Chinesepod's Milestone

Today marks a milestone for the innovative language-learning site Chinesepod: it has published its 1000th Mandarin lesson. Those not familiar with the Chinesepod phenomenon will be surprised to learn that the lesson, like the other 999, is freely available: for Mr. Chinesepod, the Shanghai-based Dubliner Ken Carroll, is a connoisseur of the Web 2.0 world. He understands that in the digital age, the secret to making money is to give away the entry-level stuff to attract interest and build a vibrant community, and then to make money by offering premium content to people who are already know the value of your free resources.

Chinesepod's methods have been widely copied, something that Carroll, to his credit, is remarkably relaxed about. In any case, the Chinesepod family has already grown to include a Frenchpod, Spanishpod and Italianpod, with Russian, Arabic and German versions in the works.

Carroll obviously understands that its not the basic idea - of using downloadable lessons, interactive resources and message boards - that counts, but the execution. Speaking as one of the many tens of thousands of poddies who eagerly await their daily ration of digital Chinese, French, Spanish and Italian, I can attest to the fact that Carroll and his superb team certainly deliver.

Indeed, looking back over the last 1000 lessons, I'd go so far as to say that it's not so much that Chinesepod has *passed* a milestone, but that it *is* a milestone in language learning. Here's to the next 1000, Ken.

High Priority Free Software Projects

One of the criticisms of free software is that certain classes of applications are missing. Interestingly, the FSF agrees, up to a point, and has put together what it calls its "high-priority projects list":

The FSF high-priority projects list serves to foster the development of projects that are important for increasing the adoption and use of free software and free software operating systems. The projects on our list are neither run, controlled, nor maintained by the FSF, but are supported entirely by the individuals in the free software community. Our list helps guide volunteers and supporters to projects where their skills can be utilized, whether they be in coding, graphic design, writing, or activism. We hope that you can find a project here where your skill, energy, and time can be put to good use.

Some of the most important projects on our list are replacement projects. These projects are important because they address areas where users are continually being seduced into using non-free software by the lack of an adequate free replacement.

If you're interested - and maybe want to contribute - here's the list:

1. Gnash — the free software Flash player
2. Coreboot — the campaign for a free BIOS
3. Free software replacement for Skype
4. Membership and donor transaction and contact system
5. Free software video editing software
6. Free Google Earth Replacement
7. gNewSense — The all free software GNU/Linux operating system
8. GNU Octave — free software Matlab replacement
9. Replacement for OpenDWG libraries
10. Reversible Debugging in GDB
11. Free software drivers for network routers

Any others that you'd add? (Via linux.com.)

Norwegians Get the Blues

A little while back I noted a provocative call from IBM for standards bodies to do better – a clear reference to the ISO's handling of OOXML. Here are some other people who are clearly very unhappy with the same: 13 members of the Norwegian technical committee that actually took part in the process....

On Open Enterprise blog.

Don't "Think of the Children" - Just *Think*

More insane authoritarian urges from the present UK government:

Shortly after the launch meeting of the UKCCIS, Culture and Media Secretary, Andy Burnham, was heard to remark: "We have to start talking more seriously about standards and regulation on the internet.

"I don't think it is impossible that before you download something there is a symbol or wording which tells you what's in that content. If you have a clip that is downloaded a million times then that is akin to broadcasting.

"It doesn't seem over-burdensome for these to be regulated."

Which just goes to show how much *you* know about the Internet, sunshine. As The Reg points out:

These are either the words of someone who hasn’t the first idea how user-generated content works – or alternatively, a man with a very sinister plan indeed. YouTube alone is estimated to generate ten hours of new content every minute. Similar ratios are to be found on other popular user-driven sites.

Censorship, here we come....

Update: And a very nice skewering from Bill Thompson on the subject here.

CeBIT Opens Up

Years ago, when I was a real journalist, I used to dread going to CeBIT. Then, as now, it was an insanely large exhibition that only Euro anoraks could love, as they went round endless halls filled with printer cables and such-like, scribbling things excitedly in their catalogues....

On Open Enterprise blog.

