Can Student-Written Software
Contribute to Humanitarian FOSS?
Ralph A. Morelli*, Heidi J. C. Ellis*, Trishan
R. de Lanerolle*, Jonathan Damon*,
Christopher Walti§
*Trinity College
§Accenture Corporation
Hartford, CT 06109
ralph.morelli@trincoll.edu
Humanitarian FOSS
H-FOSS: Free and open source software
built to serve humanitarian purposes.
Humanitarian (broadly defined): any nonprofit activity that benefits society.
Examples:
 Sahana -- Disaster recovery software
 OpenMRS -- Medical record system
 VM -- Volunteer management software
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 2
Humanitarian FOSS Movement
Premise 1: Quality humanitarian
software can be built and given freely to
organizations in need.
Premise 2: The FOSS development
model can successfully harness
contributions of IT professionals.
Premise 3: Computing students and
faculty can contribute to FOSS as part of
their educational goals.
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 3
Educational Motivation
David Patterson (ACM) Nov. 2005:
Computing professionals should help our
neighbors (post Katrina).
David Patterson (ACM) Mar. 2006: CS
educators should get involved in the opensource movement.
Our Question: Can these initiatives be
combined to:
 Do good in the community.
 Help revitalize computing education.
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 4
The Crisis in CS Education
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 5
Sahana
(http://www.sahana.lk)
H-FOSS disaster management system
 Sinhalese for relief.
 IT management system for people and resources.
History and Highlights
 2004
 2005
 2006
 2006
 2007
started in Sri Lanka following Asian tsunami.
deployed during earth quake in Pakistan.
deployed during mudslide in the Philippines.
Sourceforge project of the month (June).
FSF Award for Social Benefit.
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 6
Trinity Sahana Project
(http://www.cs.trincoll.edu/hfoss)
Activities 2006
Jan: Trishan meets Sahana team in Colombo
Spring: Sahana independent study
Spring: Accenture--Katrina Shelter
Summer: Volunteer Management Module
Jun: National Conference on Volunteering
and Service (Seattle)
Aug: Strong Angel III (San Diego)
Fall: Course with Trinity, Connecticut College
and Wesleyan University (7 students)
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 7
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Trinity Sahana Project
Activities 2007
Jan: NSF C-PATH Proposal -- Can
humanitarian open source software
development help revitalize
undergraduate computing education?
Jan: VM Module in Sahana 0.5 Alpha.
Mar: SIGCSE 2007 Presentation
Spring: Video Conference course
 Trinity, Connecticut College and Wesleyan
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 9
National Science Foudation CPATH
H-FOSS and Higher Education: A
Portable and Sustainable Model?
Computing
Departments
IT Corporations
Open Source
for
Humanity
• Teach FOSS
• Build Software
• Student gain skills
and opportunities
Humanitarian
Community
• Acquire software.
• Provide real-world
development context.
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 10
• Host interns
• Help advertise and fund
• Provide expertise
• Create volunteer
opportunities
Spring 2007 Application
Programming Course
24 (male) students across 3 campuses
Student Projects (10 projects)
 Sahana Hospital Management IS
 Darien, CT EMS Scheduling System
 Sahana Multi-Incident Reporting System
 Sahana VM Customization
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 11
Non-Traditional Educational
Development Environment
Deadlines don’t match academic calendar.
Requirements come from real-world clients.
Deliverables must meet industry standards.
Collaborators are distributed globally.
Beta testing is done by real-world clients.
All of these provide challenges and benefits.
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 12
What the Students Learned
Good documentation is important.
“We were forced to read and understand
other people’s code.”
Things change: Deadlines, specifications,
database structure, etc.
“We had to find our place in a real world
organizational network.”
Bottom line: Our students seemed to enjoy
the challenge and experience.
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What the Faculty Learned
Considerable planning and setup is required.
 Good system and open-source tools are critical.
 PHP, MySQL, PHPDoc, MySQLAdmin, etc.
Students must be willing to experiment.
 Good faculty-student communication a must.
Faculty must be comfortable with uncertainty.
The community must support it.
Bottom Line: More work and more risk than a
traditional software engineering course.
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 14
Summer 2007: H-FOSS Internship
Program at Trinity College
Funded by Aidmatrix Foundation
Five student interns and five faculty and
staff
Projects
 Sahana
 Refactoring VM Module
 Implementing requested enhancements
 OpenMRS (Medical Record System)
 Summer of Code Project
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 15
Future Plans…
Grow the project to other U.S. colleges
and universities.
 CUNY, U of Hawaii, Yale
Develop industry and humanitarian
collaborations.
 Open Source for Humanity
NSF CCLI Proposal to develop H-FOSS
teaching methods and materials.
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 16
Results – The Jury is Still Out
Did We…
help students make a meaningful contribution
to the H-FOSS community?
 Maybe?
strengthen bonds between academia and
industry?
 Some baby steps, perhaps.
broaden interest in the computing discipline?
 Not yet.
Did we enjoy the experience?
 Absolutely!
R. Morelli -- ISCRAM 2007 -- Page 17
Questions???
Email: ralph.morelli@trincoll.edu
Visit: http://www.cs.trincoll.edu/hfoss
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