Blogs: Open Source at Oregon State University

Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 02:25 PM

The Open Source Lab at Oregon State University exists to help accelerate the adoption of open source software across the globe and aid the community that develops and uses it. The OSL's students and full-time staff do this by focusing on software development as well as hosting the world's largest open source projects.

The Open Source Lab is located in the newly renovated Valley Library on the beautiful OSU campus in Corvallis, Oregon.

Our goal is to help promote collaboration through the nurturing and development of software projects across like-minded institutions. Our experience and world-class infrastructure helps seed development efforts across these communities, which enables them to move forward with investments in open source software that leverage open standards. The more people we can have working together, the more value we can help the world realize.

What is Open Source?

The Vision

The Oregon State University Open Source Lab is a global, world-class facility and data center for Open Source Software (OSS) knowledge, hosting, infrastructure, development, and collaboration. The Open Source Lab fosters the development of unique OSS products, as well as directly assists in the development, implementation, and use of targeted OSS solutions for use in education, research, government, and business. By working closely with the OSU community, other universities, governments, and private sector business, the OSU Open Source Lab is quickly becoming a critical worldwide center for services related to Open Source software.

The Mission

The core mission of the OSU Open Source Lab can be summed up with the following:

* Create an atmosphere of innovation for students, faculty and staff by providing an open, diverse environment for development and collaboration.
* Provide unique learning opportunities for graduates wanting to learn the vocabulary of Open Source.
* Collaborate with public and private institutions to better understand and develop Open Source software.
* Bolster the return on investment to the State and local economy by helping promote and build tools and products that our constituents can use.

The OSL and the Community

Open Source projects today are held together by shoe string budgets and questionable infrastructure. Innovation needs a solid foundation to grow upon and the OSL brings that in the form of development experience, world-class infrastructure, and the willingness to always do the right thing for the community.

Bringing the open source community together both physically and virtually is about enabling cross-pollination, economies of scale and the fostering of new and exciting projects. By focusing our energies on our "main thing" we allow other projects to do the same. We shorten the open source transaction time with innovative tools and a globally- distributed infrastructure that services these communities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.
Defining our Success

The Open Source community has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 5 years. It has been an amazing thing to watch. As the community grows, its members begin to depend on services provided by projects that become critical to the life of a piece of software. The OSL hopes to become a key component to the open source life cycle by providing reliable infrastructure and knowledge that others can leverage. The success of the OSL hinges on the satisfaction of our customers: participants of the open source community.

More Information

Open Source Development Labs, Beaverton, Oregon.
OSDL - home to Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux - is dedicated to accelerating the growth and adoption of Linux in the enterprise.

OSDL Higher Education OSS Projects

This new program is designed to connect colleges and universities with other academic institution's and the IT industry to improve opportunities for open source projects and to accelerate Linux research and development.

Under the program, accredited universities and colleges can join OSDL as Academic Affiliates and participate along with their corporate peers in initiatives such as the OSDL Carrier Grade Linux, Data Center Linux and Desktop Linux working groups. The goal is to provide a forum where commercial Linux vendors and the academic Linux community can come together to share ideas and address common problems. In addition, university researchers can access the OSDL’s data center computing facilities in the United States and Japan.

• Kobe Institute of Computing
• Marist College
• National University of Defense Technology
• Oregon State University
• Portland State University
• Stanford University
• Tokyo University of Technology
• University of Helsinki
• Wakkanai Hokusei Gakuen College
• Waseda University