The FT on OOXML: Dr Johnson Applies

On Open Enterprise blog.

BECTA Backs ODF

One of the most heartening developments on the UK computing scene has been the evolution of BECTA, "the Government's lead agency for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education, covering the United Kingdom" from an organisation that was supine at best, to one that not only knows what it is talking about, but cares.

Here's further evidence of that:

During the standard approval process Becta wrote to the British Standards committee responsible for co-ordinating the UK’s response to the proposed Office Open XML standard asking that it considers carefully whether two different ISO standards was the best outcome that could be achieved in this important area. We were clear that the interests of non technical users (including most teachers and parents) would be best served by a single standard which accommodated the existing Open Document Format (ODF) specification, and any extensions necessary to provide the required compatibility with various legacy Microsoft formats.

...

There will remain the important practical issues of interoperability within schools and colleges in an environment of multiple ISO standards operating in the context of multiple document converters of varying effectiveness.

As I've noted before, this issue of competing standards, rather than competing implementations of a single standard, goes to the heart of the what standards are for, so it's good to see BECTA picking up on this. (Via Phil Driscoll.)

Portuguese Schools Learn About Open Source

It's always seemed to me one of the biggest problems for free software that it's not well known in schools. As Microsoft understands - and as Apple first learned - if you get them young, you've pretty much got them forever. So it's good to see efforts being made to spread the open source word in the educational world, like this new effort by the Portuguese Ministry of Eduction:

Potenciar a utilização de software livre nas escolas, aumentando as oportunidades inerentes à sua adopção, é a base para a criação deste portal.

Procuramos divulgar e apoiar as Escolas na utilização de software livre para os vários Sistemas Operativos.

O Portal estará em constante actualização, pelo que convidamos todos os utilizadores a enriquecer este projecto submetendo novas ferramentas, notícias e hiperligações, assim como, estão também desde já convidados a participar no fórum.

[Via Google Translate:

Strengthening use of free software in schools, increasing the opportunities inherent in its adoption, is the basis for the creation of this portal.

We disclose and support schools in the use of free software for the various OS.

The Portal will be constantly updated, so invite all users to enrich this project by submitting new tools, news and links, and are now also invited to participate in the forum.] (Via Softwarelivre.)

Is Google Summer of Code Fizzling Out?

I've always assumed that Google's Summer of Code, a generous if self-interested offer to pay for students to do some directed open source coding during school/university holidays, was wildly popular - after all, who *wouldn't* want to get paid for hacking? But maybe there are the first signs of momentum being lost in this post, which suggests that the recent deadline extension hasn't led to a flood of applications:

Extending the deadline has, for us, only resulted in six or seven more applications, and the number of applications is about 50% of what it was last year. I'm not sure why that is - persuading people to apply is not really within my power, at least. In the next few days, I guess I'll find out whether we have quality rather than quantity :-)

Anyone else with positive/negative experiences?

Bye-Bye Biofuels...

When are people going to wake up to the fact that biofuels are not the solution, but actually exacerbate the world's problems?

A global rice shortage that has seen prices of one of the world's most important staple foods increase by 50 per cent in the past two weeks alone is triggering an international crisis, with countries banning export and threatening serious punishment for hoarders.

With rice stocks at their lowest for 30 years, prices of the grain rose more than 10 per cent on Friday to record highs and are expected to soar further in the coming months. Already China, India, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia have imposed tariffs or export bans, as it has become clear that world production of rice this year will decline in real terms by 3.5 per cent. The impact will be felt most keenly by the world's poorest populations, who have become increasingly dependent on the crop as the prices of other grains have become too costly.

...

Analysts have cited many factors for the rises, including rising fuel and fertiliser expenses, as well as climate change. But while drought is one factor, another is the switch from food to biofuel production in large areas of the world, in particular to fulfil the US energy demands.

And this is just the beginning....

I Fear Microsoft, Bearing Gifts for the Greeks

They're at it again:

Η Microsoft είναι η πρώτη εταιρεία που θα προσφέρει δωρεάν εργαλεία ανάπτυξης και σχεδίασης λογισμικού στην ελληνική ακαδημαϊκή κοινότητα μέσω της νέας υπηρεσίας «Αναφανδόν» του Εθνικού Δικτύου Έρευνας και Τεχνολογίας (ΕΔΕΤ). Οπως ανακοινώθηκε την περασμένη εβδομάδα, πρόσβαση στην υπηρεσία έχουν αυτή τη στιγμή οι φοιτητές και καθηγητές του Εθνικού Μετσόβιου Πολυτεχνείου, ενώ σύντομα αναμένεται η σταδιακή ένταξη όλων των ιδρυμάτων της τριτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης και των ερευνητικών κέντρων.

