1 |
The OpenIsis society was founded in October 2002 to further the |
2 |
development and dissemination of open source information systems. |
3 |
We support libraries, archives and other public organizations |
4 |
like social movements to manage and retrieve information in a |
5 |
high quality way according to bibliographical principles. |
6 |
|
7 |
|
8 |
Most important is the |
9 |
> OpenIsis |
10 |
database system which was developed by our members since May 2001. |
11 |
OpenIsis is the open source member of the |
12 |
> IsisIntro CDS/ISIS |
13 |
> CdsIsis software family. |
14 |
|
15 |
|
16 |
* who needs quality information systems? |
17 |
|
18 |
Well ... everybody who has quality information. |
19 |
Traditional examples are libraries, where librarians invest much |
20 |
knowledge and experience to make you find the book you need. |
21 |
While the large libraries have a long track of using and developing |
22 |
bibliographic databases, many organizations like worker's unions, |
23 |
charity organizations and social movements have smaller archives |
24 |
of their publications, which ought to be as well accessible. |
25 |
|
26 |
|
27 |
Even for the purely virtual web-archives, newsgroups and mailing lists, |
28 |
it is increasingly understood, that the power of search engines needs |
29 |
to be augmented by quality metadata to be retrieved reliably. |
30 |
Dublin Core and the Resource Description Framework are examples |
31 |
of such approaches based on bibliographical principles. |
32 |
|
33 |
|
34 |
* who needs open source information systems? |
35 |
|
36 |
Many individuals, organizations and institutions can't afford |
37 |
the commercial bibliographic database systems, |
38 |
where even small site licenses start at about 10.000 US$. |
39 |
Therefore, |
40 |
> http://www.unesco.org/webworld/isis/ UNESCO's CDS/ISIS |
41 |
, which is available for a nominal fee, is in widespread use, |
42 |
where the budgets are low. |
43 |
|
44 |
|
45 |
Our |
46 |
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html free software |
47 |
is not only free of charge, but also free of restrictions. |
48 |
It enables the users to build on it, to improve it, |
49 |
to adopt it to their needs rather than being dependent |
50 |
on the original developers. |
51 |
To close the "digital gap", access to *both* the content |
52 |
and the software is needed. |
53 |
|
54 |
|
55 |
* what about the "Information Society"? |
56 |
|
57 |
Even the techies and librarians at rather well-equiped universities |
58 |
in the US or Europe, which are working on new ways to publish |
59 |
and manage free content, like the |
60 |
> http://www.openarchives.org/ Open Archives Initiative |
61 |
or the |
62 |
> http://oc4s.org/ Open Community for Science |
63 |
, do not have access to the code of existing commercial systems. |
64 |
Following the Linux Economy, we may find that open source |
65 |
is the basis for progress ... |
66 |
|
67 |
|
68 |
|
69 |
... News |