The last few years, I have had the students in my Software Development
Process course work in an existing FOSS project. I was planning that
again, but have been approached about another project and am trying to
decide whether to do it, and how to handle it.
Worcester State University has entered into a partnership with the
Worcester Art Museum[1], with a faculty member on our campus named to
the position of Presidential Fellow for Arts, Education and Community.
This person has contacted me about a request from the museum to have our
CS students develop an app or apps to support a major re-installation of
their extensive collection of Old Masters works. They are planning a
salon-style installation similar to the one at the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston[2]. The impression that I get from our discussions so far is that
they want an app that lets patrons view catalog information about the
exhibit, and comment/post about their own impressions/experiences of the
works and participate in extended asynchronous conversation about the
exhibit. I am intrigued by this project and am seriously considering it
as the semester project for my Software Development Process course.
I have not met with the WAM staff yet, but I have been thinking about
the project, and written a list of questions to ask them when we do
meet. Some of these are questions that I think I need more information
on before we meet. I am hoping that TOS will have some answers, or at
least opinions and/or advice.
1. I am still hoping to incorporate FOSS into this project. The first
idea would be to find an existing FOSS project that does something
similar to what they are looking for, and use/adapt that software and
contribute our work back to the project. If you know of any project that
sounds remotely simliar to the (somewhat vague) description I've given,
I'd love to hear about it and investigate it.
2. If we have to develop it from scratch, it would be nice to release
this as a FOSS project that other museums could use/adapt for their own
exhibits.
3. I am concerned about being stuck maintaining the project, once the
semester has ended and the students have graduated. Adapting existing
software may help with this problem, as there would (hopefully) be a
community support it. Starting our own project for this is not going to
solve this problem, at least in the short term.
4. How to handle the Intellectual Property?
1. Obviously, the static content (catalog material) created by WAM
staff will be owned by WAM.
2. Patron-generated content (comments, posts, etc.) probably
becomes property of WAM as well, but there will have to be an
appropriate legal statement to that effect, that the user will have to
agree to before using the app.
3. The program code itself is a bigger question.
1. I don't believe that WAM will own it - since the students
and I are not being paid/under contract to produce this, it is not "work
for hire."
2. If WAM wants to own the code - there would have to be a
contract that all the students (and I) would sign, that would transfer
ownership as a donation to the museum.
3. I know that any portions of the code that I produce are
owned by me - this is specified in our faculty contract. I can, however,
license or transfer it to someone else at my discretion.
4. I believe that any portions of the code that the students
produce are owned by them, but they could license or transfer it.
- This may be complicated by the use of University
resources in developing the code. That may give WSU some claim. I need
to investigate this.
5. My preferred solution would be to license the code under an
open source license. But who would own it?
- I guess WAM could, but I'm not sure if they would want
the liability.
- I guess WSU could. I can investigate that.
- How do most projects handle this? Do they create some
sort of legal entity to own the code, and have all contributors license
their contribution to that entity?
Lots of questions. If you have any opinions or advice, I would
appreciate it.
Thanks.
[1] http://worcesterart.org/
[2]
http://www.mfa.org/collections/featured-galleries/european-painting-1550-1700-and-hanoverian-silver
--
__________________________________________________
Karl R. Wurst Ph.D., Professor and Chair
Computer Science, Worcester State University
486 Chandler Street, Worcester, MA, USA 01602-2597
Email: karl.wu...@worcester.edu
Web: http://sharepoint.worcester.edu/faculty/kwurst
Phone: +1-508-929-8728
Fax: +1-508-929-8156
_______________________________________________
tos mailing list
tos@teachingopensource.org
http://lists.teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos
