One of the pivotal moments in the recent history of free software is when a small group of coders got fed up with the slow, buggy mess that was Mozilla, cut down and rewrote the code and created what eventually became Firefox....
On Open Enterprise blog.
More hopeful signs of increasing activity around free software from Latin America. This time, it's the International Congress of Free Software and Democratization of Knowledge, held in Ecuador:
Del 21 al 24 de noviembre del 2008 se realizó en Quito Ecuador y fue organizado por la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana.
...
El evento estuvo expectacular con representantes de gobiernos como Ecuador, Venezuela, Brasil y Extremadura. Miembros de las comunidades de Educalibre, Gleducar, Slec, Somos Libre, entre otros.
[Via Google Translate: From 21 to November 24, 2008 took place in Quito and Ecuador was organized by the Salesian Polytechnic University.
...
The event was expectacular with representatives of governments like Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Extremadura. Members of the communities of Educalibre, Gleducar, SLEC, We Are Free, among others.]
More details about the individual days from page linked to above.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am not a fan of the term “intellectual property”, and that I prefer the more technically correct term “intellectual monopolies”. Despite that, I strongly recommend a new book from someone who not only approves of the term “intellectual property”, but of its fundamental ideas. I do so, however, because this avowed fan also has serious reservations....
On Open Enterprise blog.
Deep, if dark, essay on the deep malaise at the heart of British politics, and the rise of the database state:A threefold process unfolded under New Labour whose dimensions and trajectories are only now becoming clear.
* First, an irreversible dismantling of the historic “sovereignty of Parliament” and its empire state through: a cultural destruction of the old “Establishment” clubland regime; a territorial break of its unitary form with devolution (to try and secure Labour’s hold on Wales and Scotland); a legal modernisation with the Human Rights Act. These were all far-reaching commitments inherited from the battle against Thatcher’s authoritarianism.
* Second, New Labour exploited the vacuum this created. Instead of replacing the old constitution it cultivated an even more centralised system of executive-sovereignty that treated the House of Commons with unparalleled contempt. Although progressive policies might be drawn up and implemented by able advisors, the core of this reformed state machine was dedicated to the construction of a corporate populist regime under prime ministerial fiat expanding surveillance and state controls to pioneer a new type of “database state”.
* Third, unable to appeal to the loyalty of traditional institutions such as Parliament and monarchy yet longing for unchecked executive power and dismissive of democracy, New Labour embraced market populism selling itself as the purveyor of choice, freedom and bust-free economic growth while dressing old socialist talk of inevitability and internationalism in the fresh language of “globalisation”. In effect it drew the old state through the eye of the City to create a regime that became a servant to the world financial markets.
The best meditation on blogging and bloggers I have read so far:
In fact, for all the intense gloom surrounding the news-paper and magazine business, this is actually a golden era for journalism. The blogosphere has added a whole new idiom to the act of writing and has introduced an entirely new generation to nonfiction. It has enabled writers to write out loud in ways never seen or understood before. And yet it has exposed a hunger and need for traditional writing that, in the age of television’s dominance, had seemed on the wane.
Words, of all sorts, have never seemed so now.
(Via Open (minds, finds, conversations).)
Sally Murrer has been a local journalist for 33 years, and for the past 20 she has juggled her work with being a parent.
A single mother, with three children - one of whom is autistic - she works part-time on the Milton Keynes Citizen, a bi-weekly newspaper.
In May 2007 her cosy, little world suddenly imploded when she received a visit from officers working on Operation Plaid.
"I was arrested, strip-searched and held in custody for 30 hours and because I had just moved and didn't have a telephone at the house, I couldn't contact my children or tell them what was going on," she recalls.
The fact that all that happened in connection with leaks of *true* information that were embarrassing to the Government, rather like this case, is, of course, entirely coincidental.
Interesting, too, that this journalist was threatened with "jail for life" for said heinous crime of revealing the truth. Meanwhile, certain politicians can invade a country for spurious reasons (weapons of mass destruction, anyone?), against the will of the vast majority of the electorate, and be jointly responsible for the deaths of half a million people, and receive...obscenely well-paid speaking engagements.
