HFOSS: Quiz #2

In the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software Development (HFOSS) course at the Rochester Institute of Technology, quizzes are in the form of blog posts submitted during the class period. The room stays quiet, but it is an open IRC quiz, so many of the students collaborated with each other in #rit-foss on freenode for the quiz.

This post is my quiz submission for the Spring 2016 semester Quiz #2.

HFOSS Spring 2016, Quiz #2

Expand each of the following acronyms.

  1. IRC: Internet Relay Chat
  2. FOSS: Free and Open Source Software
  3. OLPC: One Laptop per Child
  4. DVCS: Distributed version control system
  5. FSF: Free Software Foundation
  6. PR: Pull Request

What is the short, two-letter name for the OLPC computers used in the final project for this class?

What is the one-word name for the interface used in the OLPC computers?

What is the grade level we are targeting our OLPC applications for?

Briefly define the following instructional theories, giving the role of the instructor in each.

  • Didactic: Lecturing; instructor speaks to class about topic
  • Dialectic: Similar to the Socratic seminar; discussion-based instructional teaching with interactions between the instructor and the class
  • Constructivist: Teaching style that combines experiences with teaching to create a learning experience that lends power to the learner; the instructor acts as a facilitator rather than a traditional lecturer

Several elements are combined in different ways to form the Creative Commons licenses. Match each shorthand given in the list with the description of that license element below.

  1. NC: Non-Commercial; You may not use the work for commercial purposes.
  2. SA: Share-alike; You must convey the same rights “downstream” that were conveyed to you by “upstream”.
  3. ND: No Derivatives; You may not make changes to the work.
  4. BY: Attribution; You must attribute the contributions of the original or upstream creators of the work.

The presence of which license elements make a license “non-free” according to the FSF?

Which license element is a copyleft? (give the letter, 1 pt)

  • (2) Share-alike; You must convey the same rights “downstream” that were conveyed to you by “upstream”.

Name two projects that distribute a body of non-software, free culture data, and briefly name or describe the kind of data.

  1. Fedora Project Documentation (CC-BY-SA 3.0): Provides documentation and instructions on using the Fedora operating system and how to achieve certain tasks using it
  2. ManyBooks (mixed variety of CC licensed works): Provides downloads of freely licensed literature, novels, and books

List or describe “the four R’s” as a shorthand for the freedoms attached to software for it to be considered “free and open source”.

  1. Read
  2. Run
  3. Revise
  4. Redistribute

Bonus Questions

True or False: You cannot sell GPL’d software.

  • False

True or False: You can fork a GPL licensed Project and release it under an MIT license?

  • False

True or False: You can fork a MIT licensed Project and release it under an GPL license?

  • True

When does a work become “copyrighted” by an author?

  • When it is created

2 comments

    1. You’re right, Greg – hadn’t thought of that, but it would also make it non-free. I modified my blog post to incorporate that into the answer. Thanks for the comment!

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