| Tag Archives: open source

Apple and Gatekeeper

by Clarence Fisher 2 Comments

The next version of Apple’s OS is going to have a piece of software installed on it that might be a surprise to some people. Mountain Lion, due out possibly as early as this summer, is going to include something Apple is calling Gatekeeper.

To put it simply, Gatekeeper is a program that will decide which pieces of software will be allowed to run on your computer.

The idea of Gatekeeper is to keep malware and other annoyance-ware from running on your machine, but it will create many situations much more complex than that. When developers produce pieces of software they want to sell through Apple or their app store, they need to run the gamut of Cupertino’s famously restrictive, matrix – like approval policy. Running through this process allows the developer to attach a digital signature or certificate to their product basically certifying it is safe and useable. Sounds good. But the problem is that any developers that don’t undertake this process will find themselves locked out.

Following the advice on this blog post, I downloaded and ran the RB App Checker on the current software on my machine. I’ve got a MacBook Pro that is only a few months old and I am often fanatical about making sure that all of my stuff stays up to date. Yet I still found a lot of worrying things. If Gatekeeper was installed on my machine today, well over half of the software on my computer wouldn’t run. This includes software of all types:

- Firefox
- Gimp
- Things
- Planbook (great little piece of software I use for lesson planning)
- StencylWorks
- Scratch
- Libreoffice
- Jing
- Calibre
- Aurora

and the list goes on from there…

Gatekeeper is going to come installed with three settings:

- the highest setting will only allow software that comes directly from Apple and the app store to run

- the default setting will allow products from Apple as well as from independent developers who manage to acquire a certificate / signature from Apple.

- finally, you will be able to turn Gatekeeper off and run your machine without it (which is basically what you have right now)

This may have huge implications for schools who famously run a wildly diverse software ecosystem including freeware, open source products and software from major developers. I would guess that most independent or open source developers simply do not work through the process of acquiring these certificates. And while I am also sure that some of them (Firefox!) who are larger developers are most likely doing what they can right now to ensure they will not be locked out in an Apple upgrade, many will most likely be caught behind the curve.

Remember Palladium from Microsoft? About 10 years ago they tried this same type of initiative and the public outcry over the loss of control was overwhelming and forced them to back down. Will that happen to Apple? Or are people now so sick of viruses and malware that they are ready to accept this?

Learn it Yourself (LIY)

by Clarence Fisher 4 Comments

As 2011 was only a few days away from drawing to close, Ryan Deussing wrote an interesting post that has me thinking about classroom structure, information and the purpose of schools.

Deussing was reflecting on the open source movement and how it has taken over large parts of the web. Web servers, javascript, Open Office, browsers, etc are all open source movements. But Deussing has an interesting take on all of this:

“Today it all seems obvious. Information wants to be free. Open Source languages and tools are most developers’ first choice. Internet Explorer isn’t winning anymore. JavaScript is the lingua franca of the web – and so on. What’s easily overlooked, however, is that the Open Source revolution is rooted not in technology itself, but in learning. It’s the ease of observing how languages function and how programs are made – coupled with the ability to seek and openly share that information with others – that underpins the success of Open Source.”

The success of the open source movement is about many things but this is a side of it that I’ve never thought much about. Open source communities of all types succeed because of the passionate people involved in them. The community I’m most familiar with has gathered around WordPress. Thousands of people developing new ideas and capabilities. Trouble shooters of all kinds and people working on keeping the documentation up to date. The community is deep and global. The software itself is free and anyone with the time or inclination can tear it apart, bolt new capabilities on to it and share their creations with the world. Dozens of jobs are posted at online boards seeking developers, theme producers and plug in builders. An entire economy built around a free product.

But the key to all of this? The learning that happens around the software. Its built around the community that provides the documentation and the feedback for new experiments that happen. So how does this happen in classrooms? This has much to do with passion based learning and project based learning and inquiry driven classrooms. How do we help our kids find communities they can be a part of? How do we help them to be photographers and coders and designers and writers? How do we help them to find their place within these communities? There are many roles in each place and we need to help them to find their place.

