Movable Type Moves to Open Source

Good news for the world of blogging - and beyond:

Moveable Type 4.0 is the first major release of Movable Type since MT 3.0 in 2004 and comes complete with a market disrupting announcement: SixApart will open source Movable Type before the end of the third quarter.

There's already a website for the imminent open source community, too:

Movable Type Open Source, or MTOS, is the open source project that will consist of a GPL-licensed version of Movable Type 4.0, to be released in Q3 2007, and resources for the already large community of Movable Type developers, hosted at www.movabletype.org/opensource.

OA vs. Political and Selective Use of Data

Here's a great - and sadly necessary - piece of analysis:

Throughout the first half of 2007, the White House has falsely claimed that the United States is doing better than Europe in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This claim was officially made by the White House on February 7 and has been repeated in various forms by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton, and Science Advisor to the President John Marburger, most recently on May 31, 2007.1 The White House is misusing science and data to make this claim, as the Pacific Institute first pointed out on March 8.2 The White House can only back up this claim by looking at a single greenhouse gas over a narrow timeline. Looking at the full range of gases over a longer period, the conclusion reverses completely: the European Union is curbing greenhouse gas emissions more aggressively and successfully than the United States.

And why can they say that? Because of open access to data: the antidote to the political and selective use of data is more data. It's no coincidence that the source of much of that data in the US, the EPA, is effectively being dismantled, and its hitherto open data made effectively inaccessible so that it can't be used in precisely this way. (Via Slashdot.)

Open Access Trumps Developing Nations Licence

In a significant announcement, the Creative Commons organisation has said that it is retiring the Developing Nations licence:

The Developing Nations license is in conflict with the growing “Open Access Publishing” movement. While the license frees creative work in the developing nations, it does not free work in any way elsewhere. This means these licenses do not meet the minimum standards of the Open Access Movement. Because this movement is so important to the spread of science and knowledge, we no longer believe it correct to promote a stand alone version of this license.

This move is an interesting indication of the growing ability of open access to define the terms of the debate about open content.

A Series of Tubes

Now this is what I call a real distribution network:

The London Book Project is a free book exchange on a massive scale. Using the London Underground as a high speed distribution network, we aim to bring real literature to London's commuters. Scrap the freesheets - read a free book instead!

Over the next two weeks we'll be distributing thousands of second hand books across the tube and we want YOU to get involved. If you see one of our books, please pick it up! Then read it and replace with any book of your choice. Let's make the tube a giant, free library! Meanwhile, browse our website to find out more about the London Book Project and some alternative reporting about the world's most diverse capital city.

(Via Boing Boing.)

No Xmas Cards for Xandros

Well, it looks like the world of free software can cross another company off its Christmas card list:

Microsoft and Linux distributor Xandros announced on Monday a technical and legal collaboration, the latest step in the software giant's ongoing program to partner with open-source companies.

Over the next five years, the two companies said, they will work on improving interoperability between their servers to improve systems management.

The pact calls for Microsoft to provide patent covenants for Xandros customers that ensure they are not infringing on Microsoft's intellectual property, according to the companies.

Er, didn't another company recently do something similar? With rather negative consequences...?

Web 2.0 Start-ups by Numbers

I'm not the world's biggest fan of Guy Kawasaki, but these figures about his new Truemors site are interesting, not least this one:

7.5 weeks went by from the time I registered the domain truemors.com to the site going live. Life is also good because of open source and Word Press.

Life is indeed good because of open source - it's holding up practically the entire Web 2.0 edifice.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Openness

How's this for a stunning demonstration that the UK Government has something to hide on ID cards?

Treasury officials are ordering the immediate destruction of "Gateway" internal reports into risky government IT schemes to prevent information on the projects being leaked.

...

The order for the destruction of final reports will fuel suspicion that they identify fundamental flaws in some major government IT-based projects.

The paper also tells civil servants they must securely dispose immediately after delivery of the final Gateway report “all supporting documents”.

The Information Commissioner ruled last year that early Gateway reviews on ID cards should be published, arguing that it should be public knowledge whether the programme was feasible and being well managed. The OGC appealed – and lost. It is now to fund a third appeal hearing, this time to the High Court.

Openness? We don't need no stinkin' openness.

You'd Be Nuts Not To...

Bill Hooker points out that there is an important petition to establish a self-archiving open access mandate for Brazilian research circulating - and that anyone may sign it. So why not join in (Bill's post has a translation)?

Taking Liberties...

...With openness and much, much else.

Spread the word.

Open Source Policing

Is this perhaps one answer to open source war/criminality?

