Apache Software Foundation (ASF)

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3 Emerging Tipping Points in Open Source

Over the last two decades, open source has been expanding into all aspects of technology-from software to hardware; from small, disruptive startups to large, boring enterprises; from open standards to open patents. As movements evolve, they reach tipping points-stages that move the model in new directions. Following are three things that I believe are now reaching a tipping point in open source. As the name suggests, the open source model has mainly been focused on the source code. On the surface, that's probably because open source communities are usually made up of developers working on the source code, and the tools used in open source projects, such as source control systems, issue trackers, mailing list names, chat channel names, etc., all assume that developers are the center of the universe.

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A Perspective of Open Source Licensing Models for the Health Care Industry

Recently, I've had several interesting conversations about how business models based on open source technologies apply to the healthcare industry. While a lot has been written on the subject, I aim to provide a concise summary and some of my personal perspectives on the matter. This article discusses the definition of open source technology and licensing models; a second article will discuss governance models and applications in healthcare...In reality, it's hard to talk about open source licensing without talking about intellectual property (IP) and copyright. Copyright sums up the rights and obligations that the rightful owner associates with the work. The license describes the rights and obligations of any and everyone else, and can be as broad or as limited as the owner chooses.

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Affordable COVID-19 Diagnoses for Hospitals: How Open Source Software Helps

The most common COVID-19 symptoms—such as coughing, fever, and shortness of breath—are shared with many other diseases. Diagnosing a patient accurately is therefore a challenge. Although a diagnosis of COVID-19 might not affect treatment, it would help a hospital predict a patient's trajectory and anticipate the need for urgent intervention. But current tests, relying on blood or mucus samples, are not particularly accurate. In this article, we'll see how open source software can help hospitals make better diagnoses. I'll concentrate on one specific role, and on the ways open source facilitates finding a solution and keeping it affordable. Many aspects of the problem feed into the solution discussed here. The article is based on work by researcher Trevor Grant.

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Apache cTAKES natural-language-processing (NLP) system

Darryl Taft | eWeek | April 9, 2013

On April 9, it was announced that Apache cTAKES (clinical Text Analysis and Knowledge Extraction System) graduated from the Apache Incubator to become a top-level project (TLP). Apache cTAKES is an open-source natural-language-processing (NLP) system for information extraction from electronic medical record clinical free-text. Widely used in production by numerous organizations across the health care sector... Read More »

Apache Roadshow Conference to Take Place in Washington DC

Press Release | Apache Software Foundation, George Mason University | March 4, 2019

ApacheCon, the official conference series of The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), announced today the Apache Roadshow/DC, held in partnership with George Mason University (GMU)...The Apache Roadshow is held in cooperation with the Center for Assurance Research & Engineering (CARE) of the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University. The multidisciplinary school maintains a dual pre-eminence in both information technology and engineering and seeks to graduate students who will take initiative, step up, and leave the planet better than they found it.

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ApacheCon 2020 features Natural Language Processing for Electronic Medical Records in dedicated track on Apache cTAKES

Press Release | Apache Software Foundation | September 21, 2020

ApacheCon, the official conference series of The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the world's largest Open Source foundation, announced today its first dedicated track on Apache cTAKES. The track will be held on all three days of the ApacheCon@Home virtual conference, taking place online 29 September - 1 October 2020. Registration is free of charge for all participants and is required in advance to participate. Now in its 22nd year, ApacheCon is the primary gathering of the collective Apache community worldwide, drawing attendees from more than 130 countries. ApacheCon showcases the latest breakthroughs from dozens of Apache projects, upcoming innovations in the Apache Incubator, and sessions on developing community-led Open Source projects "The Apache Way".

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apifocal

apifocal is a professional services company with a core focus on open source technology. Our consultants are developers or contributors to quite a few open source projects at the Apache Software Foundation, but not only. Our consultants bring you not only in-depth knowledge of how the technologies you depend on actually work but deployed and fine-tuned them in many production environments.