Shopping with a Secret

by Clarence Fisher 3 Comments

I’ve got a 15 inch MacBook Pro as a laptop. After being through a string of laptops (I think 5 of them in 4 years), I’ve had this machine for 3 1/2 years. That’s got to be about 32 in laptop years. It’s a good machine and I’ve been very happy with it. But it’s time is coming. Not yet – but before too long. The screen does the long slow blink occasionally and sometimes leaves me wondering if it is coming back on.

So, I’m looking around.

While I’ve always been happy with the Apple stuff that I own, I’m not really a fanboy. We’ve got our fair share of it in the house (3 laptops and 3 ipods), but we’ve also got other goodies and gadgets. We’ve got kobo ereaders, an android tablet and now an android phone. I’ve never been deeply invested enough to go towards Apple tv or anything like that. But one thing that I’ve always appreciated with my Mac stuff is that it just works. I know when I buy a piece of software, 99% of the time its going to run – the first time. The machines rarely break down and combined with the time machine wireless port I’ve got, I know my stuff is pretty safe.

But I’m starting to have trouble with the cost of it all.

When I first started using Macs I was prepared to pay a premium. The computers were good and had a lot of features that others didn’t. This was back in the day when a machine with a DVD player in it was something special. The hardware was solid and I could push it pretty hard. But computing is changing. I’m not a gamer. Beyond basic video and photo editing, I’m not a graphics guy. Most of the work that I do is done online. So, although chipsets and graphics cards have gotten stronger and faster, I don’t really need them.

Which is why I’m thinking of leaving my Macs behind. It seems wasteful to pay $2 000 for a new MacBook Pro when I can get a decent Dell with Ubuntu installed on it for about $500. As I’ve gone deeper and deeper into working with things like WordPress, I’ve gained a deep appreciation for open source software and am constantly amazed by the depth of the communities involved. Which is why I’m looking at Ubuntu.

But here’s the secret part of this post: I’m really not much of a geek. If your computer (or mine for that matter) is broke down – I probably can’t fix it. And this is where moving to Ubuntu scares me. I’ve got little Linux experience and get frightened every time I visit a Linux website and find instructions that involve compiling software and doing some coding just to get things up and running. I just want things to work. Like all of you (and like Dean hates to hear us say), I’m incredibly busy. I don’t have time for my computer not to be working.

And this is of course just what Apple wants to hear me say. I’m locked into an Apple ecosystem. I’ve got an ipod and there is no Linux version of itunes. I’m wondering about getting my photos and videos off of this machine on to something different. If I bought a new Apple, one of the first screens that comes up when you turn it on asks if you want to transfer data from your old machine – how easy is that!

So I’m looking around, doing some shopping and some thinking. Its turned into a philosophical debate in my head about the value of open source software and the freedom to migrate your data where you want it. If you’ve got any Linux experience you can share with me, or any advice about migrating from Mac to Linux, I’d be interested in hearing your story.

Are Schools Cathedrals when they Should be Bazaars?

by Clarence Fisher 1 Comment

I’m reading a book about Wikipedia and somewhere around the half way point the author mentions the essay “The Cathedral and the Bazaar.” (pdf) Realizing I had never read this often mentioned discussion of open source projects and online development, I put the book down and instead took a 35 page side track through this work.

It has me thinking about classrooms, our purpose, and how they can be the most effective.

In this essay, the author places two ways to complete a project against each other. The cathedral, which is “carefully crafted by individual wizards or small bands of mages working in splendid isolation, with no beta to be released before its time,” struck me as the way that things are often done in curriculum development and in classrooms. Seeing our purpose as passing along knowledge, classrooms often labour along under (and as part of) a structure which is top heavy and slow moving. Everything is properly laid out and controlled. Contrast this with the “great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches,” that is often seen in things like open source software development and two very different systems emerge.

Schools have always been about finding “the best” (literature, scientific ideas, etc) that a society has to offer and passing them along to a younger generation. Yet with evidence of the growth and effectiveness of so many passion based communities involved in sharing their developments and innovations, I begin to wonder about the effectiveness of our system. Combine the bazaar, which has ideas running into each other, with Chris Anderson from TED who writes in this article about the power of crowd accelerated innovation and an understanding begins to emerge about another way education could be accomplished.

