Imogen Heap’s new song is probably the best so far on her gradually-emerging new album.
[youtube http://youtu.be/5hdMYt1Np78]Personally I’m ready for some “still” time.
Filed under: Music | Comments Off on Be Still With Me
Patent Troll Research Round-Up
Posted on October 19, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Academic research about the problem of patent trolls has finally started to flow, and the findings are just as grim as all our instincts suggested. In my article for InfoWorld Open Sources this week, I look at some of the evidence and summarise it to save you the reading.
All the same, the research paper from Lex Machina is worth reading in full. It puts solid numbers on what previously was dismissed as biased surmise, as well as coining an excellent term for the companies causing the problem – “patent monetization entities” – that will allow confrontation of the issues without the dismissal as rabble-rouser that comes from saying “patent troll”. All a fine preparation for the event at Santa Clara University on November 16 on Solutions To The Software Patent Problem.
Filed under: InfoWorld | Comments Off on Patent Troll Research Round-Up
Dynamic!
Posted on October 18, 2012 by Simon Phipps
This visualisation of activity on the LibreOffice code repository rocks!
[youtube http://youtu.be/C3To0wrawYg]
Filed under: LibreOffice | Comments Off on Dynamic!
Open Source and Cloud
Posted on October 17, 2012 by Simon Phipps
After the Community Summit at Open World Forum, three of the speakers – including me – spent 10 minutes discussing how cloud computing impacts the open source community.
[youtube http://youtu.be/qpVIJAdRTXc]Far from making open source irrelevant – an idea that only works if you see software solely in terms of proprietary packages sold by software vendors – cloud computing will drive ever more companies to participate in, and eventually contribute to, open source communities.
Filed under: Cloud Computing, MinkCast | Tagged: OWF12 | 2 Comments »
Kicking Comic Sans
Posted on October 16, 2012 by Simon Phipps
If you have been using the font Comic Sans to support dyslexics, there’s a new font in town – see ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Comments Off on Kicking Comic Sans
The Forces Of Open
Posted on October 16, 2012 by Simon Phipps
What’s driving open source? That was the question InfoWorld asked me to explore for a feature-length article. I spent a good deal of time over the summer thinking about it, and went on to present some ideas as the opening keynote at the eighth International Conference on Open Source Systems in September.
My conclusion is that the key forces driving open source – both for good and bad – are:
- The rise of open source foundations
- The number of licensing choices available, and how they are understood
- The threat of software patents and responses to it
- Cloud computing and the usage modalities it induces
- Big data and the change in the value point of software it implies
I’m continuing to work on these ideas and welcome input.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK, Open Source | Comments Off on The Forces Of Open
Eric Whitacre Interview
Posted on October 15, 2012 by Simon Phipps
CDB has 0% citizen support
Posted on October 12, 2012 by Simon Phipps
My Freedom of Information request for the summary of citizen input on the UK’s Communications Data Bill reveals unanimous opposition, as well as a disturbing trend to lump opponents of the bill together. Read about it on ComputerWorldUK.
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Legal Topics For Practical People
Posted on October 4, 2012 by Simon Phipps
The track I’m chairing at Open World Forum in Paris next week is now public and I think we’ve got a pretty hot schedule there what with Richard Fontana and Bradley Kuhn rematched after their showdown at FOSDEM, plus the explanation of why SpagoBI switched from GPLv2 to MPLv2. Hope to see you at the event.
Filed under: Events | Tagged: GPLv2, Open World Forum, Paris, SpagoBI | Comments Off on Legal Topics For Practical People
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