Opening OpenPandora's Box of Openness

After the open source mobile from Android we have the open source game platform from OpenPandora:

* ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
* Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
* Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
* Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* Around 10+ Hours battery life

Yours, apparently, for around 200 quid.

Strange News from the New Frontier

If you're interested in Xinjiang and its uighurs - and everyone should be - don't miss these extraordinary goings-on.

Respect, Nathive

In the world of closed-source software, it's hard to get a project going in a sector with established players. Since everything must be built from scratch - no building on the work of others *here* - it requires considerable financial backing.

Of course, that's not the case with free software, where the archetypal person in a bedroom can just start hacking for the sheer love of it - like this, for example:

Unfortunately I do not have much help... in fact I'm not a Gnu/Linux Expert, I'm not a superstar programmer, Simply one day I promised myself to do this, life is something strange... Born in 1985, like FSF, I became Gnu/Linux user in 2007 (never too late) and this is my first C program. I love to learn!

I would like to form a working group and continue learning more and more quickly.

The project is Nathive:

Nathive is a libre software image editor, similar to Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo-Paint or The GIMP, but focusing on usability, logic and provide a smooth learning curve for everyone. The project run over Gnome desktop and everyone can colaborate in it with code, translations or ideas.

The project is in alpha phase, so it is an incomplete work, the intention is to achieve progressively a professional graphic editor without giving up the initial usability. It's a made from scratch code, with C programming language and GTK+, simple, lightweight, easy to install and use.

I particularly liked the first statement of the following:

Nathive Philosophy

* Show respect and gratitude to GIMP community.
* First make it easy, then make it powerfull.
* The user don't need to see every options all time.
* If it seems absolutely absurd, might work.
* Everything should be obvious.

Respect and gratitude begets the same.... Good luck, Nathive.

Just Say "No"....

...to 42 days. (Via Boing Boing.)

A Survey of Open Source Surveys

One sign of the health of open source these days is the number of surveys saying how healthy it is. For example, here's one from Actuate:

The figures show that Europe leads the way in its preference for open source platforms, particularly in the deployment of new applications, and replacement of outdated systems, with France and Germany at the forefront....

On Open Enterprise blog.

Egosurf - in the Past

This is too good an offer to pass up: search through Google's index as it was in January 2001. Spooky. (Via Google Blogoscoped.)

The Second Life of Philip Rosedale

Last week I chatted to the founder of Second Life, Philip Rosedale. He was telling me how happy he was that he'd found a new CEO to take over the day-to-day running of Linden Lab. Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? Except that in this case, I believe him....

On Open Enterprise blog.

Viva España Libre!

Most people know that the Estremadura region in Spain is a pacesetter in terms of deploying free software, but here's a handy map that shows how it and everyone else is doing in that country.

In the Blue Corner: Decentralisation...

Here's an interesting emergent meme:

An incoming Conservative government would decentralise health service computing and extend competition between suppliers, according to a plan released at its party conference.

The party's NHS Improvement Plan, released on 29 September 2008 by shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, says the party will replace "Labour's centrally determined and unresponsive national IT system".

"Conservatives for decentralisation, Labour for centralisation": hmmm, might just work.

Openness is the Solution to the (Double) Subprime Crisis

As I listen to all this talk of lack of trust in the banking system, of inflated values ungrounded in any reality, of “opacity”, and of “contaminated” financial instruments, I realise I have heard all this before. In the world of software, as in the world of finance, there is contamination by overvalued, ungrounded offerings that have led to systemic mistrust, sapped the ability of the computer industry to create real value, and led it to squander vast amounts of time and money on the pursuit of the illusory, insubstantial wealth that is known as “intellectual property”....

On Linux Journal.

Haque Really Hacks It

I'd stopped reading Umair Haque's posts on Bubblegen because I was beginning to find them increasingly incomprehensible (probably old age on my part). This one is crystalline in comparison - and highly germane to everything I've been writing about on this blog:

Central banks and governments are throwing money at an economic superstructure rotting from the inside - but given the severity of the situation, that's like trying to put out a fire by throwing Molotov cocktails at it.

So what should we do - what can we do - about it? Here's my answer.

...

That's the third, simplest, and most fundamental step in building next-generation businesses: understanding that next-generation businesses are built on new DNA, or new ways to organize and manage economic activities.

