[OT] free vs. proprietary software simply defined

At my university, I really wish we could get away from vendors of proprietary software (for things like CMS, ePortfolio, etc.), but the reality is that we simply don't have the human resources in our IT department to pull it off. In my opinion, that is a big question. Of course, there are companies that they can pay to implement open source solutions and enter into a service contract with and other things in between. But truly going with an open source platform (especially hosted internally on the campus) demands a big commitment in order to do it well. I think for a campus that has faculty and staff who are interested and capable and could truly be involved as an active part of that open-source community, OSS is a really good thing.

On things like audio codecs though, there are things like Ogg Vorbis, then there are the licensed "open standard" platforms (the mpeg formats), and then there are the proprietary formats developed and promoted by a single company (WM, Real, etc). Ogg Vorbis is a rough road because of interoperability--many music players (notably iPod) don't support it, but they do support uncompressed and "standard" compression formats like mp3 and AAC, and will do so in the future. And the proprietary formats lock you into certain solutions. I would look to see what formats are commonly used for webcasts, podcasts, streaming media, etc. and stay as well in that mainstream as possible. In this area, I don't see the University as feeling at the mercy of the vendor like they do with services like eCollege where open-source solutions are very competitive.