State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail.
Taxes on email? Well, that's spam sorted. Pity about the collateral effects.
...and these people are cutting down the trees.
Great piece; sad, sad story.
Good news from the Middle Kingdom:Sun Microsystems, Inc. , the OpenOffice.org community and Redflag Chinese 2000 Software Co., Ltd., today announced a joint development effort that will focus on integrating new features in the Chinese localization of OpenOffice.org, as well as quality assurance and work on the core applications. Additionally, Redflag Chinese 2000 made public its commitment to the global OpenOffice.org community stating it would strengthen its support of the development of the world's leading free and open
source productivity suite.
Under the provisions of the agreement, Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000, which produces the popular OpenOffice.org-based RedOffice, will add to the open source project approximately 50 engineers, some of whom have been working on the OpenOffice.org project since the second half of 2006.
(Via Erwin Tenhumberg.)
One of the most important journeys in the world of software has been undertaken by IBM. Its early support for first Apache, and then GNU/Linux, were critical in establishing open source as viable for business. Then came the donation of code to Eclipse, and many other smaller acts of openness.
Here's the latest one:IBM is kicking off an experiment to open up its software development process in a way that mirrors the creation of open source applications.
"The reward of getting our information out there is going to be amazing and critical to the future of IBM's software," Jerry Cuomo, chief technology officer of IBM's WebSphere middleware suite, told vnunet.com in an interview at the IBM Impact 2007 conference in Orlando.
Cuomo is planning to publish the source code control system of software projects and encourage lead engineers to start blogs.
This will allow them to engage in conversations with outside developers and IBM customers and poll them on planned features and technologies.
I'm sure this will become the standard way to develop commercial software. Just think: one day, even Microsoft will be doing it.
Being an old fogey, I don't care much about all these new-fangled social networks (even LinkedIn seems overly, well, chummy for my tastes). But they're undeniably important, especially for those young people. However, I think we are about to enter a new phase for social networks that is going to leave a lot of people - investors in particular - feeling queasy.
Looking past the vertiginous growth rates mentioned here, the real killer is at the end:Bebo’s traffic share rose threefold in the year to April while MySpace grew around two and a half times, Hitwise found, with the former poised to overtake MySpace this month, having ranked number one for the last three weeks. But it’s Facebook that now seems to be the hottest property. Anecdotally, many of my friends who had only just discovered MySpace have now upped and left for the more structured communication confines of Facebook, where they are better able to reconnect with old classmates and colleagues.
I predict that this fickleness will be a defining feature of a world that is predicated on being a memeber of what's hot, and not being a member of what's not.
Welcome to the world of social network churn.
This is getting seriously hard to parse:In a surprise announcement earlier today at the Open Source Business Conference, Novell and the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that Novell would be contributing to the EFF's Patent Busting project. In addition, the two entities will work for legislation and policies that will "promote innovation," specifically targeting the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Go for it:
Repeated violation of WTO commitments in the face of contrary WTO rulings allows a victimized member country ultimately to suspend its own WTO obligations to the offending nation - a form of restitution much more punitive than tariffs alone. America runs a steady and hefty trade deficit in virtually every category of international trade other than intellectual property.
Were the WTO - with possible European, Japanese, and Chinese support - to allow the Antiguans to suspend all intellectual property obligations to the United States, the American IP industry could face a tiny adversary with an unlimited right to reproduce for its own benefit American IP goods of any kind.
Hm, a novel approach:So it dawned on him: If being candid about his flights could clear his name, why not be open about everything? "I've discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away," he says, grinning as he sips his venti Black Eye. Elahi relishes upending the received wisdom about surveillance. The government monitors your movements, but it gets things wrong. You can monitor yourself much more accurately. Plus, no ambitious agent is going to score a big intelligence triumph by snooping into your movements when there's a Web page broadcasting the Big Mac you ate four minutes ago in Boise, Idaho. "It's economics," he says. "I flood the market."
23andMe is a privately held company developing new ways to help you make sense of your own genetic information.
