for me if I hadn't had quite a bit of bookstore experience, including jobs at two awesome San Francisco shops featuring used books, Green Apple Books and Aardvark Books, where space was at a premium and ad hoc solutions ruled the day.

Working with Koha has raised some challenges since we don't have a service agreement and are all newbies, though that support issue would remain with proprietary software as well, due to our exceptionally restricted budget. We are also in need of someone reliable to update the software. It's the kind of thing I'd like to learn but just haven't had an opportunity to figure out and I don't want to be learning on my own using such a crucial system.

So I'm encountering some challenges and am doing my best to come up with some viable solutions. One of the great things about working at Cleveland Library is that I can take on as much as I can handle and it's giving me an opportunity to not only develop new skills but to think through the systemic challenges in birthing a new library on limited funding.

Drupal for Libraries: Drupal x SOPAC x Koha!

I've been learning about Drupal, an open source content management system, for a Knight News Challenge proposal that goes out next month so this Library Journal article by Karen Coombs on libraries' use of Drupal caught my eye.

I was particularly interested in finding out more about SOPAC (Social Online Public Access Catalog), a Drupal module initially developed for the Ann Arbor District Library that is now available to others. I'm currently working with Koha, an open source ILS, at Cleveland Library and SOPAC is said to have a Koha specific connector for importing records.

SOPAC is an excellent example of librarians and libraries becoming directly involved in the open source software movement as participants, rather than consumers being serviced by vendors, the sort of role change that is key to the transformation of libraries at this point in time.

In addition to a variety of projects covered in the article, Alejandro Garza, a Drupal developer, added some useful resources in the comments:

Drupal For Libraries Listserv
drupalib - a place for library drupallers to hang out
Libraries | Groups.drupal.org