Unit 3 Power Point: Information Systems Management

Open Source Software Research Project

Research an open source software project. Examples of open source projects are listed on page 123 of your textbook. You are not restricted to the open source projects listed on page 123; you may research one of your own choosing that interests you.

In MS PowerPoint, create a presentation with slides that describe the open source software and how it works. Discuss the role this open source software has in management information systems.

Remember, management information systems is the management and use of information systems that help organizations achieve their strategies (page 10 of your textbook).

Your PowerPoint must have a minimum of four slides. Be sure to use the 7X7 rule in PowerPoint: no more than 7 lines per slide and no more than 7 words per line. Use of images, graphics, and diagrams is required. Be sure to include your sources on a references slide in APA format.

Kroenke, D. (2015). Using MIS 2014 [VitalSource Bookshelf version] (7th ed.). Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781323290989

Page 123:

Figure 4-10 Software Sources and Types

Because of the risk and expense, custom development is the last-choice alternative, used only when there is no other option.  Figure 4-10  summarizes software sources and types.

What Is Firmware?

Firmware is computer software that is installed into devices such as printers, print servers, and various types of communication devices. The software is coded just like other software, but it is installed into special, read-only memory of the printer or other device. In this way, the program becomes part of the device’s memory; it is as if the program’s logic is designed into the device’s circuitry. Therefore, users do not need to load firmware into the device’s memory.

Firmware can be changed or upgraded, but this is normally a task for IS professionals. The task is easy, but it requires knowledge of special programs and techniques that most business users choose not to learn.

Q3 Is open source software a viable alternative?

To answer this question, you first need to know something about the open source movement and process. Most computer historians would agree that Richard Matthew Stallman is the father of the movement. In 1983, he developed a set of tools called  GNU  (a self-referential acronym meaning GNU Not Unix) for creating a free Unix-like operating system. Stallman made many other contributions to open source, including the  GNU general public license (GPL) agreement , one of the standard license agreements for open source software. Stallman was unable to attract enough developers to finish the free Unix system, but continued making other contributions to the open source movement.

In 1991, Linus Torvalds, working in Helsinki, began work on another version of Unix, using some of Stallman’s tools. That version eventually became Linux, the high-quality and very popular operating system discussed previously.

The Internet proved to be a great asset for open source, and many open source projects became successful, including:

· • Open Office (a Microsoft Office look-alike)

· • Firebox (a browser)

· • MySQL (a DBMS, see  Chapter 5 )

· • Apache (a Web server, see  Chapter 6 )

· • Ubuntu (a Windows-like desktop operating system)

· • Android (a mobile-device operating system)

· • Cassandra (a NoSQL DBMS, see  Chapter 5 )

· • Hadoop (a BigData processing system, see  Chapter 9 )