Getting to Know the Knowledge Commons

The Knowledge Commons is

a distributed network architecture that enables the culturing of knowledge through construction, distribution, and recombination.

This model provides:

* collaborative knowledge creation
* knowledge correlation through metadata
* identity and authentication brokering
* peer-based content distribution and retrieval
* automated commons management

Er, yes? Sounds interesting, but could we have some more details, please?

Wisdom of the Football Hooligans

Now here's a spooky story:

PicksPal is a free sports site where people “bet” on upcoming games. No money is involved. If they win, their point total goes up and they have bragging rights around the office. Since launching about a year ago over 100,000 people have joined the site, making daily picks on just about every kind of sporting event in the U.S. - boxing, NFL football, pro football, bass fishing, ultimate fighting, basketball, baseball, etc. The site makes money from advertising.

Recently, however, the PicksPal team noticed that a very small percentage of users tend to be correct in their picks significantly more often that they should be statistically. When they grouped these special users they found them to be a powerful predictive force.

I care not a jot for sports or betting, but what is interesting here is that the idea can be generalised. You set up a site devoted to a particular domain with uncertain results, and invite visitors to predict the future. You then analyse the patterns over time and try to find groups of people who consistently beat random guesses.

Bicycle-Powered GNU/Linux System

I must confess my initial scepticism to the One Laptop Per Child project has waned a little, not least because it does seem to have some genuinely cool technology behind it.

But I was nonetheless intrigued to find that there is already something similar that is not just on the drawing board, but off it and deep in the field (or jungle/savannah as the case may be). It's called the Inveneo Communication System. It uses GNU/Linux (of course), and draws as little as 12 Watts of power, which can be supplied by sun, wind or bicycle.

Open Source Enterprise Stack: It's Official

I and several thousand other people have been writing about the open source enterprise stack for a while; now free software's Eminence Rouge has given its benediction:

Red Hat Application Stack is the first fully integrated open source stack. Simplified, delivered, and supported by the open source leader. It includes everything you need to run standards-based Web and enterprise applications. Red Hat Application Stack features Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Application Server with Tomcat, JBoss Hibernate, and a choice of open source databases: MySQL or PostgreSQL, and Apache Web Server.

8020 Vision

Although my interest in art photography is more passing than passionate, here's an idea that brings together a number of threads in a novel way. JPG Magazine is a Web site and a magazine with a difference:

JPG Magazine is made by you! As a member, you can submit photos and vote on other members' submissions.

So it's a kind of Digg meets Flickr meets Worth1000.com, with more to come, apparently.

CERN Re-invents Publishing - Again

The Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee while he was working at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. Now the boys and girls at CERN are at it again, with a radical proposal that will re-invent scientific publishing in their field.

Essentially, they suggest that enough of the big particle physics establishments get together to sponsor the publication of most of the main titles in their field for the next few years as part of a transition to an open access approach, funded in part by savings on subscriptions. At a stroke this solves the biggest problem with OA - getting there.

Major laboratories such as CERN will have to take a lead initially in steering the community through the OA transition – both politically and financially – but ultimately the particle physics funding agencies will have to provide the lion’s share of the financial support. This accounts in particular for the fact that about 80% of the original research articles in particle physics are theory papers.

Tentatively, the task force envisages a transition period of five years to establish a ‘fair share’ scenario between funding agencies and other partners, to allow time for funding agencies to redirect budgets from journal subscriptions to OA sponsoring, and to allow time for more publishers to convert journals to OA. At the end of this period, the vast majority of particle physics literature should be available under an OA scheme.

The sums involved are big for publishing, but puny compared to the cost of your average accelerator, so it's a good mix. And they're thinking strategically too:

With about 10,000 practising scientists worldwide, particle physicists represent a medium-sized community that is small enough for publishers and funding agencies not to take incalculable risks, yet big enough to provide a representative test bed and to set a visible precedent for other fields of science and humanities.

In other words, if this works, the hope is everything else will come tumbling down too. This is one experiment I'll follow with interest. (Via Open Access News.)

Wiki in a Box

So, it seems that someone has come up with the idea of offering a box with some wiki software in it. For several thousand dollars.

They'll be selling bridges next.

Not So Patent

Squirreling away prior art in an attempt to stave off software patents sounds like a jolly sensible idea. But that old curmudgeon, Richard Stallman, points out some very cogent reasons why in fact this isn't such a jolly sensible idea. Essentially, the only solution to software patents is to abolish them.

Forking Wikipedia

At the end of last year, I asked whether Wikipedia might fork.

The answer is "yes".

Update 1: Here's Clay Shirky on why he thinks it's doomed to fail.

Update 2: And here's Larry Sanger's response to those points.

The Genuine Article

There's an article on Language Log about Microsoft's use of the term "genuine":

Microsoft has a new advertising campaign focussing on their efforts to reduce "piracy" of their software, that is, the sale of their software in violation of license agreements. You can read about it here. They call this campaign the "Microsoft Genuine Software Initiative" and use the term "genuine" in contexts such as this:

In the month of May, 38,000 customers purchased genuine Windows software after being notified that they had been sold non-genuine software. Customers recognize that the value of genuine is greater than ever.

