Open Source Goes Dutch

More good news from Europe (Via Australia, bizarrely):

The City of Amsterdam said Friday it will spend euro300,000 (US$400,00) testing open source software in two administrative districts in 2000...

City spokeswoman Marjolijn van Goethem said Amsterdam's housing department and one of its borough offices _ Zeeburg _ would test a Linux-based operating system on city computers, and open-source document software, replacing Microsoft Windows and Office.

The nub:

"Earlier this year, a study ordered by the (Amsterdam) city council showed that an 'open' software strategy leads to more independence from suppliers," the city said in a statement. "In addition, the use of open software can lead to better exchange and storage of information, without unacceptable financial or logistical risks."

(Via tuxmachines.org.)

Petard, Meet Australian Government

Welcome back to the dark ages, Australia:

Plugging a word or phrase into a search engine may soon give you fewer results if proposed new Australian copyright laws are adopted, according to Internet giant Google.

The laws could open the way for Australian copyright owners to take action against search engines for caching and archiving material, Google says in a submission to a Senate committee considering the legislation.

This could potentially limit the scope of the search engine results, which the Internet company describes as effectively "condemning the Australian public to the pre-Internet era".

This is what kowtowing to intellectual monopolies gives you. (Via Boing Boing.)

Google+Open Access = Health

Doctors in doubt about a patient's ailment could use Google to help them reach a diagnosis, researchers said today.

Two Australian doctors have found that entering the symptoms of a tricky case into the internet search engine often results in accurately diagnosing the illness.

This story has an interesting implication. One easy way to improve the quality of the results - and hence the quality of the diagnosis and subsequent therapy - would be to release more medical literature as open access. Then, by definition, it would be picked up by Google, which would feed through the results to the medics.

Open access: you know it makes sense.

The Future of Media

The Future of Media Report has two main things going for it. First, it comes from an Australian group, which gives it a slightly different perspective on things. Secondly, it is packed full of interesting graphs and charts. Make that three: it's available under a liberal CC licence.

It's a Dog's Life

One of the fascinating things that I learned when I was writing Digital Code of Life is that many diseases - such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, certain kinds of cancers and neurodegenerative disorders - are not commonly found in the great apes. As I put it then:

In a sense, the human genome has evolved certain advantageous characteristics so quickly that it has not been debugged properly. The major diseases afflicting humans are the outstanding faulty modules in genomic software that Nature was unable to fix in the time since humans evolved as a species.

Another extraordinary fact is that dogs are even more susceptible to these same diseases than humans are, and for the same reason: the domestic breeds have arisen so recently, and from limited populations through inbreeding. But if dogs are like us, only more so, then they also hold out the hope that by investigating the root causes of their afflictions we might be able to understand our own better.

I see that further steps in this direction are now being taken:

Melbourne researchers are examining the DNA of dogs in a research project aiming at determining the genetic causes of common pet diseases – and to provide a model for combating diseases such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis in humans.

Tridge and Bill

An interesting story in The New York Times about the courtroom battle between the EU and Microsoft. It makes beautifully clear how one human story trumps any number of dry legal expositions, however detailed and cogent the evidence they present.

Certainly, it was a shrewd move wheeling out Andrew Tridgell. I had the pleasure of interviewing Tridge for my book Rebel Code, and his boyish enthusiasm for hacking positively beamed through the conversation, undiminished by the journey from his native Australia. Indeed, he presents a fascinating contrast to some of the other bigs of the free software world, for example the driven and messianic Stallman or the sardonic and by nature rather shy Linus.

Tying the Kangaroo Down

If any proof were needed that some people still don't really get the Internet, this article is surely it. Apparently Australia's copyright collection agency wants schools to pay a "browsing fee" every time a teacher tells students to browse a Web site.

Right.

So, don't tell me: the idea is to ensure that students don't use the Web, and that they grow up less skilled in the key enabling technology of the early twenty-first century, that they learn less, etc. etc. etc.?

Of course, the fact that more and more content is freely available under Creative Commons licences, or is simply in the public domain, doesn't enter into the so-called "minds" of those at the copyright collection office. Nor does the fact that by making this call they not only demonstrate their extraordinary obtuseness, but also handily underline why copyright collection agencies are actually rather irrelevant these days. And that rather than waste schools' time and money paying "browsing fees", Australia might perhaps do better to close down said irrelevant, clueless copyright office, and save some money instead?