Final Thesis: H-node

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lammi87

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Hi,

I just wanted to let you guys know that I am writing my final thesis about h-node. It is almost ready and it is going to be published in one or two weeks from now.

I'm finalizing my IT engineering studies in Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences in Finland. As a part of my studies, I'm writing a final thesis about h-node (in English). More spesificaly, I aim to introduce h-node and its ethical free software background to new users. I also present various ways how to contribute to h-node and also some results of my own contributions.

My studies include a mandatory practical training period which I spent fixing broken computers in a small IT shop. While working there, I had a chance (and my employer's permission) to test and report as many working devices to h-node as I could. According to my calculations, I managed to add about 100 new laptops to h-node during that time.

While writing my final thesis, I contacted the h-node's main developer by e-mail. He was very supportive and gave me information I needed. He also suggested that I should notice FSF about my thesis. What do you think?

My thesis is going to be published soon under a free lisence (some creative commons lisence if I recall). It will be available as a pdf on my school's final thesis database. I can post the link here if you guys are interested.

I don't know my final grade yet but my instructor said it is going to be better than a 3 (5=awesome, 4=good, 3=avarage, 2=below avarage, 1=pass and 0=fail).

MagicFab
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On 2013-05-10 13:15, name at domain wrote:
> I just wanted to let you guys know that I am writing my final thesis about h-node. It is almost ready
and it is going to be published in one or two weeks from now.

Hello Mrij, this is excellent news. Thank you for sharing it here with
the Trisquel users. I'd suggest you also join the LibrePlanet activists
lists if you haven't already:
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibrePlanet_Activists

I've copied (CC) that list on this reply.

>
> I'm finalizing my IT engineering studies in Kemi-Tornio University of
Applied Sciences in Finland. As a part of my studies, I'm writing a
final thesis about h-node (in English). More spesificaly, I aim to
introduce h-node and its ethical free software background to new users.
I also present various ways how to contribute to h-node and also some
results of my own contributions.
>
> My studies include a mandatory practical training period which I spent
fixing broken computers in a small IT shop. While working there, I had a
chance (and my employer's permission) to test and report as many working
devices to h-node as I could. According to my calculations, I managed to
add about 100 new laptops to h-node during that time.
>
> While writing my final thesis, I contacted the h-node's main developer
by e-mail. He was very supportive and gave me information I needed. He
also suggested that I should notice FSF about my thesis. What do you think?
>
> My thesis is going to be published soon under a free lisence (some
creative commons lisence if I recall). It will be available as a pdf on
my school's final thesis database. I can post the link here if you guys
are interested.
>
> I don't know my final grade yet but my instructor said it is going to
be better than a 3 (5=awesome, 4=good, 3=avarage, 2=below avarage,
1=pass and 0=fail).

Thanks a lot for your contributions to h-node! I am an FSF member (not
staff), but I believe publishing under a Creative Commons licence
wouldn't be considered free, specially if there is a "non-commercial"
use restriction. Perhaps other can provide a better opinion here.

I would definitely be interested in reading it, so please do share a
link to it (and if possible, the source to the document).

Cheers,

Fabian Rodriguez
Montreal, Canada

- --
Fabián Rodríguez
http://fsf.magicfab.ca
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akirashinigami

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As far as I know, there is nothing non-free about the CC-BY-SA license. But saying that something is under "a Creative Commons license" is ambiguous: there are several different Creative Commons licenses.

MagicFab
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On 2013-05-10 17:43, name at domain wrote:
> As far as I know, there is nothing non-free about the CC-BY-SA license. But saying that something
is under "a Creative Commons license" is ambiguous: there are several
different Creative Commons licenses.

I was referring to the NC clause that may be added to any CC license.

f.

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Fabián Rodríguez
http://trisquel.magicfab.ca
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lammi87

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Hi,

About the license, I don't yet know the exact CC license types which I can use. Would "Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)" be suitable, by the way? I'm not really an expert when it comes to CC licenses.