What happens when students have access to people and ideas around the globe in greater numbers? What happens when they begin to have real opportunities to work in passion based, global learning communities? What happens when they have more control over their learning? Would this put kids on paths of upward innovation spirals and engage them with learning?

These are powerful ideas for classrooms and for learning.

Platforms and Reading

by Clarence Fisher

First off, watch this:

Being a person who is passionate about literacy, information and connections, the possibilities this form of communication could bring are fascinating to me.

I’m especially interested in Nelson. I remember being amazed both in several of my english classes in university and as I learned about concepts of literacy as I began to understand that written meaning is built and constructed within a context that involves other people. The “problem” of course, is that it is often difficult to find other people to talk to about what you are reading. Nelson solves that problem. Imagine the possibilities of being able to see the comments of others in your reading group, your class, or around the world about a piece of text you are studying. Connecting classrooms with real time global discussions.

I’m fascinated by being able to display the context and comments of others, adding their thoughts to the text, making even reading alone a richer experience. On the other side, being able to see the works referenced by a piece, as well as others that reference the piece you are reading adds a broader perspective, giving a reader further spaces to pursue information more deeply, giving you access to a field of knowledge instead of a single piece of writing.

Changing tools such as these visions for the book lead us into other ideas as well. At what point does literacy become a truly shared act that is incomplete without the input of others? What happens to comprehension when readers have expanded control over such things as the layout, discussions and additional tools?

This also reminds of this concept video which was posted two years ago envisioning the future of the web browser:

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

As we move towards more flexible concepts of platform, presentation and interactive tools, I wonder about the continuing redefinition of literacy. Will literacy be platform dependent? Will it be defined by corporations? Will schools be teaching kids to read “the Apple way” or “the Microsoft way?” Will reading platforms be open source allowing for customization and fair use? What happens if they aren’t?

We’re on the edge of something truly huge here and we’re only seeing the barest edge of it right now.

Open and Closed Networks

by Clarence Fisher

A lot of talk this weekend on blogs and twitter about Apple’s new wonder product, the iPad. Short of living under a very large rock in the bottom of a cave, I’m certain that you know all about it. Wired magazine has posted a great article about tablets and how the iPad has the possibility of leading change in the model of computing that we have. It’s worth your time to take a look at.

I’ve noticed many people talking with concern about the iPad being a closed space which will discourage innovation. This has given me pause to think. I’ve done some research and learned a bit over the last few years about networks, knowledge, change and growth. I have always and consistently been an advocate for open information spaces and opening up classroom networks to the world. While some people worry about the consequences of this, I worry about the consequences of not doing so. Time after time, I have seen classrooms that start blogging or working online in other ways close themselves off from the world out of fear, and their networks; which at first seem successful, struggle to evolve and then slowly die.

While not a Linux or coding geek, I use enough open source software (Scratch, Gimp, Phun, Audacity, NeoOffice, etc) to truly appreciate the spaces that open source innovation makes possible. I understand how global projects like these push the boundaries of the possible and allow for innovation and spin off projects to emerge. In opposition to the open source model, Apple has been accused of being a closed system or loop and this is very true. My MacBook Pro and my wife’s MacBook Air seamlessly hook up and back up to our Airport base station’s harddrive at home. We can easily share music and files between our machines. We have three iPods at our house and the link between them, iTunes and our laptops allows us to buy and download music, applications, tv shows and podcasts by the hundreds. We are considering an iPad when they arrive in Canada at the end of the month (but, honestly, I think I’ll wait for an upgrade closer to Christmas… Version 2 of whatever Apple sells is always better). This closed loop has allowed the media patterns in our house to change and emerge in a different way. We can now consume content in all sorts of ways. This closed loop is easy to use and generally works flawlessly. As long as I am willing to continue paying the price, I will have a great media consumption system. Great for the average consumer or even a hyperconnected family like ours.

