Pla docent

Academic year 2014-15

Projects Based on Open Source Software

Degree:	Code:	Type:
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science	21434	Optional subject
Bachelor's Degree in Telematics Engineering	21773	Optional subject
Bachelor's Degree in Audiovisual Systems Engineering	22676	Optional subject

ECTS credits:

Workload:

100 hours

Trimester:

1st

Department:	Dept. of Information and Communication Technologies
Coordinator:	Joan Codina
Teaching staff:	Joan Codina
Language:	English
Timetable:
Building:	Communication campus - Poblenou

Introduction

This course is intended to be a place where the students get a critical view of different aspects of software production and licensing. The way to force thoughts is by comparing the traditional model and the open source one.

Some of the subjects about open source will be put into practice by means of an active participation and contribution to an open source software. The Students are required to interact with the community and perform a new development on the selected platform. In the course there will be technical support about the project selected, but it is required that students are able to look for the information needed.

Prerequisites

There are no specific prerequisites, only that you've passed the programming subjects of first/ second year.

Associated competences

Cross-disciplinary competences	Specific competences
Instrumentals G2. Capacitat d'organització i planificació nous coneixements i tècniques G3. Capacitat per aplicar els coneixements a l'anàlisi de situacions i la resolució problemes G5. Habilitat en la presa de decisions G4. Habilitat en la cerca i la gestió de la informació Interpersonals G9. Capacitat de treball en contextos internacionals i interdisciplinaris G8. Capacitat de treball en equip Sistèmiques G11. Capacitat d'aplicar amb flexibilitat i creativitat els coneixements adquirits i d'adaptar-los a contextos i situacions noves G13. Capacitat per reconèixer i comprendre la diversitat i la multiculturalitat	Competències Específiques Professionals H4. Aprendre de manera autònoma nous coneixements i tècniques adequats per a la concepció, el desenvolupament o l'explotació de sistemes informàtics. P5. Coneixements per a la realització de mesuraments, càlculs, valoracions, taxacions, peritatges, estudis, informes, planificació de tasques i altres treballs anàlegs. Competències Específiques d'Enginyeria en Informàtica IN11. Conèixer els diferents models de cicle de vida del programari. Conèixer i saber aplicar una metodologia concreta d'enginyeria del programari a totes les fases del cicle de vida.

Cross-disciplinary competences

Specific competences

Instrumentals

G2. Capacitat d'organització i
planificació nous coneixements i tècniques

G3. Capacitat per aplicar els
coneixements a l'anàlisi de
situacions i la resolució
problemes

G5. Habilitat en la presa de
decisions

G4. Habilitat en la cerca i la
gestió de la informació

Interpersonals

G9. Capacitat de treball en
contextos internacionals i
interdisciplinaris

G8. Capacitat de treball en equip
Sistèmiques

G11. Capacitat d'aplicar amb
flexibilitat i creativitat els
coneixements adquirits i
d'adaptar-los a contextos i
situacions noves

G13. Capacitat per reconèixer i
comprendre la diversitat i la
multiculturalitat

Competències Específiques Professionals

H4. Aprendre de manera autònoma
nous coneixements i tècniques
adequats per a la concepció, el
desenvolupament o l'explotació de
sistemes informàtics.

P5. Coneixements per a la realització
de mesuraments, càlculs, valoracions,
taxacions, peritatges, estudis,
informes, planificació de tasques i
altres treballs anàlegs.

Competències Específiques d'Enginyeria
en Informàtica

IN11. Conèixer els diferents models de
cicle de vida del programari. Conèixer
i saber aplicar una metodologia
concreta d'enginyeria del programari a
totes les fases del cicle de vida.

Assessment

The grading is done taking into consideration the three thematic blocks.

The FOSS block (40%) is distributed between preparing the debates and the quality of the opinions expressed (15%) , the summaries of these debates (15%) and some quizzes that are performed before the session to ensure that everybody has prepared the contents (10%).

The the technical block (20%) (recuperable) is obtained from some exercises of documentation and demonstration of knowledge of the techniques needed to perform the improvements.

The block of interaction with an open source project (40%) (recuperable) In this block the students must perform a homework in groups. 15% of the grade is from the design and evaluation of the cost of the improvement, 5% from the interaction with the community and 20% is the evaluation of the modification itself.

There is no exam.

Block of Contents 1: FOSS.

Free open source software, analysis of the different aspects of licensing, economic model, community, development and other aspects in comparison with the classical model:

− What is open source

− Software Licenses

− Open source development model and tools

− How to modify an open source project

− Open source commercialization models

− Public sector and open source software and standards

− Choosing the right open source project

− How to migrate to Open Source

Block of Contents 2: Interact with an open source project

− Select an open source project

− Get a basic understanding of the project

− Define an improvement to perform / check it with the community / Evaluate the cost of this improvement

− Perform the improvement and give it to the community

Block of Contents 3: Technical background

The content of this block depends on the open source project selected and are a set of sessions to help the users to understand the techniques that are use in the project and perform the reverse engineering needed.

Methodology

Each block has its own methodology.

− The FOSS block is based on debates held on the classroom, that have to be prepared in advance by a group of students. After the debate that group of students will have to perform a summary of the opinions expressed. For the debate the next materials /activities are provided:

In the classroom: There is an Space for debate and discussions. Evaluated by peers
Guided work: reading of the provided materials, perform the quiz
Autonomous work: find and report extra information about the subjects under study.

− The technical part, the teacher will give some guidelines but, it is expected from the students to use wiki in order to, in a collaborative way, document the way that the software package to modify is structured, and how to make the changes on it. Also the development environment must be set up and well documented. In many other courses the working environment is setup and the students only have to focus on the programming exertion. In this course they are prompt to find the right tools and set up a working environment that they can use for the development.

In the classroom: The teacher offers support to help them to find the solutions to the technical problems they have
Students have to set-up a development environment and document together the solutions to the different issues they will find.
Autonomous work: Many students may want to use different environments, and they will need to adapt the technical issues to their needs.

The block of interaction with a FOSS project, the students will be guided and supported in their activity by the teacher, but they have to do the interaction with the community to find the right solutions.

In the classroom: The teacher explains the tasks to perform and offers support to do them.
Guided work: Design and programing of the improvements
Autonomous work: They have to use the community to solve some of the doubts and problems they may found during the design and development tasks

	In-class activity			Out-of-class activity
Blocks	Full group	Medium group	Small group
Block 1	18			18
Block 2		8		12
Block 3			10	34
Total:	18	8	10	64	Total: 100

Resources

During the course different documents, news, blogs... will be referenced as source of information to introduce the themes and perform the debates.