Final Cermony Open Source Final 1

Open SourceOpen Source for Schools for Schools

Workshop

Monday, 26/11/2007 Rabat

Dr. Wasel GhanemDr. Wasel GhanemComputer Systems Engineering DepartmentComputer Systems Engineering Department

Information Technology FacultyInformation Technology FacultyBirzeit UniversityBirzeit University

[email protected]

Presentation OutlinePresentation Outline

Overview about Open Source Culture

Activities in Project

R&DImplementing the LTSP System Helpdesk Training for Core Staff

Outputs and Outcomes

Technical DocumentationEstablishment Core TeamAcquisition and Dissemination of Knowledge Blueprint for Open Source Support Center at Birzeit University

Future Plans

What is Open Source?What is Open Source?

Open source (OS) describes the principles and methodologies to promote open access to the production and design process for various

goods, products, resources and technical conclusions or advice (Wikipedia)

Open source as applied to culture defines a culture in which collective decisions or fixations shared during development and made generally

available in the public domain (Wikipedia)

Why is OS essential in the Why is OS essential in the Arab world?Arab world?

“there are less than 18 computers per 1,000 persons in the (Arab) region, compared to the global average of 78.3” (Bennanietal.,2003)

ICT industry in the Arab world is based on using the technologies and they do not develop the technologies for their own use (Coury and Dutta, 2003)

“Diffusion of technical know-how doesn't simply depend on ability to pay. It owes a great deal to personal contacts and discussion, or to the movement of people" Freeman and Soete, 2004

Why performance in TechnologyWhy performance in Technologyin the Arab world is poor?in the Arab world is poor?

The absence of serious national ICT R&D funding commitments and strategies

Brain drain

The reliance on foreign expertise

“higher education systems respond weakly to labor market needs related to science and technology” (Bennani et al., 2003)

What’s LTSP?What’s LTSP?

Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is an add-on package for Linux that allows many people to simultaneously use the same computer. Applications run on the server with a terminal known as a thin client handling input and output. Generally, they are old, obsolescent PCs.

Why LTSP in Schools?Why LTSP in Schools?

Access to computers without purchasing or upgrading expensive desktop machines

Possibility of getting more performance for less money by getting one high-end server and turning old existing computers into thin clients

Gain more control on the lab by switching to server thin client model

New thin client machines are less costly than standard computers

Less maintenance

Activities of the projectActivities of the project

Research and Development (R&D) installing and testing various OS experimenting with the LTSP package under different platformsSolving encountered problems and documenting solutions mainly in the OSL wiki Pilot implementation of the LTSP package was carried out in some pilot schools

ActivitiesActivities

LTSP Installation, Testing and Deployment Install and configure LTSP and dealing with wide variety of drivers

Making researches about the benefits, requirements and limitations of the LTSP system

Solutions to the emerging difficulties and requirements


Establishment of LTSP Lab at Birzeit University

First stage, a Pentium 4 and other low performance computers

A campaign was launched at the university to collect "old" or retired PCs

Later, five powerful Pentium 4 PCs with enough memory to function as servers in an LTSP environment.

Pentium 4 PC with 1 GB of RAM could serve up to 10 thin clients

Finally, 50 Pentium II PCs were procured at practically no cost at all


Clustering very high computing power using ordinary PCs forming a “Server farm”

The server farm is usually structured as “Parallel Computer” which can be compared to multi-million dollar super computers

Cluster is currently being researched and will be given high priority and focus in the future phases of the project

ActivitiesActivitiesImplementations

Birzeit University Main LibraryTwelve thin clients were brought to full operation The room became fully functional and highly utilized by the student population The search speed was the same as stand alone Pentium 4 new computers The results were presented in the General Assembly meeting of the Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL)

According to Teresa Hackett, project manager of eIFL-IP, this is "a great success story" An award on behalf of the University was received from eIFL for this model


Implementations

Abu Shkheidem School

School ex-Principal requests to fund a new computer laboratory were dismissed because the cost of a lab were prohibitive Eight Pentium I and II computers donated by the University were brought to the school the OSL team installed a server and repaired the network infrastructure

Resulted in a fully functional laboratory for students at an extremely low investment

Training the Information Technology teacher on how to manage the system and operate the laboratory

According to the teacher, "With this setup, I am able today to teach my students technology using computers. In the past, the IT teaching I was able to do was on the black-board, which was extremely frustrating for me and for the students "


