07 July 2008
A New Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation
One of the most remarkable men around today is Sir John Sulston. He's already won a Nobel Prize for his work on nematode worms/apoptosis, and he seems certain to share another for his work on the Human Genome Project. He really ought to get a couple for that, since he was the leader of the forces that kept the human genome free and (relatively) unpatented - think of him as the RMS of the genome (he's also a big fan of free software).
So it's great to see his passion for ethics being channelled in a new institute, which opened last Saturday:The mission of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation (iSEI) is to observe and analyse the role and moral responsibilities of science and innovation. The institute will examine the ways in which science is used in the 21st century, evaluate possible or desirable changes, and consider the forms of regulation and control of the process that are appropriate or required.
More power to his elbow.
Total Open Source
VMukti is a Free, multi-point total communications, collaboration and conferencing engine with built-in support for access to platform features through Personal Customizable Web Interface, Widgets for 3rd party websites, Desktops, and PSTN/ Mobile/ IP Phones.
The core Platform Features Include: Audio/ Telephony, Multipoint Video, Chat, File Search, Whiteboard, File-sharing, Presentation, Remote Monitoring & Controlling, Co-authoring, CRM, and more.
But does it make tea?
04 July 2008
Urgent: Please write to your MEP – Now!
On Open Enterprise blog.
If you're in the EU, please do this.
IDiotic or What?
The chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service has said the ID cards database will not be completely secure.
James Hall said on Thursday that, after a string of high-profile data breaches in the past year, people should be concerned about the security of their personal information held by the government.
"You would rightly be concerned about the integrity and security of the information held about you," said Hall in a speech at the Homeland & Border Security Conference 2008 in London. "The issue has been heightened by recent events. I won't stand in front of you and say there will never ever be a breach of information."
Oh, that's alright, then.
The Hidden Poetry of...Gordon Brown
There was something about the tableau that felt fragile. I could have taken a picture with my mobile, but it would have felt intrusive, rude -especially since we’d been asked not to take any pictures inside No.11. (Describing it here is different from a picture, which is just wrestled out of its context; here you have to imagine the scene yourself rather than have it presented.). It was a beautiful summer’s evening, the sun forcing through the trees wet with the heavy showers that had fallen earlier on. And two men discussed.. something, surely important.
Nice little tableau there, Charles.
03 July 2008
Biofuels "Prime Cause of Food Crisis"
The truth:Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% — far more than previously estimated — according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
Why it will not be allowed out:
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. "It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.
After all, what's a little truth between friends?
In Google We (Don't) Trust
Here's a little reminder why you can never trust Google, even if it has the best intentions:Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.
Yes, that includes *you* - not that you've ever watched anything dodgy there, of course....
ID Cards: Out Come the Jackboots
Clearly Mr Brown and his chums are beginning to despair over this privacy disaster formerly known as ID cards. Not content with putting on fake "consulations" around the country, they are now starting to clamp down on anyone who dares to express a dissenting opinion:On Monday, 9 protestors, including me, all involved with the NO2ID campaign, were arrested in Edinburgh and charged with breach of the peace.
...
# we were all peaceful at all times during the protest
# only 1 protestor sneaked into the meeting. Geraint Bevan, the coordinator of NO2ID Scotland got into the meeting at the start under the cunning ruse of walking up to the registration desk and claiming to be one of the people named on the badges on display.
# prior to entering the hotel, we were protesting peacefully outside, causing curiosity, amusement and the occasional message of support from the passing public.
# when the hotel manager approached us and asked us to leave, Geraint (by this time physically thrown out of the meeting) asked if it were OK for us to leave after STV had conducted an interview with him. The manager agreed.
# when the interview was over, we made to leave immediately, only to find the police had been called. At no point prior to this were we given any intimation the police were called or were going to be called. Prior to the hotel manager asking us to leave, we were not told by any member of staff that we should leave.
# when we entered, we entered peacefully, quietly, carrying placards, with an STV camera crew in tow. The people at the head of our procession did not wear masks.
This could have been serious in a democracy - thank god we no longer live in one....
Strike Out Against "Three Strikes and You're Out"
The pernicious "three strikes and you're out" idea is still about, and the Open Rights Group has news that an attempt may be made to enshrine it in European law:Could Europe be drafting a new law to disconnect suspected filesharers from the internet? MEPs have already signalled their condemnation of this approach. But last-minute amendments to telecommunications legislation could bring the so-called “3 strikes” approach in by the backdoor. If you want your MEP to stick to their guns on 3 strikes, write to them today to voice your concerns.