But make no mistake, there is a vast difference between media consumption and media production. My platform may be the closed network of Apple products, but when it comes to production, gears get switched. I use WordPress and open source themes on my blogs. My flickr photos, Youtube videos and blog posts are all licensed under Creative Commons. I like to use Gimp for editing photos, Scratch and Phun for animations and NeoOffice for all of my word processing needs. I love Audacity for making mp3s and troll sites like Jamendo incessantly when I am looking for music to use.

All of my tools for production are open source and free.

I believe that we are seeing a two – tiered system emerge. A pay system that charges premium prices for media, for tools and for information. These systems are slick, easy to use; and are often closed networks. These communities can have dramatic scale, users in the millions, and depend on their growth and their scale to survive. They are large enough to seem like open networks although in reality they are closed; but simply too large to see the edges. These communities are filled with all sorts of customers from newbies to power users. They are concerned mostly with media consumption. While certainly production takes place in these networks, the tools can be prohibitively expensive.

As well, are seeing large scale open networks. Ning communities, twitter, Linux, Wikipedia and RSS are all examples of tools and spaces that operate outside of “official” knowledge and production networks. These communities also scale. They may be global, but are often more tribal, based on interest and not geography. The tools for media consumption and production are built by users and are sometimes not as slick as those from the other community; but they may also be more often powerful and customizable. These open networks need time and attention from their users in order to be maintained. They are based on merit and not on who can afford the purchase price.

These two visions of networks potentially have massive implications for education. Companies often offer for sale closed networks of software and hardware for learning. They are expensive, well packaged and marketed, easy to maintain and promise easy solutions. On the other hand, open networks of hardware, software and connections can be more difficult to construct and maintain, but are available at lower cost and contain authentic voices.

Open vs. closed is certainly a continuum. Some schools, classrooms or districts use some software that is open source while other pieces may be proprietary. The same is true of the learning networks that teachers and students develop. Some schools close off the information spaces of their teachers and students, filtering tools and internet service heavily, while others are more open. I believe there are long term consequences of all of these decisions.

Make Magazine says best: “If you can’t open it up, you don’t really own it.”

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcnbits/155906486/sizes/m/

Whose Vision?

by Clarence Fisher 2 Comments

George Mayo sent a link out on twitter this AM to an article in the New York Times about how textbooks get made. More specifically, the article focused on the Christian right in Texas pushing the agenda of ensuring that the US founding fathers and founding documents are portrayed as being centred on church and God.

While obviously not in Texas, I have been involved in the process of choosing resources that get approved for use in schools in my own province. It’s an interesting process. Manitoba on its own is a small market and we always had to choose books that fit in with our provincial curricula. Most of them came from Ontario. Much of that changed when the Western and Northern Canadian protocol was signed in 1993, bringing together the Western side of Canada into a single area which develops curricula together. This also means that resources get chosen together. While education in Canada is a provincial responsibility, the western provinces decided that to allow for greater ease of mobility among students, and to “ramp up” their buying power and influence, they would work in concert. While their are some differences between the provinces when it comes to curricula and approved resources, they are very much the same.

But what happens when we throw technology into this mix? What happens when teachers have access to information from around the globe? What effect will it have on classrooms and teachers when open source curricula resources coming from many places gain traction and prominence?

One solid historical reason for the development of public schooling across North America was to assimilate immigrants and to assert a national narrative upon a population. When information was scarce, this was easy to do. Departments of education approved textbooks that were used in the classroom almost exclusively as “the” source of story and information. Now fast forward to today’s information laden society where the textbooks are still approved, bought and placed in classrooms. In many places they are still heavily used. But at what cost to learning? Textbooks give one story, one narrative. As much as people may yearn for things to be simple and for there to be ONE story; there just isn’t. Nations are complex places filled with multiple narratives. In Canada, each province has its own story of confederation and how it ended up being part of the whole. There is a provincial story and a national story. Many places have a regional story as well. This is not even considering the perception that people in China or South Africa, or England have of the national story of Canada.

Now throw in a Kindle or an iPad or a sub $500 netbook or a smart phone and the debates in classrooms where textbooks might be present and juxtaposed against whatever can be found online could quickly become interesting. National narratives and agendas become endangered in this type of information based society with continual access. Open global debate and understanding become possible if people are willing to expand where they get their information from and listen to other voices.

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