Most likely, OSWA isn’t a term you hear every day and contrary to what some may think, it is neither the name of a dog nor a city in Finland. If you do quick Internet search, you will find that it can refer to various organizations ranging from the Oregon Small Woodlands Associate to the Old School Wrestling Alliance. However, if you’re receiving this e-mail, odds are that another OSWA will be of more interest to you and it stands for Open Source Web Applications.

Open source software is all around us. It takes many forms and spans numerous categories. It is currently used by companies, individuals, non-profit organizations and even governments. As a matter of fact, it is so popular that there are literally hundreds of thousands of popular open source packages. These are highly impressive numbers, and they are worth thinking about. This article will briefly cover the origins of open source, what it is, why it is used, and provide examples of OSWA.

Where does open source come from?

The term “open source” is relatively recent, having made its appearance in 1998 after a group of individuals advocated that the term “free software” should be replaced by “open source software.” The main reason for this seems obvious if you compare both terms and has to do with the word “free.” Although the term free was originally supposed to stand for freedom—open source software offers a lot more freedoms than proprietary software—the corporate world preferred a different term that was more in tune with the marketplace. This being said, does that mean that you necessarily have to pay in order to use open source software? Absolutely not!

What exactly is open source software?

Open source definitions vary slightly, but most open-source applications will meet the following criteria:

• Open—The most obvious, yet the most important characteristic of open source software. This means that anyone can freely examine the code that was used to produce the application. This is the opposite of proprietary or closed source software, which is typically restricted to the software developers and is often viewed as a company’s trade secret;
• Updatability—New versions of open-source software are frequently available on the Internet. This means that open-source software is constantly improved and is likely to evolve a lot more quickly and efficiently than closed source software;
• Collaborative—One of the strengths of open-source software is that people can work together to improve it. As a result, a lot more people are working at the same time to achieve a common goal;
• Customizable—A great feature of open-source software is that it you can adapt it to meet your own specific needs. This means that elements ranging from the language used to the look of the application can be tailored to your liking or that of your audience;
• Low or no cost—Open source applications are much cheaper than closed source applications, and many of them are completely free. Moreover, they have no licensee fees and are royalty-free, so you can save a lot of money both right away and in the long run;
• Better security—Because so many developers can work on the software at once, security breaches and bugs tend to get fixed a lot more quickly. For example, linux has proven to be a lot more secure than its windows counterpart.

Open Source Web Applications

Now that you know a bit more about open source applications, you may wish to see concrete examples of how they are used. Here are just a few examples of open source applications that can be used for the Web, sorted by category:

• Blogs—bBlog, Simplog, WordPress;
• Content Management—Envolution, Plone, Tikiwiki;
• Database—MySQL, Firebird, PostgreSQL;
• E-commerce—osCommerce, MyMarket, ZenCart;
• eLearning—Moodle, ATutor, Claroline; | click here to see an example of Moodle implementation
• Forums—Phorum, phpBB, SimpleMachines;
• Groupware—dotProject, Sugar CRM, Knowledge Tree, phpCollab, eGroupWare.

How can Documédia Help?

If you’ve read this far, you probably realize that an open source Web application might be the solution you’re looking for. However, you may also have a lot of questions such as: “Are open source Web applications a good solution for me? How do I choose the right one? How will it benefit my organization?”

Documédia has assisted numerous public and private sector firms with their open source Web applications. We can tell you if an open source Web application is right for you or recommend other options, so that you can make an informed decision. We can also install and implement the applications, handle migration issues (if any), and customize the application to meet your specific needs.

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