Posted on March 17, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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It’s the last day to respond to this consultation. Some ideas for your response (which I suggest you send by e-mail as the form on this page is a bit suspect): There needs to be a clear separation between the mapping data, which needs to be freely available to the public that paid for it through taxes, and applications of that data like maps. Perhaps Ordnance Survey needs cutting into two parts and all the map data needs to be placed into a free commons? The result would surely be acceleration of both innovation and competition in geographic data in the UK.
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Ryan Paul digs deep in Asay’s (very public) past and notes his previous scepticism about desktop Linux seems to have suddenly evaporated. Hiring a critic can be a great way to reform.
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If you didn’t do this when I asked first time, please do it now 🙂 Pretty please?
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“A major change to UK copyright law is likely to be introduced and debated within the space of one hour on the last day of the current parliament, according to Labour MP Tom Watson.” And it will affect you personally. And this is not party-partisan; it’s Watson’s own party that’s trying to ram this down your throat. Go right now to WriteToThem.com and tell your MP this isn’t acceptable.
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The official standards group is running a public review of ODF interoperability.
Filed under: Links | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 16, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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This piece from 1994 was mentioned in a message I received today and seems more relevant than ever – although it may be that "Google" now plays the role of "DOS" and it may be that the churchmanship involved for them is an evangelical house-church…
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In which Floschi explains that the apparently slow implementation over in the City of Munich is becuase there's a full scale generational change going ion in their IT systems, and that any change of this magnitude would be just as slow even if it did not involve free/open source software.
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This is some really good stuff from Bonobo. The frequency of posts on 3Hive seems to be way down but the quality (at least on my taste-o-meter) is way up.
Filed under: Links | Comments Off on ☞ Religion and Patience
Posted on March 15, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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Great to see Tim has already landed a new job after leaving Sun – congratulations. It will be good to have someone on hand to get support for my new phone! Let’s hope the requirement for editorial vetting is just for the initial posting.
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Another useful posting from David Hammerstein suggests that, while opposition to ACTA in the European Parliament was unanimous (apart from 13 losers from two anti-Europe parties), this was a symbolic “how dare you route around Parliament” rather than an actual opposition to the terms of ACTA. He suggests the Commission will now counter-punch and that the most interesting times are yet to come.
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Read the e-mail that the head of BPI sent to all his members and you’ll be interested to see that he doesn’t think anyone outside a few hot-heads cares about the Digital Economy Bill, and that he doubts MPs will have the guts to call for a debate. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to prove him wrong? Maybe a note to your MP via WriteToThem.Com is in order?
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Jim Grisanzio is the best guy I know in community management and strategy (yes, really) and he has a new blog which I think you should follow. Plenty in there about OpenSolaris of course, but there’s so much to learn from Jim’s way with communities apart from that. And congratulations on being elected vice-president of the Tokyo Linux User Group, Jim!
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Seems Ubuntu developers are protecting me from myself by removing all mention of XDMCP from the GUI. These instructions explain how to turn on XDMCP again without the benefit of a Security tab on the Login Preferences dialog.
Filed under: Links | Comments Off on ☞ Good and Evil
Posted on March 15, 2010 by Simon Phipps
§ There was an article on Boing Boing over the weekend that includes a leaked copy of an e-mail sent by Richard Mollett, head of BPI (that’s the UK’s version of RIAA). He provides his key constituents with a round-up on news on the Digital Economy Bill, the legislative omnibus for all that’s bad in ACTA and the UK’s equivalent of the DMCA. Apparently, Mollet believes there is no groundswell of opposition for the Digital Economy Bill and that MPs will just wave it through for lack of popular concern. Continue reading →
Filed under: Digital Economy Bill | Tagged: Activism, Debill, Digital Economy Bill, Politics, UK | 3 Comments »
Posted on March 14, 2010 by Simon Phipps
Actually it wasn’t all that lazy, there has been so much to do. But here are some music picks for the week – don’t miss the Sister Hazel double album if you’re in the US, and the Turin Brakes track is the pick for the UK.
| Loc |
Title |
Artist |
Comments |
| USA |
Mamaya |
The Souljazz Orchestra |
Take a brisk walk with this loping world-jazz track |
| UK |
Leave Me In Love |
The High Wire |
From the stylophone opening to the subdued vocals you know it’s chill time. It gradually perks up. Not bad. |
| USA |
Perfect World |
U-Melt |
Reminds me of Pink Floyd in some ways, a pretty good chill prog rock |
| USA |
Album: 20-in-10 |
Sister Hazel |
Really good Sister Hazel sampler. 20 excellent rock tracks, the best free download in ages |
| UK |
Apocolips |
Turin Brakes |
Very good track from a reliably good band. Rich & innovative sound with a travelling pace. |
| UK |
Rocket (Richard X One Zero Remix) |
Goldfrapp |
Strong dance track that Goldfrapp fans would grab anyway but the rest of us are likely to enjoy too. |
One more thing – seems that there are downloads of the SXSW music showcase after all, assuming you have the patience for about 6Gb of torrent.