Implementations Birzeit Female School – Majida Wassila

Most of the computers in the laboratory were not functional According to Information Technology teacher, "I was facing very serious problems with running the proprietary applications because I was using an old version of MS-Windows with new Office applications The OSL team fixed the equipment to meet the minimum requirements of the LTSP System

more cost effective than getting replacement parts for the old computers

School curriculum is based on new versions of MS-Office, which presented serious problems with system usability IT teacher was able to cover the entire curriculum in the Open Office and other applications at considerable high speeds As imagined, the school was satisfied with the results


Implementations Lutheran Vocational School

20 PCs that can run AutoCAD system needed According to the Information Technology teacher, "Some of the applications that were running in Microsoft environment demanded by the curricula –like AutoCAD- requires fast new computers with good amount of memory to run properly, and our computers do not meet the requirements of those applications“The OSL team installed three servers to cover the requirements of the lab (7 thin clients per server), repaired the network infrastructure and configured the 20 PCs as thin clients for the existing servers Researches on emulating MS Windows on Linux OS were made and implementedA license for each server is required only


Helpdesk Training for Core Staff

Following up with increasing support calls

Properly assess and evaluate the requirements for the establishment of a help-desk.

OutputsOutputs

Technical Documentation

OSL team has generated the first revision of the technical document

It included the advantages and limitations of open source and LTSP solutions

It helped the teams to learn from other's experiences and build on each other's experience

An interactive version was created to facilitate searching and retrieving information

OutputsOutputs

OSL Wiki Online documentation on the OSL wiki http://osl.birzeit.edu:8080/wiki2/index.php/Main_Page

Documentary Film A documentary was developed to promote OS culture and explain the benefits of OS systems and applications for institutions

http://osl.birzeit.edu:8080/wiki2/index.php/Main_Page

http://osl.birzeit.edu:8080/wiki2/index.php/Main_Page

OutputsOutputs

OSL wiki got the best hit in Google for ltsp fedora (picked at OSL wiki got the best hit in Google for ltsp fedora (picked at 1/4/2007)1/4/2007)

OutputsOutputs

Establishment of a Core TeamUntil now, three "generations" of students have passed through the OSL experienceThis is possible through the help of the technical documents and practical training by the older team membersThe majority of OSL graduates ended up with very technically advanced positions at top IT companiesTeam members acquired experience in :

CultureWiki and knowledge sharing.Interaction with different communities and functioning professionally within the global industryTechnical areaResearch and DevelopmentLeadership

OutputsOutputsWorking Setups

LTSP Laboratory

R&D Environment

Setting the Ground for a Sustainable Infrastructure

Training Resources Developed


LTSP LaboratoryIt's equipped with 50 thin clients for students to browse the internet and use OS applications to do their homework and computing assignments

It will be used as a training hall for the open source computer training and awareness courses


R&D Environment

Application testing and deployment was the main function of the R&D team

OS team was engaged in research work on clustering, parallel computing etc.


Setting the Ground for a Sustainable Infrastructure

Promoting OS as a culture and not to deal with it as a stand-alone projectWe strongly believe that this project did move in the direction we hoped it wouldThe environment we work in is a rich soil for the OS cultureFinding suitable applications and packages is an important motivation for the continuity of the OSL project

OutputsOutputsWorking SetupsWorking Setups

Training Resources DevelopedA training infrastructure and supporting resources were developed The team started through self-learning, research and applicationMore structured training activities for the new "generations" were heldIt was mainly a self-based learning with hands-on experiments and application in the lab

OutputsOutputsAcquisition and Dissemination of

Knowledge

Establishment of an Open Source Culture

Awareness

Linkages with the Community


Knowledge

Establishment of an Open Source Culture

The project reached a wide spectrum of stakeholders, ranging from policy makers to schools' principals, University staff and students


Knowledge

Awareness

The OS team will be using the experience gained to launch a serious campaign to raise awareness among the key stakeholders

This experience sets the ground for others to follow the model


Knowledge

Linkages with the Community

The students themselves were those who installed the system in these live environmentsOS is a rich area for innovation and creativityknowledge is "produced" and not only "consumed"

Future PlansFuture Plans

OS support center at Birzeit University

Replication of the results of the OSL at a large scale

Ministries and NGOs

The key components of the second The key components of the second phasephase

Carry out capacity building activities and training for individuals and institutions for the installation and the support of OSLEstablish an OS application team that will be responsible for searching, testing and identifying existing solutions Develop an OS support and helpdesk systemDevelop the R&D operations to respond to new products

Thank You for Your Attention

Questions???