Waleli's idea is to harness the power of picture messaging (MMS) to catch the crooks. A witness sends a photo or video from the cameraphone using MMS-witness which then goes straight into a crime database.

...

Given that Garner has estimated that there are 295 million cameraphones already out there, that's an awful lot of potential crime scene photographers.

Visualising DRM

Having problems getting your head around that tricky concept of DRM? Try this. (Via Boing Boing.)

GNU GPLv3 - Nearly There

The final draft of the GNU GPLv3 is out, together with copious explanations. If it's just a little too copious, you might try Matthew Aslett's excellent analysis of what it is all likely to mean for the Novell-Microsoft deal.

Maybe Genomics is Getting a Little Too Personal

So Jim Watson's genome will soon be made public. But not all of it:

the only deliberate omission from Watson's sequence is that of a gene linked to Alzheimer's disease, which Watson, who is now 79, asked not to know about because it is incurable and claimed one of his grandmothers.

The trouble is, the better our bioinformatics gets, the more genes we will be able to analyse usefully, and the better our ability to make statistical predictions from them. Which means that more and more people will be snipping bits out of their public genomes in this way. And which also means that many of us will never put any of our genome online.

Reed-Elsevier to Pull Out of Arms Fairs

Well, since I've criticised my old employer Reed-Elsevier in the past for having blood on its corporate hands through its involvement in the shame that is the arms trade, it's only fair that I should point out and applaud the following news:

Reed said earlier it would sever its ties to arms fairs, bowing to pressure which included complaints from customers, shareholders and academics writing for its major titles.

What's interesting, of course, is that this is as a direct result of cumulative pressure applied from all sorts of quarters. See, o ye sceptics, this people-based stuff can work.

Virtual GNU/Linux

Virtual Windows systems are familiar enough, but how about this: LINA, a virtual GNU/Linux environment?

With LINA, a single executable written and compiled for Linux can be run with native look and feel on Windows, Mac OS X, and UNIX operating systems.

Released under the GNU GPLv2, LINA sounds pretty interesting. Due out this month. (Via DesktopLinux.com.)

Fake or Fact?

This is really cool.

A little while back I wrote about Ed Felten's generator of 128-bit numbers. Lots of people were using this to "claim" certain numbers - just like the AACS people were misguidedely trying to do. It turns out that one of those numbers claimed there was really the next AACS key that can be used to unlock DVDs. Fiendishly cunning or what?

Google's Gears of War

Gears is a browser extension that we hope -- with time and plenty of input and collaboration from outside of Google -- can make not just our applications but everyone's applications work offline.

Well, not exactly gears of war, not least because Google has wisely made the code freely available under an open source licence:

We are releasing Gears as an open source project and we are working with Adobe, Mozilla and Opera and other industry partners to make sure that Gears is the right solution for everyone.

But certainly likely to represent the start of a skirmish or two in the field of offline working.

Once More unto the Breach

For all you Brits out there, something to ponder and then expatiate upon (nicely, mind):

OpenXML is an ECMA standard which has been submitted to ISO for endorsement as an international standard using the "fast-track" procedure.

...

The relevant BSI Technical Committee has set up a special panel to consider the UK position on the document and to submit technical comments. If you wish to submit comments, download your FREE copy please use the link below.

Download Draft International Standard ISO/IEC 29500 DPC here.

Please return the comments form electronically by 30 June 2007 to:

csc@bsi-global.com

So you know what to do. (Via Bob Sutor's Open Blog.)

IE Indeed

Sigh. Tell me again why people are still using Internet Explorer:

It turns out the link installs a malicious post logger that transmits all information submitted through Internet Explorer to a website controlled by the attackers.

After reverse engineering the rogue browser helper object that attaches itself to IE (the malware doesn't work on other browsers), Stewart says he was able to locate a site that stored detailed information on some 1,400 executives who fell for the scam.

When will they learn? (Via Mobile Open Source.)

Mozilla Trumps MSN

The virtual tracks left by people as they change jobs delineate the shifting patterns of the business world: a concentration towards or away from a company speaks volumes about the subtle and mostly invisible dynamics that lie below. So this news truly speaks volumes:

Li Gong, the former top executive for MSN in China, has joined Mozilla's Chinese subsidiary, Mozilla Online, as its chairman and CEO.

Microsoft, are we worried yet?

The Wisdom of Pubs

Thanks, Luke: I may well borrow that one....

