Apple™ Gets “Open Source” Right
Apple™ is a commercial company (more of a design company than a computer company) that Open Source advocates can study and emulate.
Apple™ does a great job in marketing, and Open Source advocates can learn from the models that Apple™ uses.
In particular, “integration” is the lesson that Apple™ is now getting right.
Technology and Learning, May 2007, ran a Special Section article [underwritten by Apple™] that shows this insight in action…
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Apple™ Intel-based Mac computers…
- Provide a suite of integrated, free, digital literacy tools
- Run Windows™ and Mac™ OS X programs
- Allow school districts to keep running current software
- Focus on instructional goals
“When we saw that students wouldn’t have to work with a bunch of different programs to work with digital media, everyone realized that going with Apple [sic] was the right thing to do.”
Source:
Quote in the article from Cambridge, Nebraska Public Schools Superintendent, Ron Streit
And, did I mention that this integrated digital capacity blasts the main (though misguided) talking point for adopting Open Source software (i.e., It’s a free and cheap solution.) “out of the water.”
This entire, integrated suite of digital literacy software is “free.”
More importantly, the article demonstrates that Apple™ understands that the business of education is our students’ learning, and the article focuses upon actual uses of the technology in the curriculum.
In addition, Apple™ offers a full professional development package for their software suite that targets helping teachers drive the curriculum with a product that is easy enough to use that teachers can experience success with actual self-created teaching modules, literally overnight!
[Note: Of course, the teachers must be able to take the equipment home overnight, every night, for this to happen.]
Apple™’s integrated digital literacy package shows Open Source advocates just how we need to proceed as we develop our packages…
- Integrated packages, not a collection of disjoint programs or distros
- Instruction first, software second, operating system last
- Flexibility and multiple options are available, instead of a “one-size fits-all” solution
- The spirit of sharing means collaboration, brainstorming, and expanding ideas. The spirit of sharing also means presenting these ideas in multiple formats, presentations, sites, E-mail
[Note: shouldn't Open Source projects start to focus on XML (in much the way that MS Office™ 2007 does) to maximize this capability and keep our product competitive, years into the future?] - Teachers must have at home, the same solutions that they use at work
- A professional development package must accompany any product that we develop and distribute
- Co-operation with Windows™, in our case, promoting the Windows(TM) version of Open Source programs so that school districts can leverage their current technology investment
While Open Source advocates waste time discussing the merits of one distro vs. another; Apple™ has focused on the one essential, i.e., what teachers and students use technology for.
The formula for success is simple…
- Technology – transparent and invisible
- Operating system – transparent and invisible
- Ease of Use – So easy that the topic never comes up
- Integration – Learn one and you’ve learned them all
- Curriculum and Instructional Content – The only area of education that should draw attention to itself is the content of the curriculum and the skills needed to perform while engaging in that content
So, Open Source advocates can study Apple™’s playbook as we develop our package. This process is labeled “Competitive Intelligence” by the business world. And, like Microsoft™, Apple™ can teach our Open Source community how to focus upon the essentials of education, how to ensure that everything we offer is integrated, and how to make ease of use our mantra.
So, when will Apple™ build a real Open Source operating system, say “Mac OS Once (Spanish for XI),” that will run on any, off-the-shelf computer?