[Via Google Translate:

Microsoft is the first company that will offer free development tools and design software to the Greek academic community through new service Anafandon of the National Research and Technology Network (GRNET). Microsoft is the first company that will offer free development tools and design software to the Greek academic community through new service Anafandon of the National Research and Technology Network (GRNET).]

Paying the Price of Windows

I've written variously about the implications of the arrival of the ultraportable sector (at greatest length here), notably that as the price of systems fall, so the chasm between Windows and GNU/Linux pricing deepens - at least relatively (can you have a relative chasm?). Against that background, this is interesting:

However, our source told us that there would be two new SKUs, the Eee PC 900 Win and Eee PC 900, with the former featuring Windows XP pre-installed, 1GB RAM and a 12GB SSD for just £329 inc. VAT. More intriguing, though, was the latter new Linux edition, which we were told would house 20GB of storage and retail for the same price as the XP version.

See what they've done? Rather selling the GNU/Linux version for less than the one running Windows XP, Asus has upped the spec for the former, and kept the price the same. That doesn't seem very logical: after all, GNU/Linux actually needs *less* memory than XP, so it would have been more sensible to keep the memory the same, and cut the price.

The cynic in me can't help feeling that Asus has been leant on here by Microsoft, and "persuaded" not to sell the GNU/Linux system for less than that of Windows XP. The assumption being that most users won't care about the difference in RAM, and will just go ahead and stick with familiar old XP when given the choice between what seem to be similar systems.

Nice One, NYT

I'd not noticed this feature in the New York Times before:

To find reference information about the words used in this article, double-click on any word, phrase or name. A new window will open with a dictionary definition or encyclopedia entry.

Cool: I'm suprised it's not used more widely.

The Other Side of the Open Access Coin

I write quite frequently about open access - the idea that people should have free online access to research that they have paid for, and ideally even where they haven't. But alongside the issue of getting stuff out in the open, there is the problem of where you put it so that everyone can find it and access it. The answer is in what are rather off-puttingly called "institutional repositories", and it turns out that open source has been there from the start:

What was needed was a custom-built software platform to allow universities to create a dedicated repository in which faculty could archive them. And as the emphasis shifted from central subject-based repositories to smaller cross-disciplinary repositories, it was realised that a low-cost solution would be needed. In 2000, therefore, the UK's University of Southampton released EPrints. The first dedicated repository software, EPrints was made available as freely downloadable Open Source software.

If you want to find out more about the, er, exciting story of repositiories, don't miss the latest of Richard Poynder's elegant interviews - although I do wish he'd get rid of the donation bit.

Microsoft on the Side of the Angels

No, really:

In recent years Microsoft has shown every sign of knowing which way is up when it comes to identity management. The company already has on board Kim Cameron, its chief architect of identity and one of the key thinkers in the field, and with the arrival of Dr Brands - who joins Cameron in the company's Connected Systems Division - it adds a second. Cameron cleared up the mess and set the new rules after Microsoft's monolithic, centralised and panoptical Hailstorm ID management policy collapsed under its own weight. Dr Brands is author of the seminal Rethinking public key infrastructures and digital certificates, and the developer of 'blind' or 'minimum disclosure' credentials.

Together, these support a privacy-friendly and user-centric view of identity management - the antithesis, effectively, of the controlled, centralised vision that's currently crashing and burning at the Home Office.

Now all we have to worry about are the patents....

Anyway, great article - worth reading all of it.

KDE + Wikimedia.de = Wikkimedia.DE?

Interesting:

KDE e.V and Wikimedia Deutschland have opened a shared office in Frankfurt, Germany. As two organizations that share similar goals and organizational challenges, they hope that working out of the same space will strengthen and expand their links to the Free Culture community, as well as allowing them to share resources, experience and infrastructure.

"We believe that the combination of Free Software and Free Content is not only beneficial," remarked Sebastian Kügler, a KDE e.V. board member, "but the next logical step towards a mature, organized Free Culture community." Kügler explains the idea behind opening the shared office: "Being able to tap into the expertise of an organization in a different field, but with very similar goals and principles, provides us with an opportunity to grow and gain experience that I hope to see more often, both within our projects and those of our peers."

Open Media Now

OMNow is a foundation dedicated to the development, support and empowerment of an open media infrastructure. Upon this infrastructure stand companies and individuals who need free media solutions. Free media solutions save companies money and give them control over product technology. Such solutions support individuals by offering them legal ways to create, distribute and display their creative works. Our foundation opens the media market by actively developing operating system-agnostic and cross-platform solutions.

Pity they're starting with bloody Flash/Gnash....