Patents Are the Enemy, Not Enabler, of Innovation

As patent problems become ever-more prevalent in computing, it's important to emphasise that not only are they innappropriate for software, since the latter essentially consists of mathematical algorithms, but they are damaging even in the wider world. James Watt's use of patents to stifle the development of steam engines (yes, you read that correctly) is perhaps the best-known example, but here's another, more recent one:

For Memorial Day this past weekend, the Associated Press ran an article all about the sudden rise in popularity of infrared grills for home use. Despite the technology first being invented in the 60s (for drying paint on cars), it was a very limited market until the key patent expired in 2000 and real innovation could occur that would allow such grills to be produced economically for backyard use.

Time to kill those patents, people.

Will Microsoft Be Assimilated?

I knew that I knew nothing about aQuantive. Here, for example, is something rather important that I didn't know I didn't know:

Information available from Atlas' Web site indicates the Internet software company employs extensive use of open source software including Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Solaris.

Software engineers at Atlas' Raleigh office do client/server development in C and C++, software maintenance and "scripting", and developing and maintaining custom reporting capabilities.

Other sought after skills include Unix development, JavaScript, and those for Windows software administration like SQL Server and IIS.

The use of open source is not confined to Atlas with the second significant business unit Avenue A Razorfish boasting "we also frequently utilize open source technologies".

There was a similar situation when Microsoft bought Hotmail, which was running on Apache and FreeBSD for a long time after acquisition. Since aQuantive is much bigger, we can presumably expect Microsoft to have even more difficulty assimilating it.

The Wisdom of Metrics

I like reading Nicholas Carr's stuff because it is often provocative and generally thought-provoking. A good example is his recent "Ignorance of Crowds" which asserts:

Wikipedia’s problems seem to stem from the fact that the encyclopedia lacks the kind of strong central authority that exerts quality control over the work of the Linux crowd. The contributions of Wikipedia’s volunteers go directly into the product without passing through any editorial filter. The process is more democratic, but the quality of the product suffers.

I think this misses a key point about the difference between open source and open content that has nothing to do with authority. Software has clear metrics for success: the code runs faster, requires less memory, or is less CPU-intensive, etc. There is no such metric for content, where it essentially comes down to matters of opinion much of the time. Without a metric, monotonic improvement is impossible to achieve: the best you can hope for is a series of jumps that may or may not make things "better" - whatever that means in this context.

This is an important issue for many domains where the open source "method" is being applied: the better the metric available, the more sustained and unequivocal the progress will be. For example, the prospects for open science, powered by open access + open data, look good, since a general metric is available in the form of fit of theory to experiment.

Microsoft Backs Open...Spectrum

Interesting:

Today UK regulator Ofcom released its review of the ~750 responses it received during a public consultation earlier this year on reallocating the "digital dividend" (frequencies released by the switch-off of analog TV broadcasts).

The exceptionally large number of responses shows that the public recognised the importance of this consultation. It also shows that Ofcom's proposals were controversial. Many commenters question whether auctions of service-neutral licenses can ensure that non-economic factors are considered in the redistribution of spectrum.

Ofcom's review of the responses gives a surprising amount of space to Microsoft's submission, which was only 8 pages long. Since that response argued strongly for license exempt use of the "dividend" we find it especially interesting, too.

I've been remiss on this one - in fact, mea culpa, I didn't even get around to making a submission myself (shocking, I know). So it's great to see Microsoft doing it for me....

Openness is Hard-Wired in the Brain

Altruism, which lies at the heart of true openness, is hard-wired, it seems:

The results were showing that when the volunteers placed the interests of others before their own, the generosity activated a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food or sex. Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable.

Now there's a surprise. Not.

More Google Desktop Moves

Google's story that it's really, really, really not competing with Microsoft gets thinner by the day. Apparently, it's just bought a very interesting security company called the GreenBorder Technologies:

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, GreenBorder Technologies was founded in 2001 to bring a new approach to enterprise security. GreenBorder, the industry’s first Desktop DMZ software for Windows, keeps Internet invaders out and enterprise data in. It allows users to safely connect anywhere, go to any website, open any Internet email or attachment, and use any downloaded files without worry. GreenBorder’s unique, signature-less approach never needs updating and provides continuous protection against corruption, theft and invasion of business data systems.

I wonder when Microsoft is going to take Google seriously.

MySpace - Closed, Facebook - Open

A little simplistic, perhaps, but it captures the spirit of the direction of both outfits, I think. Certainly, Facebook's decision to provide an API to third-party developers should provide a perfect test of the closed vs. open approach. I don't use either, but my money's (obviously) on Facebook. Should be interesting.

