Week 12

Monday March 28

Topics:

• TBD

Readings:

• TBD

Assignments:

Blog post #7

Now we will begin extending the FOSS event timeline we created earlier in the month. For this week's blog post, please do the following:

• Select a 3-year period between when the GNU project (ostensibly the beginning of the free software movement) and today, and analyze the events shown on the FOSS timeline
• For your chosen 3-year period, construct a narrative of the events and explain why this period was significant in the growth or expansion of the free software movement
• Explain how you think the free software movement would be have different had those events not taken place

At this point in the course, you should have a solid idea of how the free software movement has progressed since its inception. It should be clear to you that some events on the timeline are more significant than others, despite all of them having some level of impact. As an example, the release of an open source license (such as the GPL) is a very significant event as the license could be applied to any open source project, really "opening things up" for the free software movement to progress. A lesser example is the release of a software tool (like Chromium), which had an impact on a much fewer people. In your post, defend your choice of time period and explain the above points.