News

At a press conference in Salem yesterday, Portland State University President Daniel O. Bernstine, along with Governor Ted Kulongoski, Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner, Oregon State University President Ed Ray, and open source software researchers from the universities and from Google, announced a new partnership funded by $350,000 from the search technology company.

Google’s contribution—its first academic donation specifically directed toward supporting open source development—will fund a joint open source technology initiative at Portland State University and Oregon State University, beginning in 2006. With the grant, the universities will collaborate to encourage open source software and hardware development, develop academic curricula and provide computing infrastructure to open source projects worldwide. The initiative will also help provide a bridge between Oregon’s universities and Oregon’s growing open technology industry, venture capital firms and business incubators.

President Bernstine said that Oregon “is ahead of the curve” in open source work and that creating more Oregon jobs in the field will encourage graduates to stay in the state. “This is another way in which can keep our best and brightest at home,” he said.

Google’s investment builds on open source work already taking place at Portland State, including research and course offerings by faculty such as computer scientist Bart Massey of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science; programs like the Portland State Aerospace Society’s open hardware/software amateur sounding rocket; basic infrastructure like Web systems, computer help systems and the University’s e-mail, which all operate in an open source environment; and the University’s Portland Business Accelerator, home to open source companies like Compiere, which provides open source enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications to small and medium-sized businesses.

Open source software, including the Linux® operating system, is among the fastest growing technology sectors. Developed using a collaborative process often involving commercial vendors and communities of enthusiasts and students, open source generally gives users the rights to use, copy, modify and redistribute the software created. Increasingly, open source technologies are being used across the gamut of computing systems, from desktops and servers to telecommunications infrastructure and embedded devices.

Source:
Bart Massey (503-725-5393), PSU Department of Computer Science

For Immediate Release (#05-148)