Posted on October 14, 2011 by Simon Phipps
Is it a requirement for users of this parking garage in Paris to share their cars with others?
[Note to non-geeks: “GPL” in software is a popular open source license that requires software developers to share their work with others]
[Note to geeks: Yes, I am very well aware that “GPL” means liquified petroleum gas in French]
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Posted on October 12, 2011 by Simon Phipps
Busy day Tuesday, which included the great pleasure of going to hear Eric Whitacre conduct his superb choir performing a number of his works including some new ones – you’ll remember I mentioned this concert a while back (and if you don’t, be sure to follow that link and watch the video). Notably, he has set the classic children’s story “Goodnight Moon” to music, and his wife Hila sang it gorgeously with just a piano accompanist instead of the orchestral setting that will be on his new album next year. Each of the full-choir pieces was a delight, invoking a union of Tallis, Tavener and Vaughan-Williams. Despite a strong ‘classical’ flavour, the concert ended with a full-choir encore of Lux Aurumque, the piece that started his Virtual Choir idea.
I had been due to interview him in the afternoon but his publicist called to cancel just as I was leaving home – Eric was “still writing” (presumably the piano arrangement) and was not free. I hope to interview him soon to discuss his views on creativity and copyright in today’s society.
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Posted on October 8, 2011 by Simon Phipps
My short article about the best ways to support an open source project financially is now available from the Essays page.
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Posted on October 7, 2011 by Simon Phipps
- What community?
If you’re interested in the Tizen project, take a look at Dave Neary’s well-founded scepticism. The whole project has the sound of a force-fit that will lead to a poor community experience. A poor community experience is often a symptom of deeper malaise that can mean project failure. I remember doing a similar double-take when I first looked at the Symbian proposals, guessing they were from a corporate mind rather than based on actual experience of open source communities.
- OpenStack Foundation on the horizon
Good overview of the dynamics of RackSpace’s Damascus Road conversion to wanting a Foundation for OpenStack. I have reliable sources telling me RackSpace was rushed into this by a prominent community member starting a foundation without RackSpace – presumably a fork under another name.
I’m pleased RackSpace has learned from history and decided to do it themselves. That decision will make the community stronger, avoid unnecessary division and probably make RackSpace’s influence greater than they would have achieved by attempting to retain control. I hope Andy Oram is right and they do intend to build the governance by community consensus, though. In open source, trade control for influence, since control is illusory.
- fOSSa 2011 Conference – Lyon, France, 26-27-28th October 2011
I’ll be speaking at the end of day 2 of this conference. It’s free, please come along!
Also:
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Posted on October 6, 2011 by Simon Phipps
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Steve Jobs
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Posted on October 4, 2011 by Simon Phipps
I seem to have been using it for ever, but LibreOffice is actually just one year old. I’ve written a sketch of its story and a first-year evaluation over on ComputerWorldUK.
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Posted on October 3, 2011 by Simon Phipps
- On its first birthday, LibreOffice has reason to celebrate
After a year of work, the extensive global LibreOffice community is now showing signs of the strength and maturity the open source world needs. Monthly releases, open Board elections in progress, incorporation near and an international conference coming up, The Document Foundation has succeeded in all the ways its various detractors a year ago said it would fail.
While the Apache project that IBM and Oracle have established bears the OpenOffice name I and so many others respect, and while I wish the project success and hope richness emerges from it eventually, the free and open source software community simply can’t afford to wait until it starts delivering releases next year after extensive work just to stand still.
I have been using LibreOffice ever since the project formed and have seen the quality soar and the feature set evolve delightfully. If you are an OpenOffice user on Windows, Mac or GNU/Linux, LibreOffice is the natural successor and you should definitely try it.
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- U.S. top court rejects Internet music download case
Excellent legal result that narrows the ability of the music industry to tax new technology. It’s been proven that people will pay for value in the new, meshed society. It’s time for these folk to create value instead of clinging to their outdated concept of their market and punishing the customers and potential customers who don’t agree.
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- ODF 1.2 approved as an official OASIS standard
Good to see this progress. Let’s hope all the implementations are faithful to the standard and highly interoperable.
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- Mathematically Correct Breakfast — Mobius Sliced Linked Bagel
While this is cool, I am definitely waiting for the true Möbius Loop Bagel, preferably with lox caught on an Escher waterfall….
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