Even though your body contains trillions of copies of your genome, you've likely never read any of it. Our goal is to connect you to the 23 paired volumes of your own genetic blueprint (plus your mitochondrial DNA), bringing you personal insight into ancestry, genealogy, and inherited traits. By connecting you to others, we can also help put your genome into the larger context of human commonality and diversity.
Toward this goal, we are building on recent advances in DNA analysis technologies to enable broad, secure, and private access to trustworthy and accurate individual genetic information. Combined with educational and scientific resources with which to interpret and understand it, your genome will soon become personal in a whole new way.
Nothing special there, of course. What makes this news is the following:Google said it had invested $3.9 million in the company, called 23andMe Inc., giving the Mountain View, California-based Google a minority stake in the start-up, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
I wrote about this three years ago, but purely theoretically. Be very afraid. (Via TechCrunch.)
It is rather ironic that science, which is a paradigmatic example of openness in action, should be a relative laggard when it comes to getting formally behind open science. So it's good to see a couple of new blogs on the subject, as noted by Bill Hooker.
Better blooming late than never.
As I've written elsewhere, Microsoft's FUD is more interesting for what it says about the company's deepest fears than for its overt message. This is certainly the case for the latest example:Coverage of the debate on the new version of the GNU Public License (GPLv3) has focused on the differing opinions among three groups: Project leaders like Linus Torvalds and other top Linux kernel developers; Foundations like the Free Software Foundation (FSF) led by Richard Stallman; and Large Technology Companies such as Sun, HP, IBM, and Novell. While these three groups are certainly all affected by revisions to the GPL, open source developers are also affected, but have been significantly under-represented in the discussion. In this paper, our objective was to give developers a voice and bring their opinions into the debate. What does this fourth constituency think about open source licenses, the upcoming release of the GPLv3, and the philosophies surrounding open source software?
Actually, I lied: the results in this particular case, although predictable, are so hilarious that they deserve wider airing:Thus our results suggest the actions of the FSF may only be favored by approximately 10% of the broader community and leads us to ask, should a committee be created with a charter to create and revise open source licenses using a governance model similar to that of the open source development model? Is it contrary to the spirit of the open source community, which relies on the wisdom and view of the masses, to have the governance of licenses controlled by a few individuals whose views run contrary to the objectives of potentially 90% of the people affected by their actions, especially when the community members are the very creators and developers of the software under discussion?
Hello, people: those "few individuals" you are talking about are essentially Richard Stallman, as in Richard Stallman who single-handedly started this whole thing, fought most of the key battles, and even wrote some of the most important code, alone. And you're questioning his right to revise the licence that he - as in Richard Stallman - devised and then gave to the world?
But of course the main takeaway from this is that Microsoft is really, really worried by precisely those new provisions in GPLv3 that are designed to limit its ability to subvert free software, to the extent that it would even contemplate publishing a sponsored report of this kind based on - wait for it - a massive 34 replies out of 332 requests; talk about "few individuals".
Thanks for the info, chaps.
Anything that calls itself the "Avoiding Mass Extinction Engine" is obviously worth supporting, but even more so when it does everything right:What is particularly exciting about it however, particularly from an open knowledge/data point of view, is that:
* All the code is open (GPL)
* All the data (~70TB of it) is open (CC by-sa)
* They’ve provided a nice ‘Knowledge’ API in the form of a RESTful data service
I find Jonathan Schwartz's blog fascinating. Not so much for what it says - even though that is often, as here, thoughtful and well written, as for the fact that the CEO of a huge company that is being turned around in front of our eyes thinks that it is worth doing, and at such length.
My fascination sometimes feels of the kind provoked by watching enormously large structures head slowly but inexorably towards each other. Not that I want to be negative, you understand.
Linden Lab continues to do good in acquiring and open-sourcing cool technology:Linden Lab, creator of 3D virtual world Second Life, today announced the acquisition of graphics technology from Windward Mark Interactive. Linden Lab will acquire WindLight, an advanced atmospheric rendering technology; Nimble, a realistic 3D cloud simulator; and associated intellectual property and interests.
...