Filed under: Links, Music | Tagged: Amazon, MP3, Music | Comments Off on ♫ Music from a lazy week
Posted on March 14, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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"The U.S. position for the moment appears closer to 'take it or leave it' with the bet that many ACTA partners will see little political alternative but to take it." — I agree that's likely to be what the US "negotiators" think, but they surely have to take seriously the threat posed by the vote this week in Europe, which could mean not one country but a whole bloc refusing to ratify the treaty. The ACTA strategy relies on a fait accomplis that no nation can afford to refuse; having 26 nations refuse calls the bluff on that strategy.
US citizens: Is this really what you want done in your name? Do your representatives know how you feel about it?
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The wonderful thing about open source is that once softweare has been set free it can find new ways of being useful and evolving even if its original benefactors go away. I'm delighted to see Project Wonderland from Sun Labs finding a new home like this. I hope the other projects that are being put out to grass find similarly enthusiastic homes.
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Hopefully this includes chopping firewood.
Filed under: Links | Tagged: ACTA, FOSS, Health, Sun, Wonderland | Comments Off on ☞ Not In Your Name?
Posted on March 13, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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No, not spin, he really means it. A sad illustration of the gaping intellectual chasm in American politics.
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Nice infographics from the BBC showing the evolution of use of the internet worldwide.
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Really excellent how-to that is worth reading all the way through and then bookmarking for future use (like I just did!)
Filed under: Links | Comments Off on ☞ Use Of Power
Posted on March 12, 2010 by Simon Phipps
§ Software freedom has a posse – in Washington DC, at least.
You’ll recall I posted a long analysis of the sick position the IIPA took urging the US Trade Representative (USTR) to discriminate against countries around the world if they have a preference for software freedom. That analysis become an input for the excellent position statement, written collaboratively by the OSI Board and posted by OSI President Michael Tiemann, calling for action by national groups.
I hear today that this has indeed resulted in positive action in Washington DC. Campaigning group Open Source for America issued a press statement yesterday, and wrote a two page position statement that they submitted to USTR. I gather they also met personally with a USTR representative to assert the position on behalf of America’s open source communities. I’m pretty sure this is the first time open source has been actively represented in Washington – about time!
This is an excellent development – kudos to the team that made it happen. We formed OSfA so that software freedom would have a political posse in Washington DC, and this first outing has shown that was the right move.
Filed under: Issues, OSfA | Tagged: IIPA, Open Source, OSFA, OSI, Politics, Special 301, USA, USTR | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 12, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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Responding to the request for action, Open Source for America has published a strong refutation of the position IIPA has taken on open source. “Open Source for America (OSFA) believes the IIPA’s request to be both irresponsible and misleading in its characterization of OSS. OSFA strongly urges the USTR, and all government agencies, to firmly reject such unfounded pressure to blacklist or penalize any country for policies allowing or encouraging the use of OSS.”
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We desperately need some well-funded lobbyists who are working for, rather than against citizen rights and digital liberty like the shameless, customer-hating BPI. ORG is making a reasonable try but they are no EFF. Freedom needs a posse.
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Nothing very radical here, apart from the appearance of ™ on the logo and the appendage of Oracle ownership of that mark.
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“A remarkable example is the London Underground mosquito. It is believed to have evolved from an above-ground species which moved into tunnels being excavated to construct the London underground rail system in the 1850s.”
Filed under: Links | Tagged: Brand, Digital Economy Bill, Evolution, IIPA, Marketing, Open Source, OpenOffice.org, OSFA, Science | Comments Off on ☞ Lobbying, Marketing and Evolution
Posted on March 11, 2010 by Simon Phipps
§ I gather that the Board of Directors of the Open Source Initiative met on Sunday to elect the board for their 2010-11 financial year. I am both honoured and delighted to discover that they have elected me as a Director, with effect from April 1st.
That’s an auspicious date 🙂 . One or two friends have asked why on earth anyone would want to commit time to OSI. They point out that the OSI has had a much lower profile over the past few years as the more notable founding members have moved on. It has been criticised for allowing too many licenses to be approved – including some of questionable merit. It’s easy to find people ready to criticise – some apparently just for the sake of it – and hard to find much more than grudging respect. Continue reading →
Filed under: Open Source, OSI, Webmink | Tagged: Open Source, OSI | 20 Comments »
Wild Webmink 