Open Source Software Licensing for Research and Education

1. Using Openly Licensed Works Published by Others (1 hour)

1. Introduction to open licensing concepts - Definition of open source, open data, open content - Importance of open licensing for research and education
2. Understanding license types - Proprietary licenses - Open source (permissive) licenses: MIT, BSD, Apache, etc. - Open source (copyleft) licenses: GPL, LGPL, MPL
3. License compatibility and composability - Understanding license compatibility - Implications of license directionality - Combining code, data, and content under different licenses
4. Practical considerations for using third-party open works - Identifying and complying with license terms - Attribution and citation requirements - Source code availability and modifiability

2. Licensing Your Own Works (1 hour)

1. Why license your research outputs? - Reproducibility, transparency, and scientific norms - Enabling collaboration and building on existing work
2. Licensing code, data, and other content types - Considerations for licensing software - Licensing options for research data - Creative Commons licenses for text, media, and other content
3. Choosing an appropriate open license - Factors to consider (use case, audience, commercialization, etc.) - Academic and research use cases - Institutional policies and processes
4. Working with the technology transfer office - Understanding institutional IP policies - Navigating the licensing process - Negotiating open licensing for research outputs

3. Collaborating in Open Source Research Teams (1 hour)

1. Benefits and challenges of open source collaboration - Community contributions and code sustainability - Coordination and communication overhead
2. License considerations for collaborative projects - Inbound: understanding licenses of third-party components - Outbound: choosing a license for collaborative outputs - License proliferation and managing dependencies
3. Tools and practices for open source collaboration - Version control systems (Git, GitHub, etc.) - Contribution guidelines and governance models - Open science frameworks and platforms
4. Building and sustaining an open source community - Attracting and retaining contributors - Leveraging open source for research dissemination and impact - Open source sustainability models

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyright © 2024, Lorena A. Barba.