Following the acquisition of this technology, Linden Lab will integrate Windward Mark’s WindLight into the Second Life Viewer and will open source the code under a General Public License agreement. The Viewer (available here: http://secondlife.com/community/downloads.php) featuring WindLight will be immediately available for PCs, with a Mac version to follow.
“This is a great example of the benefits of an open-source model,” said Cory Ondrejka, CTO of Linden Lab. “Our core development team is tightly focused on improving the Second Life experience in terms of stability and scalability, but open sourcing has enabled external developers to integrate additional enhancements that are also hugely valuable; WindLight is one of these. We’re excited to bring this technology to Second Life and pleased to have such a talented team of developers join Linden Lab.”
Wow, a new one on me:SquidBee is an Open Hardware and Source wireless sensor device. The goal of SquidBee is getting an "open mote" to create Sensor Networks.
The main concepts behind SquidBee are:
* Self-powered
* Wireless Comunications
Repeat with me: "Ubiquity, Ubiquity, Ubiquity..."
How does SquidBee work?
1. Acquires values from environment parameters: temperature, humidity, lightness, presence, pressure or (almost!) whatever you can sense.
2. Operates with these values, when required.
3. Transmits these values using a low power comsumption wireless technology (ZigBee).
4. Sleeps until next timeout and repeats from the first stept.
Second step is not always necessary, depending of the calculations needed it may be better to make them in receiver computer to save nodes energy.
An open mote? What does it really mean?
It means every part of the mote is accessible and can be studied, changed, personalized, ... From the schematic circuit to the source code of the programs that are running inside the mote.
(Via dailywireless.org.)
Recently I was bemused by Microsoft's espousal of ODF, and now here we have the company spreading more joy:The company on Monday is expected to announce that it is sponsoring an open-source project to create a converter between Ecma Open XML--a set of file formats closely tied to Microsoft Office--and a Chinese national standard called Unified Office Format (UOF).
I think I understand what Microsoft is up to.
Until recently, its approach was to try to block ODF at every twist and turn: the last thing it wanted was another standard - much less a truly cross-platform, open one - to join the club of approved formats.
That strategy has failed: ODF is being chosen or is on the brink of being chosen by more and more governments around the world. And where governments lead, local business will follow. Microsoft is now faced with the prospect of losing its monopoly in the office sector. Indeed, it risks being locked out completely, as more and more countries opt for ODF only.
So I think Microsoft has decided to cut its losses, and go for a very different approach. Given that it can't shut out ODF, and there is a danger that Microsoft's OOXML will not be selected alongside it, the company is now pushing very hard for as many standards as possible: the new mantra being "Choice is Good". The point being, of course, that if you have lots of competing standards, then the one with the largest market share - Microsoft's - is likely to have the advantage.
It's a shrewd move, because at first blush it's hard to argue against having choice. But the flaw in this argument is that choice has to occur around the standard, through competing implementations, not between standards. In the latter case, all the benefits of open standards are lost, and the status quo is preserved. Which, of course, is exactly what Microsoft is hoping to achieve with its sudden rash of generosity.
Rather better than my curt dismissal below is this more rigorous explanation of why copyright should not be perpetual. Interestingly, it's a wiki, and therefore a collective creation. Also interestingly, it suffers from one fairly major flaw: it is much too long. So much so that even I, crazed copyright enthusiast that I am, find it hard to read to the end.
I think this may be a problem of the wiki format, which encourages honing and addition, but makes deletion difficult, because it feels like an act of sacrilege against the creation of others. But as any professional writer will tell you, one of the most valuable services that can be performed on prose is to cut it. When it comes to words, less is nearly always more.
It's hard to decide whether the author of these words is a copyright fool or a copyright knave:No good case exists for the inequality of real and intellectual property, because no good case can exist for treating with special disfavor the work of the spirit and the mind.
Well, apart from the one that intellectual property does not exist, is actually an intellectual monopoly, and hence a bad thing that should be limited as much as is possible?
Given that he comes from the Claremont Institute, whose mission is "to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life." - ooh, look, weasel words - maybe I can guess which side of the fool/knave watershed he falls. (Via Against Monopoly.)
