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• Increasing Mozilla Focus on Messaging and Communications on the Web: Re-integration of Mozilla Messaging
  While it’s not instantly obvious from Mitchell’s blog posting, which verges on concealment in plain sight, the deal here is that the Mozilla spin-out to make Thunderbird as dynamic as Firefox hasn’t worked and the project is being folded back into Mozilla Labs. A great shame, because the e-mail market needs disrupting now more than ever. It would be interesting to see an honest appraisal from David Ascher of why it didn’t work out.
• Open Source Software – Department of Finance and Deregulation
  Australia has always been a leader in the area of updating their government procurement policies to permit open source solutions. Here they are asking for input on an update to the existing policy.
• Official Google Blog: Patents and innovation
  The attacks Google faces from all round (Oracle already, and the CPTN consortium members soon one presumes) mean it feels the need to buy an instant patent portfolio with which to defend itself. Understandable, but with great power comes great responsibility; I hope they will give a patent grant to the open source community to prevent future mishaps if they turn evil after all.

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• Nokia says about Symbian: “We’re Open”. The New License Shows Otherwise.
  This looks bad. Not only has Nokia closed the source code to Symbian, it is pretending there’s no problem. I really hope they fix this fast.
• RSA: Anatomy of an Attack
  This detailed article makes for worrying reading. It details a growing approach to hacking attacks where specific individuals with privileged access to data are targeted for socially engineered attacks and then their computers quietly infested as a gateway to secure systems.
• MPL Beta 2 Released- Significant Changes to GPL Compatibility
  The revision of the Mozilla license is drawing to a close. The most recent significant change – making GPL compatibility the default rather than an option – is especially exciting. In my view it makes MPLv2 an excellent license choice for those preferring a less prescriptive approach to software freedom yet still wanting to live at peace with those with a more prescriptive – or proscriptive – outlook.

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• Creepy app warns of an end to privacy
  The biggest threat to your privacy is not the disclosure of any one piece of data. It’s triangulation across all the data you’re disclosing. This piece of software is more performance art or prophecy than bad-faith threat, but it’s definitely a wake-up call to us all to be aware of the data we are all scattering across the web and how vulnerable we all are to data mining and triangulation.
• Sunlight Foundation – Stop Transparency Cutbacks
  Americans! Under the spurious cover of budget necessity, vested interests who would prefer the bright lights of transparency to be turned off are attacking a wide range of the new initiatives that only just got started to make your government accountable. Sign up here to tell them you’re watching and they should stop.
• IP is for Intellectual Property (and also for Invading Privacy)
  The degree to which “mission creep” has allowed the media industry to become a tool for a wide variety of vested interests to ratchet up controls that do nothing but harm citizens is incredible. I never cease to be amazed by the degree to which our political representatives act against the majority interests and in favour of rich minorities with lobbyists. Can’t they see it? Surely the injustice is in plain view?
• Approval of OpenDocument Version 1.2 as Committee Specification
  Good to see the process continuing. Hope it leads to good things for us all.

Filed under: Links | Comments Off on ☞ Privacy and Transparency