I find this use of "genuine" to be most peculiar. An unlicensed copy of Microsoft Windows is perfectly genuine. It has exactly the same functionality as a licensed copy and was made by the same company. In contrast, if you buy a "Rorex" watch, it is not genuine because it is not made by the Rolex company and does not have the aesthetics, functionality, and resale value of a real Rolex. What Microsoft is concerned about is the software equivalent of buying a refrigerator that fell off the truck. The problem is not that you are not getting the real thing - the problem is that the transaction is not legal.

I point this out not so much for the post itself, which seems a little thin - after all, the bits may be genuine, but the packaging certainly isn't, so in this sense Microsoft is right - but as an excuse to recommend Language Log itself. It's simply one of the best places to read interesting reflections on language in all its glory.

WikiMusic

In principle, open content applies to all kinds of materials, not just words. But it's certainly true that most open content is text-based. The basic problem is coming up with a framework that allows collaboration with other kinds of media. So here's an idea: WikiMusic.

The idea here is collaborative asynchronous recording of music, wherin you record your parts to a music editing software file, then upload it for others to add to. Each version of the file can be left online, so that people can revert back to older versions.

Memo from the Long Spoon Department

Microsoft has a long and inglorious history of working closely with companies only to shaft them royally when it suits. Now it looks like the same is happening with music. According to this TechDirt piece:

Microsoft's super hyped up portable entertainment device, Zune, isn't even compatible with protected Windows Media files that use Microsoft's own "PlaysForSure" copy protection. Yes, that's right. All of the content that people bought on services like Napster, Rhapsody, Yahoo, Movielink or Cinemanow that they figured would continue to be supported by everyone outside of Apple... just discovered that Microsoft has cut them off.

So all those copmpanies who thought they were one of Microsoft's closest pals just found out why you should always use a long spoon to sup with the devil.

Vyatta Gets VC Dosh

I've written about Vyatta, a company producing an open-source router, before. Now it's got some serious VC dosh: you don't have to be clairvoyant to see that this company is going to be very big. Starting queueing for shares now. (Via Enterprise Open Source Magazine.)

Amazing Amazon Unbox - Amazingly Awful

If you still don't believe me when I say that Cory Doctorow can deliver, try this harangue, one of the finest I've read in a long time. Like Doctorow, I order a lot of stuff from Amazon; like him too, I will never in a billion February 29ths order one of these terrible un-Amazon-like miscegenations.

The difference between Amazon and Amazon Unbox is like night and day. When you sign onto Unbox, you sign away all the amazing customer rights that Amazon itself is so careful to protect. Amazon Unbox takes away your privacy and every conceivable consumer right you have, and then tells you that the goods you buy from them don't belong to you, and they can take them away from you at any time, or change the deal you get from them without any appeal by you.

Amazon Unbox's user agreement isn't just galling for its evilness -- it's also commercially suicidal. No sane person will agree to this. Amazon Unbox user agreement is only a couple femtometers more dignified than being traded to another inmate for a couple packs of cigarettes.

Maybe Not So Dumb After All

I hate the For Dummies series. The idea that you buy a book because you're stupid is simply insulting. How about calling it For the Curious? Is that so much worse? Anyway, it seems that there is someone with intelligence at said book publishers, since they've come out with the utterly improbably Linux Smart Homes for Dummies:

364 pages and a CD-ROM that cover not only the typical X10 hardware and software characteristic of home automation, but also networking, video, audio, and even heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) control that can make your house the envy of your neighborhood.

Update: And here's the author's blog, with lots of useful stuff about Home Automation using GNU/Linux (with thanks to Neil for the comment below.)

British Academy Gets It On Copyright

The British Academy has traditionally been a rather staid institution, but this press release about a forthcoming report shows that they get all the main points about copyrights and its wrongs:

A report from the British Academy, to be launched on 18 September, expresses fears that the copyright system may in important respects be impeding, rather than stimulating, the production of new ideas and new scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.

...

The situation is aggravated by the increasingly aggressive defence of copyright by commercial rights holders, and the growing role – most of all in music – of media businesses with no interest in or understanding of the needs of scholarship. It is also aggravated by the unsatisfactory EU Database Directive, which is at once vague and wide-ranging, and by the development of digital rights management systems, which may enable publishers to use technology to circumvent the exceptions to copyright which are contained in current legislation.

Let's hope the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property takes note and gets it too.

Nupedia Out in the Open

Remember Nupedia? No, not many people do. But it was the trail-blazing precursor of Wikipedia. Apparently the code is open source, and it's available from Larry Sanger, Nupedia's Editor-in-chief, and co-founder of Wikipedia.