Act now, before it's too late....
How Closed Does Nvida Want to Be?
Nvidia is going to lose gobs and gobs of market share this year. They are effectively out of notebooks, will lose the high end in days, don't have anything close to a competitive line-up, have higher costs than ATI, and have to shell out money to keep partners alive. If you think this is bad, wait a little.
Not so much staying closed, as closing down....
02 July 2008
Cutting off the Digital Water
Love him or loathe him, Cory Doctorow writes well, and has a great knack for encapsulating important issues in striking thoughts:I think we should permanently cut off the internet access of any company that sends out three erroneous copyright notices. Three strikes and you're out, mate.
The reason goes to the heart of the problem with the three-strikes approach:
The internet is only that wire that delivers freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press in a single connection. It's only vital to the livelihood, social lives, health, civic engagement, education and leisure of hundreds of millions of people (and growing every day).
An Internet connection is now at the level of electricity or water in the modern world: without out, you cannot function properly. To allow an industry to defend an outdated business model by cutting off the digital water and digital electricity supplies is an outrageous over-reaction, and betrays on the part of politicians both a deep ignorance about technology, and a deeper contempt for the "little" people who depend upon those supplies to have any chance against the system that grinds them down daily.
From Smashup to Mashup
As somebody who is not wont to restrain himself when the UK government gets it hideously wrong on the IT front (hello, ID cards), it behoves me to offer a little praise when they get things right. This seems to be a rare and therefore welcome case of the latter:The UK Government wants to hear your ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated. The Power of Information Taskforce is running a competition on the Government's behalf, and we have a £20,000 prize fund to develop the best ideas to the next level. You can see the type of thing we are are looking for here.
To show they are serious, the Government is making available gigabytes of new or previously invisible public information especially for people to use in this competition. Rest assured, this competition does not include personal information about people.
We're confident that you'll have more and better ideas than we ever will. You don't have to have any technical knowledge, nor any money, just a good idea, and 5 minutes spare to enter the competition.
This is absolutely the kind of stuff that the powers-that-be should be encouraging. I'm not exactly wildly optimistic it will lead to a sea-change in their attitude to openness in general, but it's start. If you've ever had to suppress that wild urge to (s)mash up the UK government - and let's face it, who hasn't? - here's your big chance.
playthegameforopenjournalism.org
One of the daftest URLs I've seen in a long time, but interesting to see the "open" meme here.
01 July 2008
30 June 2008
Morphic Resonance of Our Times
There’s no question in my mind that the woes of the journalism profession today have been at least partially self-inflicted. At the very historical moment that the news pros faced relentless new scrutiny from a vast army of dedicated amateur watchdogs and expert critics, they offered up a relentless sequence of missteps and disasters. Some were failures of professionalism, from the Jayson Blair meltdown to the Dan Rather screwup. But the biggest — the absence of a stiff media challenge to the Bush administration’s Iraq war misinformation campaign — was a failure of civic responsibility. With that failure, the professionals forfeited their claim to special privilege or unique public role as challengers of official wrongdoing and ferreters of truth. The democracy still needs these roles filled, of course. But after the Iraq bungle, the professional journalists’ claim to own them exclusively became much harder to accept.
What struck me about this insightful comment was that it seems to parallel something at a deeper level. Consider this slight re-write:But the biggest — the absence of a stiff political challenge to the Bush administration’s use of torture — was a failure of moral responsibility. With that failure, America forfeited its claim to special privilege or unique international role as a challenger of global wrongdoing and champion of justice. The world still needs these roles filled, of course. But after the Guantanamo/Abu Ghraib bungle, America's claim to own them exclusively became much harder to accept.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
I've noted several times on this blog the tension between openness and privacy, but reading the excellent Your Right to Know blog - which, to my shame, I've only come across recently - another dimension became apparent.
This is the interesting contrast between what UK politicians want to do to us in terms of constant surveillance and intrusion into our private lives, and their own - outraged - refusal to allow us to do the same, even when it concerns them spending our money through their extremely generous allowances. For example, try this for hypocrisy:However, I should tell those who press and press such issues that, sooner or later, the allowances will be rolled into our salary, handed out without any claim mechanism or dealt with under some other device, because it is intolerable that this intrusion into Members’ private lives should have to be endured or should be permitted, and something will happen to prevent it from going too far. We can see what will happen: local news reporters and local political opponents will start trying to air these issues in public, which will be demeaning, as well as reducing the stature of Parliament and damaging our democracy. It cannot be right that things should reach such lengths.”
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