Michał Masłowski

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Theses are usually much different from documentation, there is probably
no need for FDL for it since FDL-licensed documentation won't be based
on it (nor CC0-licensed h-node documentation). There are many areas for
writings that don't need to be adapted for modified versions of
software, the arguments for making documentation free don't apply to
them (since e.g. descriptions of project's history and its ethical aims
aren't less true for derived versions).

Magic Banana

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I also do not see why the reader's freedom would be attacked if the thesis could not be modified. It is not software or a manual. I am not achieving any work by reading the thesis. The thesis is a work of opinion that, I believe, should *not* be modifiable! I, as a reader, want to know your opinions and not those of somebody in the middle! I believe you, as the author, would also feel you made a bad choice of license if that happens. I would therefore argue in favor of the ND clause. I personally do not see much problem in preventing commercial redistributions. In the end, and if I were you, I would choose the CC-BY-ND license but I believe that the CC-BY-NC-ND is OK as well.

Just to be clear: I *do* believe the thesis ought to be freely distributable in a non-commercial way! The reason for freedom 2 applies to anything and not only software. All Creative Common licenses respect it.

quiliro@congresolibre.org
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El 10/05/13 16:16, Fabian Rodriguez escribió:
>
> but I believe publishing under a Creative Commons licence
> wouldn't be considered free, specially if there is a "non-commercial"
> use restriction. Perhaps other can provide a better opinion here.

The only free licenses Creative commons has are: CC-By-SA, CC-By and
CC-0. The others are not free (as in freedom).

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Saludos libres,

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Chris

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I'd probably suggest making it available to at least a few people who can comment on it. Worst thing you can do is post something which is full of mistakes even if it is not noticed by your grading instructor.

lammi87

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It would have to be read through really fast since the deadline for the work is 14th May, that is on next Tuesday. Also, my instructor would have to approve it again before that day, so I don't think there is enough time for that.

I believe there won't be too many mistakes in the work. I have used "Free as in Freedom 2.0" and "Free Software, Free Society" and various e-mails from the h-node's main developer as references.

lammi87

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UPDATE

Just sent a copy to Michał Masłowski and magicfab. I hope they are fast readers. Thank you Michał Masłowski and magicfab! Just be very fast.

MagicFab
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On 2013-05-11 12:13, name at domain wrote:
> UPDATE
>
> Just sent a copy to Michał Masłowski and magicfab. I hope they are fast
> readers. Thank you Michał Masłowski and magicfab! Just be very fast.

Many thanks, I just sent my comments in, it's an excellent document, and
I can't wait to see it released in final form.

F.

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http://fsf.magicfab.ca

lembas
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Congrats!

Looks like the FSF recommends against using the creative commons licenses (even by and by-sa) for documentation because they're incompatible with gpl and gfdl.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html#ccby

Perhaps you could get it released under the gfdl or a dual license? (gfdl + whatever)

lammi87

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I don't know. My school uses a thesis database which seems to allow users to choose only between some kind of a CC license and "all rights retained" kind of a license. I can ask them, but I doubt it will possible.

Chris

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Why not release it under the 'all rights retained' and then license it on your own. Provided you own the copyright that shouldn't be an issue.

lammi87

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I am the sole author. I'm thinking of releasing it as CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 for my school's database and with GFDL for everyone else if there are people who are interested about it and would prefer a different license (FSF and FSFE, maybe?).

MagicFab
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On 2013-05-11 19:42, name at domain wrote:
> I am the sole author. I'm thinking of releasing it as CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
> for my school's database and with GFDL for everyone else if there are
> people who are interested about it and would prefer a different license
> (FSF and FSFE, maybe?).

I believe avoiding NC even internally at your school database is
important. GFDL is good for external use, again this is my personal opinion.

This would permit reuse for example in conferences, presentations, and
translations, including for training, etc.

Many times as advicates we find ourselves struggling for good figures
and analysis a proper license helps a lot in those cases.

F.

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quiliro@congresolibre.org
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El 10/05/13 12:15, name at domain escribió:
> While writing my final thesis, I contacted the h-node's main developer
> by e-mail. He was very supportive and gave me information I needed. He
> also suggested that I should notice FSF about my thesis. What do you
> think?