It's a funny old world, isn't it?
Drug companies are blocking or delaying the entry of cheaper generic medicines into the EU, pushing up medicine bills, the European Commission has said.
Their actions cost EU healthcare providers 3bn euros ($3.9bn; £2.5bn) in savings between 2000 and 2007, it said.
But how were they doing that?Drug firms use "perfectly lawful practices - such as patent portfolios, patent litigation and the release of improved medicines," the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) said.
Ahh, *that's* what patents are for, then....
So, ye Japanese whale-eaters, eat this:Chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption, because they are toxic - as revealed by research on the Faroes themselves.
...
today in a statement to the islanders, chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen announced that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption.
...
The work has revealed damage to fetal neural development, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity in children, as well as increased rates of Parkinson's disease, circulatory problems and possibly infertility in adults. The Faroes data renewed concerns about low-level mercury exposures elsewhere.
And the aim of this is precisely what?
PricewaterhouseCoopers, in association with the European National Software and Associations: Europe (ESA), France (AFDEL), UK (BASDA) and Pierre Audoin Consultants as technical advisors, is pleased to present the 2008 EuroSoftware100....
On Open Enterprise blog.
There are so many high-profile battles for the soul of computing going on that it is easy to overlook what is happening in some of the world's by-ways. For example, the Ukraine does not often figure in Western reporting, but that does not mean that Microsoft is not busily trying to lock down that country's computing infrastructure:«Майкрософт Украина» провела конференцию «Правительство XXI века», посвященную использованию информационных технологий в деятельности органов государственной власти и организации «электронного правительства»
В ходе конференции специалисты компании Microsoft и украинских компаний- партнеров рассказали о стратегическом походе к трансформации государственного управления при помощи информационных технологий, а также продемонстрировали лучшие примеры уже реализованных проектов в Украине и за рубежом. В конференции приняли участие более 130 представителей государственных учреждений и организаций, а также эксперты компании Microsoft.
Открывая конференцию, генеральный директор «Майкрософт Украина» Эрик Франке сказал: «У нас есть большой опыт успешного внедрения технологий и инновационных решений компании Microsoft для оптимизации работы правительств многих стран мира. После визита Стива Балмера в Киев в мае этого года мы подписали меморандумы с рядом министерств и ведомств и продолжаем плодотворные переговоры с Госдепартаментом интеллектуальной собственности. Я думаю, что мы на правильном пути».
[Via Google Translate: «Microsoft Ukraine» held a conference «Government XXI century», on the use of information technologies in government and the organization «e-government»
During the conference, experts of Microsoft and Ukrainian partners talked about the strategic campaign to transform public administration through information technology, but also demonstrated the best examples have already implemented projects in Ukraine and abroad. The conference was attended by over 130 representatives from government agencies and organizations, as well as experts from the company Microsoft.
Opening the conference, Director General of «Microsoft Ukraine» Eric Franke said: «We have a long experience of successful technologies and innovative solutions to Microsoft for optimizing performance of many countries in the world. Following the visit of Steve Balmera in Kiev in May this year, we signed MOUs with a number of ministries and departments, and continue fruitful negotiations with the State Department of Intellectual Property. I think we are on the right track»]
If Microsoft's boss in the Ukraine thinks they are on the "right track", this can only mean things are on the *wrong* track for free software there. Time to send in RMS....
As someone who has been following Microsoft for over 25 years, I remain staggered by the completeness of the Vista fiasco. Microsoft's constant backtracking on the phasing out of Windows XP is perhaps the most evident proof of the fact that people do not want to be forced to “upgrade” to something that has been memorably described as DRM masquerading as an operating system. But this story suggests an even greater aversion....
On Open Enterprise blog.
...strikes again:
A political row erupted last night after counter-terrorism police arrested the shadow Home Office minister, Damian Green, after he published leaked documents allegedly sent to the Tories by a government whistleblower.