The Tired Old "Innovation" Argument

One of Microsoft's favourite justifications for its monopoly is that any brake on it would be a brake on "innovation" - as if Microsoft were some hotbed of the latter. The danger with letting this kind of nonsense pass unchallenged is that others start using it. Here's a prime specimen:

Speaking in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Thomas Barnett, assistant attorney general at the DOJ’s antitrust division, warned that forcing companies to reveal their intellectual property stifles innovation. He used Apple as an example, in a nod to growing discontent in Europe regarding the way that music purchased from iTunes is tied to the iPod.

Well, no: if you read works like the splendid Against Intellectual Monopoly, you find in fact that

intellectual monopoly is not neccesary for innovation and as a practical matter is damaging to growth, prosperity and liberty.

The book gives plenty of examples - like James Watt and the steam engine - that are eye-opening in this respect. And since the book is freely available, there's no excuse for not finding out about these fascinating things and helping to stamp out this wretched "innovation" meme.

De-fanging Data Retention in the EU

The downside of the European Union is that Europe-wide laws can be passed in a completely undemocratic way that affect everyone. The upside is that challenging such laws - and winning - can effectively knock them out all across Europe. This makes the effort by Digital Rights Ireland to fight the paranoid EU Data Retention Law critically important. Send them all your lucky shamrocks. (Via The Open Rights Group.)

Copyright Explanations Done Right

I know that Cory Doctorow gets up some people's nostrils - there's even a site dedicated solely to his denigration - but you've got to allow that the man (a) knows what he's talking about when it comes to copyright and (b) can really write when he has a following wind.

I offer Exhibit A, entitled "How Copyright Broke", without doubt one of the most accessible introductions to where copyright came from and what's wrong with it. It's the perfect solution for explaining a tricky subject to aunts and uncles.

WIPO's Poison Cloud Draws Nearer

I've written before about the pernicious WIPO Broadcasting Treaty that is being discussed. Sadly, it's rumbling ever closer, and bringing with it a terrible cloud:

US industry was prominent at the meeting, as several representatives from information and communications technology (ICT) companies were there in opposition. Jeffrey Lawrence, director of digital home and content policy at Intel, said it would create a "whole cloud of liability issues."

"We have the patent cloud, the copyright cloud, and now we’re going to have a broadcast cloud," Lawrence said. He predicted such a treaty would "stifle innovation because it creates uncertainty." In addition, it has significant Internet ramifications, as it could impact cable and home networking, seen as critical to ICT industries. The movement of content is the "next killer application" for industries, he said. Lawrence called on industries to "stand up" to fight the treaty as it is proposed. Other opposed companies present at the meeting were Verizon and AT&T.

The Planet Meme

I've got a new column up on Linux Journal in which I talk about some of the various hacking blogs around. One thing that struck me was how many are called "Planet this" or "Planet that". Now a reader has kindly pointed out that this is down to some cool software called, er, Planet:

an awesome 'river of news' feed reader. It downloads news feeds published by web sites and aggregates their content together into a single combined feed, latest news first.

The listing of Planets - dozens of them - on the site is impressive.

Update: Here's some practical info on how to set up and use Planet.

Gates Supports Open...

...Access. Amazing, the Gates Foundation is giving to

Public Library of Science (PLoS), to launch a new medical journal on neglected diseases -- US$1.1 million: PLoS will launch PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, a new open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal covering science, policy, and advocacy on neglected tropical diseases.

Yup, that's "open access", as in practically the same as open source, but applied to academic papers.

Hm, Gates is piquantly close to getting it.... (Via Open Access News.)

We Have Lost the War...

...the techno-war for liberty, that is. At least, that's what the venerable Computer Chaos Club (CCC) reckons:

"We have lost the war ," is what it all boils down to according to the assessment delivered by Frank Rieger, the former CCC spokesman, at the last CCC Congress in Berlin in December. "We are living in that dark world of sci-fi novels we always sought to forestall. The police state is now."

...

The new technologies have opened up a plethora of possibilities for collecting, storing and linking data. The desire to data mine these huge international repositories has become ever more intense, especially since 9/11. Scared people make for pliable populations and governments have no hard time getting their hands on the information they want. Whence the relinquishing of civil rights and liberties is taking place - in a creeping fashion.

The CCC has not been able to prevent these developments. But it saw them coming. Since its founding on September 12, 1981 the Club has sought to be more than a kindergarten for nerds and geeks. Very early on the CCC showed a commitment to educating the public. It has repeatedly warned of the downsides of the technology it so fervently embraces. An attitude that may appear a little schizophrenic but that is nonetheless indispensable.

Bad News in Your Inbox

I have been asked so many times "Is it possible to tell if someone has read my email?" And the answer, of course, is no: email gets sent; whether it is received or read is entirely unknown.

Unless you use DidTheyReadIt. I presume this works by adding an invisible HTML element to the email message that calls back to the company so they can track when messages are read. Although this might satisfy people who insist on knowing whether their masterpieces have been read, it's really Bad News because of the tracking it carries out. And just think of the field-day spammers will have: now, they won't have to guess whether an address works or not.

I hope that email clients will add the facility to block this kind of stupidity. It's not what email is about: if the person who receives your email can't be bothered to reply, either your message wasn't important enough - or maybe they aren't. (Via Lessig .)