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Materials for PRing aTutor



  • 2004-05-28 21:27:10

    Materials for PRing aTutor

    There is to be a Moodle / Webct / aTutor introduction and comparison symposium at the Japanese Association of Language Teachers which is to be held
    next Saturday a week today on the 5th of June at Mito about one hour by train from Tokyo, Japan.

    I am meant to be giving the introduction to aTutor but sadly I am far from expert in its use. I am not even sure where I can find a list of aTutor's many features other than the change log.
    http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/change_log.php

    I would be very grateful of any materials for the purpose of introducing and PRing aTutor. I will share what I have made after the event.

    Tim
    Timothy Takemoto


  • 2004-05-28 21:31:32

    Of particular interest would be

    If anyone knows any references to

    Atutors committment, promises, or otherwise, to mainting ATutor as a free software system.

    The philosophy of ATutor, particularly the reasons and thinking behind its particular emphasis on Accessability and standards. I can list the elements of the philosophy as I understand them but perhaps there is somewhere a sort of manefesto or overal vision.

    Any comparisons between ATutor and the other systems mentioned above.

    Tim


  • 2004-05-29 20:26:45

    See the articles on the links page

    Lots of references on the Links page.

    Once GPL, always GPL...

    See the philosophy for the full stiryhttp://www.atutor.ca/philosophy.php

    Everything your need to know can be found on atutor.ca. Try the search tool, top left...


  • 2004-06-02 22:52:52

    Philosophy Link and GPL

    Dear Greg,

    Thank you very much for the philosophy link. I would like you to know however that I did search for some things before I asked. I found the external reviews page subsequent to my request above. I have yet to find anything on this site. "ppt" yeilds nothing for instance.

    Greg wrote
    > Once GPL, always GPL....
    As far as I am aware the GPL licence means that even if you should start to sell ATutor we are free to use ATutor up to that point in the branch.

    What can happen, however, (and If I were a programmer, I could seem myself doing this, yes sir) is that a software is released under GPL and then when it gets to a point were it can be released commerciallly the final product is realeased commercially.

    Wordfast tranlsation software (which was admittedly never open source) and Red Hat Linux have something in common with this model. Perhaps even WebCT followed this development model??

    It would be nice to know before hand if the developer intends to take that sort of path. I don't think that I would have bothered to use Wordfast, and perhaps not installed Red Hat Linux had I know that they were to be commercial products in the near future (even if previous branches are still available free under a GPL licence in the case of Red Hat).

    If a programmer is intending to release a product commercially at some time in the future then it may well help not to say so, since the community is likely to grow more if there is a perception that there will always be free (i.e. miraculously generou) support.

    If however programmer is (because he or she has other sources of income perhaps) intending to keep a certain software free forever and not turn it into a commercial venture then that programmer would be advised, I feel, to trumpet this intention to the hills.

    So please I beg to ask once more do you intend to keep mainting ATutor as a free software system?

    Sincerely

    Timothy


  • 2004-06-03 08:47:17

    Once GPL, always GPL....

    There will always be a free version of ATutor, like there is always a free version of Redhat (see Fedora). RedHat does have a commercial branch. They do have to support themselves.

    Once a product becomes GPL, it must remain GPL. But that does not prevent developers from offering commercial services, or even package enhanced versions of the product for a fee.

    Yes we plan on developing a commercial arm of ATutor, but that does not mean ATutor will no longer be free. If ATutor is to survive we no choice but to generate revenues keep the project going. Any sound open source business model will include revenue generating strategies.

    BTW WebCT was never GPL.


  • 2004-06-03 09:21:01

    Thank you

    Dear Greg,

    Thank you very much your candid response. As I say, if it were me I would definately wish to reap the fruits of clearly very considerable effort. And there are clearly many ways of doing this. It is great to here that ATutor is likely to remain free in some form.

    Tim


  • 2004-06-04 06:37:53

    Free and Free Version

    Thinking about it though, and after having looked through an other open source (L)CMS this does seem to be a bit of a difference.

    1) Atutor likely to have a business model like that of Red hat (presumably a free version and an "enterprise" version of some sort).

    2) There are other (L)CMSs that intend to survive financially only through support contracts of a completely free product.

    I know that there need be no competition here. The products are all seperate. And I also know that the above two are not clearly divided.

    One might say, or hope, that an "enterprise" edition is merely a supported version of the free edition, and that if anything the free edition has more functionality. Fedora is the "bleeding edge" version of Red Hat. The Enterprise edition is a supported version of that, perhaps.

    All the same, I think that this is an issue of prime concern to educators. I know it is. My bosses have said so with regard to open source.

    And there is always a degree of uncertainty in any venture.

    But I have two quotes one above from Greg and another which is somewhat different. Basically the presence or absence of the word "version." Splitting hairs perhaps, but when it comes to an issue of this importance, perhaps splitting hairs is in order.

    I don't suppose there will be any more bids, more toward 2, with the absence of the word "version"?!

    Of course on the other hand, a commericial company with a stable commercial product has on the other hand a lot to commend itself.

    Please leave it at the above if appropriate.

    Tim


  • 2004-06-04 08:41:46

    Always Free

    ATutor will always be free. I'm not sure where you came up with the idea that we would eventually be selling or licensing ATutor by any other means than GPL. As a condition of GPL we can not do that.

    We've played with the idea of creating a convenience bundled version for licensing that includes supporting software such as Apache/MySQL, ATutor addons, and perhaps other licenced commercial products that run with ATutor, and an installer that installs everything. Any GPL software available in the bundle will still be available for free if users want to download the pieces and install them themselves. And, we may introduce a subscription service that gives members access to live updates, prepackaged content, and various other benefits.

    I mentioned Redhat only in response to your suggestion. We are not basing ATutor on a Redhat business model, though we fully intend on making ATutor a business venture by offering various development, hosting, and other support services for groups who need our help to implement or maintain our free software. For those who can maintain ATutor themselves, the software will always be available without charge.

    Hope that settles your concerns.