...
George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, told the BBC: "I think it is extraordinary that the police have taken that decision. It has long been the case in our democracy that MPs have received information from civil servants. To hide information from the public is wrong."
This is getting serious.
For some in the world of free software, libraries are things that you call, rather than visit. But the places where books are stored – especially those that make them freely available to the public – are important repositories of the world's knowledge, of relevance to all. So coders too should care about them alongside the other kind, and should be concerned that there is a threat to their ability to provide ready access to knowledge they have created themselves. The good news is that open source can save them....
On Linux Journal.
...die by the (s)Word:Microsoft is working with Westminster technology chiefs after politicians and peers complained of being unable to open the latest Word documents.
The Mircrosoft Office 2003 software used by the UK's 646 MPs and 742 peers is incompatible with Microsoft Word 2007 document formats, leaving politicians and civil servants unable to read some correspondence.
Could there be a moral here?
I've written before about the increasing uptake of, and innovation around, free software in Russia. Here's another fascinating experiment, involving the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Services, which is giving students netbooks running the Mandriva distro:Интересный эксперимент решили провести во Владивостокском государственном университете экономики и сервиса — вместо традиционных бумажных конспектов и ведомостей учета посещений вся работа вуза переведена в электронную форму. А преподаватели и студенты (все без исключения) в настоящее время бесплатно получают нетбуки Asus Eee PC 900 для работы с электронными ресурсами вуза как в учебных аудиториях, так и дома. Всего до 4 декабря только учащимся будет передано 997 нетбуков.
[Via Google Translate: An interesting experiment decided to meet in Vladivostok State University of Economics and services - instead of traditional paper notes and account statements visits all the work of high school is available in electronic form. And teachers and students (without exception) are currently free netbuki Asus Eee PC 900 to work with electronic resources in university classrooms or at home. Total until December 4, only 997 students will be transferred netbukov.]
This use of netbooks has had a knock-on effect on the university's coursework, which is now freely available for download (although bizarrely, many of the 400 courses are in Microsoft Office formats).
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is not only a great example of the open source methodology being applied outside software, it also started in the UK, which is something to celebrate. Not that's its stayed there of course, as this crowd-sourced mapping system spreads around the world.
One measure of its success and maturity is the fact that a commercial ecosystem is beginning to form around it, just as happened with GNU/Linux in the mid 1990s. Here's an interesting hint of what's to come in this area....
On Open Enterprise blog.
Good news: Irving Wladawsky-Berger, the person who essentially steered IBM toward GNU/Linux - with huge knock-on effects - has joined one of that nice Mr Obama's policy groups:
Technology, Innovation & Government Reform
The Technology, Innovation & Government Reform Policy Working Group will help prepare the incoming Administration to implement the Innovation Agenda, which includes a range of proposals to create a 21st century government that is more open and effective; leverages technology to grow the economy, create jobs, and solve our country’s most pressing problems; respects the integrity of and renews our commitment to science; and catalyzes active citizenship and partnerships in shared governance with civil society institutions. The Working Group is organized into four sub-teams: (1) Innovation and Government, (2) Innovation and National Priorities, (3) Innovation and Science, and (4) Innovation and Civil Society.
As well as interviewing him for Rebel Code, where he graciously spent some time explaining things when he was a busy man, I also interviewed him for the Guardian. That piece provides a lot of hints at just how wide-ranging his interests are. (Via eightbar.)
But that's not too bad an outcome, because it seems to have taken most of the "three strikes" nonsense with it, as this full explanation makes clear:Looking at the final versions of the five amended EU Directives that form the Telecoms Package, it seems that yes, Amendment 138 (which made sanctions against 'unlawful content' subject to due process of law) has indeed disappeared. But so have some elements of another part of the Package that said that national telecoms regulators should regulate lawful and unlawful content. What was particularly worrying about those provisions was that they referred to another part of the Package that mandated co-operation between national regulators and telecoms industry providers - i.e. ISPs and the big telecoms carriers.
