I wear both hats in this discussion. I teach interface design at the
University of Missouri-Columbia, and I am one of the co-leads for a software
development project that is developing an open source licensed software
application. We are developing software called Shadow netWorkspace(SNS).
SNS implements an intranet for computer supported collaborative work and
learning. Our objective is for this software to support the transformation
of teaching and learning processes as schools begin to take advantage of
the Internet and other advanced technologies. However, this software is
appropriate for any community or organization that wishes to develop a
collective electronic workspace. You can learn more about the software at
sns.internetschools.org.

There are a number of open source projects that address issues of using
technology for schools or other educational activities. We see many open
source projects being derived from applications first developed to be used
by the developer and then seen as having value for others. Open source
projects for education are often derived from altruistic, visionary, or
social change objectives.

The issue of authority raised in the proposal for the workshop is one that
has special interest for our work. By authority I think we mean something
like the decision-making power for features, integration with other
software, conformity with standards or guidelines, etc. Having worked for
Apple Computer for 6 years (late 80=B9s, early 90=B9s) I know it is simplistic
to say that in proprietary software the authority rests in the product
manager or in the company objective. It is far more complex than that. I'd
like to think that authority rests in a product vision, in the end-users
experience of the software, in lessons learned through an emergent
collaborative development process, and in what brings value from having
developed the software. These issues are complex to manage in a traditional
organization, but become even more challenging in a distributed, co-op
development environment.

Our project seeks to build the case for authority resting both in a vision
and in the user experience through communication about project goals,
usability testing, design guidelines, and making it easy to comply (e.g., a
software development environment that provides resources to the developer).
In many ways our software is already far along (people are using it), but in
reality we are just at an early stage of what we envision the software
system to encompass. Much of the work ahead will depend upon soliciting and
building a community of distributed developers=8A.so the questions of this
workshop while being intellectually engaging also represent a very practical
challenge for our project.