The US Fashion Industry's Death-Wish

Another great post from Mike Masnic:

The fashion industry got jealous of the entertainment industry's ability to crack down on innovation with copyrights and pushed Congress to introduce new legislation that would add a copyright for fashion design. Recently such laws have been getting a big push from politicians who are pandering to the fashion industry. Of course, studies have shown that the very reason the industry has thrived was because the lack of IP protection. In fact, one bit of research showed that adding IP protections to fashion could kill the industry.

Meet the New Governor: Open Source

Everyone knows that government is dull - dull, but very, very important. So a couple of recent moves in this dull but important world seem pretty significant to me.

First, there's this:

European public administrations that want to use software that is offered for free, such as Open Source software, do not need to organise a call for tender.

This is the conclusion of the Dutch government project NOIV, after studying European rules on tenders. The NOIV published an English translation of its guide for ICT buyers in the public and semi-public sectors, 'The acquisition of (open-source) software', on its website this week.

What that might mean is that it will be much easier to take the open source route than the proprietary one, since government departments (in Holland, at least) will be able to avoid all the hassle of putting out tenders and then sifting through them, and so more departments will take opt for it.

Then there's this:

The French-speaking Brussels Parliament (PFB) is considering to increase its use of Open Source, said Joël Tournemenne, director of the parliament's IT department, without giving more details.

Tournemenne visited the Solutions Linux conference in Paris at the end of January, where he spoke with the developers of Tabellio, an Open Source projects funded by the PFB.

Tabellio should result in an Open Source suite of applications for drafting, managing and publishing legislative documents and is meant for parliaments and assemblies. The project is a joined effort of two Belgian regional parliaments: the PFB and the Parliament of the French Community in Belgium.

What interests me here is not so much the details, but the fact that something like the open source Tabellio even exists: free software for "drafting, managing and publishing legislative documents" that "is meant for parliaments and assemblies"? You can hardly get closer to the heart of government - and hence power - than that.

Your Private Second Life

It's been an open secret for some time that IBM has been creating intranet-based virtual worlds, but this seems to be the first official news about it:

IBM said on Wednesday it would become the first company to host private regions of the virtual world Second Life on its own computer servers.

...

IBM employees will be able to move freely between the public areas of Second Life and private areas which are hosted behind IBM's corporate firewall.

This will enable the company to have sensitive discussions and disclose proprietary information without having the data pass through the servers of privately held Linden Lab.

You Know Open Source Has Really Arrived...

...when the two main political parties in the UK are squabbling over who is truer to the open source spirit:

David Cameron embraced Linux, open source and bottoms-up decision-making today as he detailed his vision of a Tory innovation policy in a speech at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

Cameron pledged that a Tory government would set the UK’s data free – but not in a bad way, like HMRC. Rather, he said, he wanted to ensure people could access information which allowed them to create “innovative applications that serve the public benefit”. This “information liberation” meant ensuring spending data was transparent for example, and that people could easily compare crime figures.

At the same time, he said, “We also want to see how open source methods can help overcome the massive problems in government IT programs”. Cameron said the Tories would reject Labour’s addiction to the mainframe model. Instead, he claimed, a Conservative government would follow private sector best practice and introduce open standards, “that enables IT contracts to be split up into modular components”.

...


Cameron’s pledge to open source comes just days after the minister for transformational government, Tom Watson, claimed that Labour is the party that really, you know, gets open source.

In his speech on Monday announcing the government’s Power of Information taskforce, he referred to an earlier speech where “I talked about the three rules of open source - one, nobody owns it. Two, everybody uses it. And three, anyone can improve it." He then recounted how the Tories immediately sent out an email “laying claim that in fact they are the ‘owners’ of these new ideas. I was accused of plundering policies from the Conservatives.”

Fight, fight, fight.

Happy Birthday, Open Data

The received wisdom is that open source begat open access, which begat open data, and in broad outline that's true enough. But in one respect it's quite wrong: the first, and arguably most important open data store was set up fully 25 years ago, and is still going from strength to strength:

For a quarter century, GenBank has helped advance scientific discovery worldwide. The nucleic acid sequence database was established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1982. Since its creation, the GenBank database has grown at an exponential rate. Amazing as it may seem, in 1984, the entirety of GenBank’s data was published in a two volume hardcover book. Today, if the current contents of GenBank’s database were printed, it would fill more than 300 pickup trucks with paper.

Unveiled at the onset of the “Information Age”, GenBank has continued to evolve and incorporate technological innovations. The GenBank database has remained on the cutting edge of technology and illustrates the dynamic changes over the past 25 years in quantity and speed with which information is shared.

GenBank joined with sequence databases in Europe and Japan to form the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration. GenBank was one of the earliest bioinformatics community projects on the Internet promoting open access communications among bioscientists. In 1992, the GenBank project transitioned to the newly created National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) within NIH where it resides today.

