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MIT Press Book On Open Source Now Free

Posted by kdawson on from the as-in-beer dept.

eaglemoon writes "MIT Press has released its book Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software as a free PDF download. The book is a collection of research essays covering topics such as open source motivation, economics, business models, software development process and tools, law, and community. Sort of like 'Open Sources' from academics. David Parnas, Larry Lessig, Eric von Hippel, and Clay Shirky are among the contributors."

7 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Free? by omeomi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So, is anybody going to argue that it's not "free" because you can't edit and redistribute it yourself?

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    ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
    1. Re:Free? by omeomi · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh goody! I, for one, can't wait until people start arguing that free beer isn't free, because you can't open, modify, and then redistribute it legally. That will make the whole "free as in beer" argument so much more exciting.

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      ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
  2. Direct link to pdf by LotsOfPhil · · Score: 3, Informative

    Direct link to pdf

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    This post climbed Mt. Washington.
  3. not to nitpick but... by east+coast · · Score: 4, Insightful

    MIT has made a ton of stuff free to the unwashed masses. Is this a big deal simply because it involves open source or is this a really noteworthy book like "Design Patterns" or "Code Complete"?

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    Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
    1. Re:not to nitpick but... by morgret · · Score: 3, Informative

      MIT isn't the only one offering their courses to the masses for free. Many institutions, both K12 and higher ed, have their courses online now. Of those, many have the Creative Commons licenses that can allow for remixing the content. http://www.oercommons.org/oer/oer-providers has everything from Free High School Science Texts from South Africa to webcasts from UC Berkeley to MIT's OpenCourseWare, as well as dozens of other sources.

  4. MIT and Openness by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 4, Informative

    MIT publishes a magazine called Technology Review, which I have been a reader of for some time now. There came a time a few years back when they required a subscription to view online material, much like Scientific American and many other magazines do. This was after the school had begun their OpenCourseWare program, and I thought it seemed contrary to where the school was headed. I emailed the magazine and told them essentially that. I have no idea if my email played a part (I'm sure it was one of many similar emails--Technology Review really is a great magazine (one I'd be willing to pay for if I wasn't so darn poor...I'm a student)). But anyway, within a few days, the content was all freely accessable again.

  5. This is an excellent book... by cursorx · · Score: 3, Informative

    I bought this a while back when it was fresh. Some of the articles are very, very good. But a considerable part of the content was already free back then, only not as a part of the book (i.e. the authors themselves had made some of the articles freely available before publication).