DVD-Unlocking in Europe Ruled Lawful

I'd seen this decision, but missed its broader significance:

A Finnish Court has unanimously ruled that the Content Scrambling System (CSS) computer code, which unlocks DVD movies, is lawful in Europe. The decision was a first to interpret the legality of DVD decoding software under the 2001 European Copyright Directive.

...

What is so exciting about this week’s Finnish Court decision is that it will apply throughout the European Community, since it was an interpretation of the EU-wide Copyright Directive’s definition of the key term “effective” in Article 6. If CSS is not an “effective” technological protection measure regulated by the directive, then its decryption is lawful throughout the European Community.

Moreover:

Besides applying across the EU, European experts believe this ruling will apply across media platforms and not restricted only to DVDs.

I always said those Finns were an intelligent bunch.

Microsoft-Novell Agreement: Patently ***

So, details of the Microsoft-Novell agreement have been released. IANAL, but this is unbelievable:

7.2 ***. If a *** (or ***e.g., an *** or ***) *** that this Agreement or the *** (including *** or with respect thereto) of *** under this Agreement are not *** to which a *** and there is an *** by a *** with respect to such *** that the *** and there is no *** (e.g. through amendment of this Agreement), then such *** may*** of the *** this Agreement by *** to the ***.

No, really.

The Intellectual Monopoly Ratchet

One of the most frightening aspects of the intellectual monopoly game is the ratchet effect. A country typically increases intellectual monopoly protection to attain "parity" with another group, but overshoots in some areas. Other countries then ratchet up their intellectual monopolies to achieve "parity" - and overshoot.

Here's the ratchet in action:

If this Korea US FTA is passed, then the US will request other countries to include these things in the following FTA. So it needs to have international solidarity activities to stop this kind of US FTA.

DNA Database Delirium

Talking of DNA databases:

Civil liberties groups are warning that the details of every Briton could soon be on the national DNA database, raising fresh concerns of a 'surveillance society'. Controversial plans being studied by the government would see the DNA of people convicted of even the most minor, non-imprisonable offences, such as dropping litter, entered on the national database.
Madness.

But there's one tiny ray of hope:

Privately, the Home Office anticipates a public backlash against the proposals. 'This is a completely open exercise,' one Home Office source said. 'If there is overwhelming opposition against this we will not go there.'

So we know what we must do.

Googling the Genome, Part III

Good to see some others concerned by the imminent arrival of personal genomics:

In addition, many scientists fear cheap genome sequencing could have other, worrying consequences. Professor Steve Jones of University College London, said: 'If you make your genome public, you are not just revealing information about yourself and what diseases you might be susceptible to, you are also giving away crucial data about the kind of illnesses your children might be prone to. Each of your children gets half your genes, after all. They might not want the world to know about the risks they face and become very unhappy in later life that you went public. Your other relatives might equally be displeased.'

And by its implications for civil liberties:

However, there are other concerns, as Professor Ashburner points out. 'Anyone who commits relatively minor offences can have their DNA taken and analysed. At present, the main use of this process is to create a DNA fingerprint that can be used to identify that individual. But soon we will be able to create an entire genome sequence of that individual from a swab or blood sample. We will end up knowing everything about their genes. In the end, we could have millions of people on a database and know every single genetic secret of each person. That has to be a very worrying prospect.'

Even Google Nods

Accessing Google Analytics to view some stats about this site, I received the following warning:

"www.google.com" is a site that uses a security certificate to encrypt data during transmission, but its certificate expired on 16/05/2007 00:18.

Whoops, someone was careless.

More About Sculpties...

...but not much yet. (And what about some galleries, eh?)

Dell Delivers - Double Quick

I never thought this would happen so quickly:

You asked, we listened. For advanced users and tech enthusiasts, we’re happy to offer a new open-source operating system, so you can dive in and truly enjoy a PC experience just the way you want it. In addition to the FreeDOS systems we already offer, we are proud to announce PCs with Ubuntu.

Systems currently available are rather limited - only the Dimension E520 N, Inspiron E1505 N and XPS 410 N. Still, it's a start. Get buying, people.

Will This Solve Spam?

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.

The Internet is a Commons...

...and these people are cutting down the trees.

Great piece; sad, sad story.

Redflag and RedOffice Day

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.)

IBM Opens Up - A Little More

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.

Welcome to the World of Social Network Churn

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.

Confused Over Novell? You Will Be

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.

Please, Antigua, Please

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.

Privacy Through Openness

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."

Googling the Genome, Part II

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.)

Blooming Science Blogs

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.

The Joy (and Utility) of FUD

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.

The "Avoiding Mass Extinction Engine"

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

Der CEO Spricht

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.

Second Life Open Sources the Sky (and Clouds)

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.”