Think that sounds like science fiction? Think again. Here are just a few of the most radical new organizational and management techniques today's revolutionaries are already utilizing: open-source production, peer production, viral distribution, radical experimentation, connected consumption, and co-creation.

Openness, sharing, etc., etc., etc. (Via David Eaves.)

Watch Out! It's a Trap....

Go, RMS, go:

"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software."

Mind you, I think it would be better if RMS came up with ways of taming clouds rather than just excoriating them (assuming you can excoriate a cloud, which seems unlikely.)

Android Gets a Hand

As I wrote last week, Android's USP is openness. Although that means open to everyone, there is arguably an advantage to open source coding on the Android platform. For a start, the methodology that Android employs will be totally familiar, as will the idea of building on pre-existing code.

Here's a case in point....

On Open Enterprise blog.

Now, That's What I Call a Monoculture

Apparently, Internet Explorer has a market share of around 98.7% in South Korea. As I understand it, this is largely because the South Korean government is even more benighted than the UK one, and insists on using ActiveX controls for its dealings with the public. More figures and explanation here.

ID Cards: Hope and Hopelessness

There's hope:

academic John Daugman, a former member of the Biometrics Assurance Group (BAG), which reviewed the scheme, said its reliance on fingerprints and facial photos to verify a person's identity will cause the system to collapse under the weight of mismatched identifications.

Daugman, an expert on iris recognition, said fingerprints and facial photos are not distinctive enough for telling the UK's 45-million-strong adult population apart.

Daugman said that, even if the error rate was as low as one in a million, the 10 to the power of 15 comparisons needed to verify the indentities of 45 million people would result in one billion false matches.

And there's hopelessness:

Speaking at the launch of the UK's first ID cards on Thursday, home secretary Jacqui Smith claimed problems with taking or recognising fingerprints pose no threat to the effectiveness of the ID-card system.

Presumably because the whole scheme will be utterly ineffectual anyway....

What Microsoft Still Does Not Get

At first, I thought this Computerworld UK story about software vendors “challenging” proposed EU guidelines was just a typical Microsoft whine about the imminent loss of its stranglehold over the government sector in Europe. It is such a bad loser: after having abused its monopoly position for years, essentially telling the world and his or her dog to like it or lump it, it now runs screaming to teacher as soon as there is any suggestion of the playground daring to stand up to its bullying.

But I was wrong; the following comments are no mere knee-jerk whinge, but provide us with a profound insight into the troubled soul of the Redmond behemoth....

On Open Enterprise blog.

Let's Frame This...

....just in case they need reminding:

Dominic Grieve has said it is “high time” Labour abandon their "ill-fated" ID cards project after Jacqui Smith unveiled the design of ID cards for foreign nationals.

The Shadow Home Secretary stressed, “ID cards are an expensive white elephant that risk making us less - not more - safe.”

And he said the Government were “kidding themselves” if they think ID Cards for foreign nationals will protect against illegal immigration or terrorism - as they don't apply to those coming here for less than three months.

A Conservative Government would abandon the ID cards project, and Dominic said he hoped Labour had taken that into account when they negotiated the contracts.

“If they have not acted on this to protect the British taxpayer, it is reckless in the extreme at a time of heightened economic uncertainty.”

A Question of Perspective

I’ve been asked to share a few words about the reported theft of 900,000 records of past and p1resent RAF service personnel, often with bank account details.

...

We should put this in perspective. This is an isolated incident. There is no reason to suppose that the thief has any idea of the value of this data on the black market. In any event, most of these staff have certainly had their details lost already. This will be true if they have children, have taken driving tests recently, are also members of Al Quaeda or the Iraqi security services, have been in prison or use local GP services. All of this data has already been lost or transmitted to the “toxic soup” pool of shared data, as it were.

Brilliant, brilliant stuff: kudos.

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, We Salute You

Think about it.

Tragedy of the Fishy Commons

Fishing vessels on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland are this week destroying the best hope for years that the region's cod fishery, once the world's most abundant, might yet recover.

Faced with utter, selfish stupidity like this, I do sometimes think we deserve what is bubbling up through time towards us....