What is the Open Source Lab?
The Oregon State University Open Source Lab is the home of growing, high-impact open source communities. Its world-class hosting services enable the Linux operating system, Apache web server, the Drupal content management system and over 50 other leading open source software projects to collaborate with contributors and distribute software to millions of users globally. Through custom software development, vendor partnerships and industry events like the Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON), the Lab's staff and students encourage open source adoption in education, government, health care and other sectors.
 What is Open Source Software?
"Open source" means that the building blocks for a program are freely available to use, modify, and improve. This provides for rapid software development by contributors worldwide, and the resulting program is available for anyone to use, anywhere, free of charge.
For more information on open source software and the Open Source Lab, click here.
 Open Source is all about contributions.
Countless numbers of developers are all giving of their time and talents to code, document, test, design, and deliver software so that the end user may benefit from it. The Open Source Lab is here to contribute resources to the community, allowing developers to focus on what they do best rather than having to spend time worrying about system resources and hosting. To continue operating, we need your contributions as well.

Latest OSUOSL News

On Monday, August 20th, the 2007 Google Summer of Code came to its scheduled conclusion. The OSL mentored four students on three projects this year. We're proud to announce that all four passed with flying colors. We've been delighted with the quality of their work, and look forward to continued work with them all!

Thanks to Google's generous support, the OSL was able to host three varied and exciting projects:

Hey, it's about time the Rackathon had some new ideas implemented so the OSL is looking for some. We figure that since we are supporting open source, our support should be open to changes as well.

We are looking for new ideas that change how Rackathon operates, ways to bring attention to Rackathon, and how to show off the people who have donated. Any ideas you can come up with will be greatly appreciated!

Here are some of the ideas we've come up with so far:

  • Decay - reduce the size of a person's name every week or month until they either drop off the page or are left at the smallest size
  • Ticker - have sponsors rotating through the top of osuosl.org (possibly links to the site of their choosing)
  • Messages - allow people to tie messages to their donation that display on the Rackathon webpage

If you have any ideas about what the future of Rackathon should look like or just don't like some of the ideas we've come up with, post it in the comments.

Summer has arrived, which means it's once again time for OSCON!

Thanks to the generous support of IBM, the OSL will be exhibiting in the OSCON Expo Hall in booth #401 on July 25th and 26th, 2007.

We invite you to drop by the booth and meet some of the people who make the OSL tick. We will be demonstrating several of our products and services including the new Watch and Listen media player for the One Laptop Per Child XO laptops and our world-class hosting infrastructure.

OSCON is July 23rd-27th at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Access to the Expo Hall is free of charge.