Great idea!

> My thesis is going to be published soon under a free lisence (some
> creative commons lisence if I recall). It will be available as a pdf
> on my school's final thesis database. I can post the link here if you
> guys are interested.

CC-By-SA is the only copyleft license. CC-By is also free but it is not
copyleft (someone may make your work nonfree). CC-0 is public domain so
you do not get credit and also someone may make your work nonfree.

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Saludos libres,

Quiliro Ordóñez
Presidente (en conjunto con el resto de socios)
Asociación de Software Libre del Ecuador - ASLE
Av de la Prensa N58-219 y Cristóbal Vaca de Castro
Quito, Ecuador
(02)-600 8579
IRC: http://webchat.freenode.net?channels=asle&uio=OT10cnVlJjEwPXRydWU3a

Todo correo que reciba será tratado como información pública, de libre copia y modificación, sin importar cualquier nota de confidencialidad.

onpon4
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> CC-0 is public domain so you do not get credit

I think you need to add the qualifier "necessarily" to that. If the credit is included with the work, I don't think most people would actively remove it, and as this song puts it:

http://questioncopyright.org/minute_memes/credit_is_due

People who do remove the credit, or worse, claim that they wrote it, are largely viewed as "arrogant jerks" (or something similar) by everyone else.

In any case, CC BY and CC BY-SA are perfectly good. Actually, CC BY-SA is the best, I think.

lammi87

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Ok, if I can use CC BY-SA, I will. It seems I can't use GFDL.

Cyberhawk

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Since it is your thesis, can't you just release it somewhere else under GFDL or whatever else? Just some other ressource on the net, but same thesis with another license. There are precedence cases with software where the same program is released under a proprietary license and GPL at the same time.

Only if you are interested in releasing it under something else in addition to CC BY-SA of course.

lammi87

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If FSF or any other free software friendly organization prefers to distribute my thesis if it is under GFDL, then yes I can.

lammi87

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Now I'm not sure whether I should use the "CC BY-SA" license.

I'm thinking of using either "CC BY-NC-ND 3.0" or "CC BY-ND 3.0". Maybe the non-commercial one. This way, my thesis could be shared, but not altered. Why should it be altered? Its a final thesis, not a software manual.

I have included a few scripts in the thesis as a way to calculate the amount of my contributions, though. I think it doesn't hurt anyone if they are not allowed to improve these scripts, since, in my thesis, I suggested a feature to be implemented in h-node which would make these scripts obsolete. What do you think?

Magic Banana

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That is what I argued for too.

You can specify, in the copyright notice, that the scripts are distributed under the GNU GPLv3 (or whatever other free software license you want) and that the remaining of the thesis is distributed under the CC BY-ND 3.0 license.

lammi87

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Thanks Magic Banana! I'll be sure to do that.

lammi87

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Ok, I have decided to use the CC BY-ND 3.0 license for the thesis and GPLv3 for the scripts. I also got feedback from Michał Masłowski and magicfab (Fabián Rodríguez), thanks guys! The thesis should be available soon. I'll let you know when it is.

lammi87

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Hi guys. Just wanted to let you know that I have finished writing my thesis (or final project as my school wants to call it) and submitted it to my school's thesis database. It will be checked by the database's maintainers and published after that. It should be quite soon. I'll let you guys know as soon as I can.

I won't be able to use a computer for about a week starting this Saturday. I have to complete a small military refresher course. Once I return, the thesis should be published already.

lembas
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Happy marching up and down the square, don't shoot nobody!

Think of it as a computer detox camp!

lammi87

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I'm back.

I see the thesis database's maintainers haven't approved my thesis yet, so we'll have to wait. I don't know how long it will take. I hope it won't take long. There shouldn't be anything wrong with my work since it has been approved by my instructor.

lammi87

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Ok, the thesis is published.

Link:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/its-here-final-thesis-h-node

Please leave further discussion to another thread found via the link above.