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ASF Announces Singapore's Apache SINGA Deep Learning Tool as a Top-Level Project

Press Release | Apache Software Foundation (ASF) | November 4, 2019

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)...announced today Apache® SINGA™ as a Top-Level Project (TLP). Apache SINGA is an Open Source distributed, scalable machine learning library. The project was originally developed in 2014 at the National University of Singapore, and was submitted to the Apache Incubator in March 2015. "We are excited that SINGA has graduated from the Apache Incubator," said Wei Wang, Vice President of Apache SINGA and Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. "The SINGA project started at the National University of Singapore, in collaboration with Zhejiang University, focusing on scalable distributed deep learning. In addition to scalability, during the incubation process, built multiple versions to improve the project's usability and efficiency. Incubating SINGA at the ASF brought opportunities to collaborate, grew our community, standardize the development process, and more." Read More »

Black Duck Announces Ohloh Enhancements Providing New Visibility Into Open Source Activities Affiliated With Organizations, Expanded Code Search Capabilities

Press Release | Black Duck | October 25, 2012

Black Duck Software today announced enhancements to Ohloh, the world's most comprehensive developer resource for evaluating and tracking open source projects, contributors and code. Read More »

Citrix Takes XenServer Open Source

Sean Michael Kerner | ServerWatch | June 25, 2013

The world of fully open-sourced virtualized infrastructure is getting a new entrant today. Citrix is making the latest XenServer 6.2 release available under the GNU GPL v2 open source license. Read More »

Coopetition: All's Fair in Love and Open Source

PostgreSQL vs. MySQL. MongoDB vs. Cassandra. Solr vs. Elasticsearch. ReactJS vs. AngularJS. If you have an open source project that you are passionate about, chances are a competing project exists and is doing similar things, with users as passionate as yours. Despite the "we're all happily sharing our code" vibe that many individuals in open source love to project, open source business, like any other, is filled with competition. Unlike other business models, however, open source presents unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to competition...

EFF Welcomes Brian Behlendorf to Board of Directors

Rebecca Jeschke | Electronic Frontier Foundation | February 15, 2013

EFF is extraordinarily pleased to officially announce a new addition to our Board of Directors: entrepreneur and technologist Brian Behlendorf. Read More »

How to Sell Open Source Software - Glyptodon's Success Story

Every business model has its tradeoffs, with pros and cons. In the case of Glyptodon, they made a bet that they could build a viable commercial brand with 100% open source software. That bet has paid off, and it has allowed the Glyptodon founders to build a business without outside funding. The hope is that their story helps other entrepreneurs who are struggling with how to build a sustainable business selling open source software. For every company founder who was told it couldn't be done, Glyptodon wants you to know it is absolutely possible-you can build and sell open source products. The key is to establish a trusted commercial brand and sell the overall solution.

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Improve Open Source Community Sustainability By Tracking These Two Metrics

In early 2020, I wrote an article on three metrics for tracking and measuring offline, in-person community-building activities. Little did I (or the world) know then that offline, in-person activities of any kind would soon become unfeasible for the foreseeable future. So, I started thinking: With open source projects being online by default, and with everything else moving online and virtual, what should creators of open source technologies measure as we continue in this COVID and (hopefully soon) post-COVID world? There are plenty of metrics you can track—stars, forks, pull requests (PRs), merge requests (MRs), contributor counts, etc.—but more data doesn't necessarily mean clearer insights. I've previously shared my skepticism about the value of these surface-level metrics, especially when assessing an open source project's health and sustainability. In this article, I propose two second-order metrics to track, measure, and continually optimize to build a strong, self-sustaining open source community...

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Just How Closely Can The NSA Really Watch You?

Brian Proffitt | ReadWrite | June 20, 2013

Leaks that suggest the NSA is vacuuming up personal information from the phone records and online-service data of U.S. citizens have some people concerned about the prospect of an Orwellian surveillance state that can track our every move. Read More »