September 22, 2005 Source: University of Victoria:
http://communications.uvic.ca/releases/release.php?display=release&id=674 UVic Organizational Software Available to Public Individuals and institutions on small budgets now have free access to the efficient organizational software used by the University of Victoria’s Co-operative Education Program. Thanks to the recent approval of an Open Source Licence, UVic student and staff-authored Mamook software is now widely-available to the public. Mamook software has been used by UVic Co-op to organize student, employer and job listing information since January 2001. The release of this enterprise software will allow other companies to manage complex information. “The Open Source license means that external developers can go under the hood to see the source code and to tailor the software according to their specific needs,” says Chris Chan, a former UVic computer science co-op student who joined the Mamook development team in 2002 and is now completing his MSc technical project on the software The software was recently released under the Adaptive Public License, which was developed specifically by the UVic team and approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), a non-profit corporation that promotes the development of free, editable software. Carmen Leeming, special projects manager with UVic’s Co-operative Education Program says, “Developers are able to edit program source code for their own purposes, or can send suggestions back to the UVic team so that these changes can be included in future official versions of the software. It’s a tremendous opportunity to create an evolving, mutually beneficial program.” Mamook software offers a free alternative for smaller institutions or individuals who cannot afford comparable consumer products, and the UVic-developed license provides a cost-cutting solution for developers looking to release their own software. “The Adaptive Public License is a flexible license, meaning it’s not limited to the publication of Mamook software,” says Leeming. “Other developers can use the license to release their software, without hiring a lawyer to write their own license. This further supports the idea of shared, interactive product development.” Mamook software was published online in late June at www.mamook.net, and was downloaded over 300 times in the first two months by Internet service providers, volunteer service organizations, recruiting firms and human resource departments. Mamook software version 2.0 is expected to be released by the end of 2005. --30-- Media Contacts: Carmen Leeming (Special Projects Manager, Co-operative Education) at (250) 721-8783 or cleeming@uvic.ca Joy Poliquin (Communications Officer, Co-operative Education) at (250) 721-6084 or poliquin@uvic.ca
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