Open Enterprise Interview: Jeff Haynie

On Open Enterprise blog.

Cracking a Hard(ware) Problem

It is a sad but true fact that hardware issues - whether or not a particular bit of kit is supported - still dog GNU/Linux, and remain a major obstacle to its wider use. Happily, a partial solution is available from the community of current users, who collectively have scads of info about what works and what doesn't. Now there's a site that seeks to bring it all together, UbuntuHCL.org:

Our mission is to provide a forum for Ubuntu users to share their experiences with different hardware, to ease the transition of new users to Ubuntu, as well as help users pick the right hardware for their Linux system.

The Russian Experiment

I've always thought that Russia offered very fertile ground for free software. It has some of the best hackers in the worlds (not to mention crackers), a need for customised software (not least because it will be in Cyrillic) and not much dosh to pay for exorbitant licensing fees. So news that Russia was aiming to move schoolchildren to free software seemed promising, even if the cynic in me wondered whether anything would actually come of it.

Well, here's a useful update on what exactly is happening with the project:

First of all, first deliverables have already become available. Openly and publicly (Russian). Among others, you are able to download the specially tailored Linux distributions, including a version tailored for older PCs with 128-256 MB of RAM and P-233-class CPUs and a Terminal Server edition that allows to use older PCs as thin terminals provided a decent server is available in the classroom.Secondly, the information is now coming from more than one source, which indicates that the regional participants of the project have both freedom and willingness to act (Perm, Tomsk, Moscow, all in Russian). The most curious is the website of the Perm region, where a map of the integration progress is available. The numbers in black correspond to the total amount of schools (first number is for city/town schools, second is for rural schools), the numbers in red correspond to the schools where Free Software is already being used.

Attack of the Copyright Were-Rabbit

There is a counter-reformation movement afoot in the world of copyright. The purpose of the movement is to chill the willingness of countries to enact fair use or liberal fair dealing provisions designed to genuinely further innovation and creativity, rather than, as is currently the case, merely to give lip service to those concepts as the scope of copyright is expanded to were-rabbit size.

Another great post from William Patry, one of Google's better hires.

British Library = National Disgrace

I've noted before that there's something rotten at the heart of the British Library, which insists on locking down knowledge in Microsoft's proprietary formats. Now NoOOXML starts to pull all the threads together:

the company Griffin Brown, of which the BRM convenor Alex Brown is the director, sent out a press release 13 March 08 celebrating the 10th anniversary of XML:

Recent moves by Microsoft to standardise its Office products around XML file formats merely confirms that most valuable business data in the future will be stored in XML. … Alex Brown is convenor of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 Ballot Resolution Process, and has recently been elected to the panel to advise the British Library on how to handle digital submission of journal articles.

What's the betting those digital submissions end up in OOXML?
(Via Boycott Novell.)

Signs of the (Digital) Times

Readers of this blog will know that I am fascinated by the analogue/digital divide, and how the passage from one to the other causes all sorts of interesting problems:

Question: Why is eBay requiring sellers of digitally downloaded goods to list their items in the Classified Ads format?

Answer: Most items that require digital delivery, once created, can be very easily replicated. This ease of replication creates the opportunity for sellers to list thousands of the same item in an attempt to manipulate the Feedback system. It also creates a perception that even legitimate sellers of Digital Goods are manipulating the Feedback system. This dynamic -- real and perceived -- undermines trust across the entire marketplace.

We understand that digital goods, by themselves, are not the cause of Feedback Manipulation, but clarity of policy and ease of enforcement require all digitally downloaded items to be offered via the Classified Ads format.

Tricky stuff this business in the absence of scarcity.... (Via Techdirt.)

UK Copyright: Winners and Losers

I often spout about copyight in this blog, but I enjoy the luxury of ignorance. If you want a really balanced account of the situation in the UK, try this excellent talk given by Ray Corrigan recently:

My brief for this morning is to look at current UK copyright legislation – how it compares internationally, and who are the winners and losers. I will be starting with a whistle-stop tour of UK copyright law in historical context, before looking at international comparisons and then focusing on the winners and losers.

Who could ask for more? Well, apart from a more reasonable copyright regime, of course.

Cheeky Bulgars

How dare they?

The Bulgarian government organised a meeting with Open Source companies and developers on 21 March in Sofia. Nikolay Vassilev, the minister for State Administration, told the representatives of software companies, IT services companies and Open Source developers that the government is about to review the state's IT system and that it wants to get a better understanding of Open Source software. The minister admitted he had once worked with Apple Macintosh, but had in the last thirteen years only experienced Microsoft applications. He told the Open Source advocates he would listen to their views on IT: "We have an open mind and will accept reasonable propositions."