Of course, it ain't over until it's over....
When Sun announced at the beginning of this year that it was buying MySQL for the not inconsiderable sum of a billion dollars, the question most people posed to themselves was how Sun was going to recoup its investment. I was initially worried that Sun might try to push Solaris over GNU/Linux in the LAMP stack, but Sun's CEO, Jonathan Schwartz was adamant that wasn't going to happen.
Now, nearly a year later, we're beginning to see what exactly Sun has in mind....
On Open Enterprise blog.
More incisive reporting from the BBC - not. This time, it concerns the move to extend performers' copyright from 50 to 70 years. The UK Government - to its credit - is resisting, because it makes no sense economically: copyright is meant to encourage *new* creation, not reward existing work.
Increasing the copyright term will cannot encourage people who have already created (absent time machines), offers marginal additional incentive to those who might create, but represents a massive loss for the public domain. Alas, the musicians - and the BBC - don't seem to get this:A video message on behalf of 38,000 UK musicians has been sent to Gordon Brown urging him to back an extension of their copyright protection.
The musicians, many of whom have worked with major artists, say they risk losing their income under current laws.
The BBC has sunk to new depths of sloppy reporting by failing even to mention why there might be another side to this story - choosing, instead, to peddle the musicians' sob-story:
"The amount of revenue that's been brought into this country by these people is quite staggering. Now we require the government to help us out a little bit and show perhaps a bit of gratitude."
He added: "Instead they choose to kick us in the face and ignore our campaign to extend the copyright for these people and their estate."
There is something of a battle going on over the use of open source by local and national governments. Mostly, this centres on cost, together with various technical issues. But one area that is frequently overlooked is the fact that open source software that is created by such bodies can also be used free of charge by businesses. In other words, there may be knock-on benefits that would never be produced through the use of broadly equivalent proprietary solutions....
On Open Enterprise blog.
From a Wikileaks press release (not online as far as I can tell):
Wikileaks spokesman Jay Lim stated "The UK is increasingly viewed as medievil backwater with the worst speech protections in the Western world. We deplore the arrest of members of a registered political party for distributing what is clearly a political pamphlet supporting political policy positions."
"Medievil" just about sums it up....
Some suspicious lack of transparency here:The Italian open source advocacy group Associazione per il Software Libero is protesting two memoranda of understanding (MOU) signed this summer by the Italian government and Microsoft. The group last week published a public protest letter.
The association explains that over the past three months it has in vain tried to raise the issue with the minister of public administration and innovation, Renato Brunetta. "We now publish this letter to get his attention on the benefits of open source software."
The advocacy group writes is it worried about a three-year memorandum of understanding signed by Minister Brunetta with Microsoft to develop software solutions for schools. It also expresses doubts over a similar agreement with Microsoft for the modernisation of public administration document management systems.
All such memoranda should be routinely out in the open.
There's an interesting consultation document on the role of copyright in the knowledge economy, put out by the European Commission:
The purpose of the Green Paper is to foster a debate on how knowledge for research, science and education can best be disseminated in the online environment. The Green Paper aims to set out a number of issues connected with the role of copyright in the "knowledge economy" and intends to launch a consultation on these issues.
Unfortunately, the whole thing is framed in terms of twiddling with existing copyright law through complicated and extremely limited exceptions....
On Open Enterprise blog.
As someone who has been writing about the commons for many years, I am still amazed when new ones pop up. Here's another:The History Commons website is an experiment in open-content civic journalism. It provides a space for people to conduct grassroots-level investigations on any issue, providing the public with a useful tool to conduct oversight of government and private sector entities. It is collaborative and thus allows individuals to build upon the work of others. Each investigation is organized as a “project,” which is made up of at least one timeline. You can contribute to a project by adding new events to the timeline associated with that project. All submissions are peer-reviewed by other users before being published. If you would like to participate in this effort, you will first need to create a user account. Once you have done that, you can begin adding events to any timeline.
(Via CommonsBlog.)
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