First, this incredible opening par:Some of the changes in the upcoming release of Windows Server 2008 are a response to features and performance advantages that have made Linux an attractive option to Microsoft customers.
Er, say that again? Windows Server 2008 is explicitly responding to GNU/Linux?
Then, this little nugget:"Having less surface area does reduce the servicing and the amount of code you have running and exposed, so we have done a lot of work in 2008 to make the system more modular. You have the server manager; every role is optional, and there are more than 30 components not installed by default, which is a huge change," Laing said.
Ah, yes, modularity....
News that Firefox users tend to be more up-to-date with their security patches is interesting, especially for on account of the suggested explanation:Much of this patching success has to be credited to Firefox's automatic update mechanism, which debuted in version 1.5 but was improved in version 2.0. The browser checks to see if a new version is available and notifies the user when it finds one. The security updates tend to be small (around 200KB to 700KB), which also makes the updating process less painful.
Internet Explorer, in contrast, is typically updated along with the rest of the system with Windows Update. Regular users of Windows Update automatically got upgraded from IE 6 to IE 7, so it is not surprising that people still stuck on IE 6 are not updating as much as IE 7. It's possible to assume that many of the people who aren't using Windows Update are avoiding it because the Windows Update web site checks (using WGA) to see if the user has a legitimate copy of the operating system, but as critical updates for IE 6 are still automatically downloaded by Windows even if WGA fails, it seems more likely that the numbers include legitimate users who have turned automatic updates off.
Once again, the virtues of modularity become clear - and turn out to have very clear real-world benefits too, in this case.
It's a bit rudimentary at the moment, but Google's new Timeline view for searches is quite entertaining. (Via Vecosys.)
Interesting: Microsoft has apparently paid $6 billion for a company I've never heard of - aQuantive. Aside from demonstrating my shallow knowledge, this also underlines the fact that we live in an online world driven by advertising. And people said the banner ad was dead....
One of the things I love about Richard Stallman's crusade for freedom is that it is so uncompromising. This means that it tends to espouse strict, unimpeachable positions that may not be totally practical (which he would doubtless say is irrelevant).
A case in point is the new PlayOGG campaign, which encourages people to ditch MP3 files and use the OGG standard instead. Now, I yield to none in my admiration for OGG, but I really can't see this happening. Moreover, it's not long until the troublesome patents on MP3 expire anyway, so the whole question will become moot.
I'm not the biggest fan of the SOA idea, which I find rather modish and ripe for being replaced by the next buzzword du jour, but I can hardly disagree with the second part of this statement:„SOA und Open Source sind zwei der wichtigsten Trends in der IT. Die Verbindung von beiden bringt Unternehmen mehr Flexibilität bei geringeren Kosten“, sagt Ricco Deutscher.
["SOA and open source are two of the most important trends in IT. Bringing them together offers businesses more flexibility for lower costs," says Ricco Deutscher.]
Herr Deutscher is the CEO of the new company Sopera GmbH, which has just done something rather fine: Deutsche Post World Net places SOA platform with Eclipse
IT service provider SOPERA will drive forward development of the platform at Eclipse
Bonn, 15 May 2007: After already announcing in April that it plans to make its SOA platform also available to other companies by the end of the year, Deutsche Post World Net has now secured a key basis for development with the Eclipse Foundation .
...
Deutsche Post’s IT service provider, SOPERA GmbH, will play a leading role in further development of the platform as a board member of the Eclipse Foundation. SOPERA managing director Dr. Ricco Deutscher describes the development perspectives: “It’s all about establishing an open-source, modular and standard-based SOA platform as part of a future open source stack.
This is good news for everyone, and emphasises how pivotal Eclipse is becoming - not just for open source, but computing in general. (Via James Governor's Monkchips.)
I don't normally pay much attention to industry organisations, since they are pretty much self-serving. But the new Copyright Alliance (which so far doesn't seem to have a website) forms an interesting pairing with the Digital Freedom Campaign, which I wrote about last year. Copyright is and will be for some time an extremely hot issue.
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