Open Sesame

Ausies onto open source

The Australian government has issued these recommendations for open source choices by government agencies.

dada head writes about

I saw the movie this week so it was particularly relvent.

Good article about the interesting analogies.

As for his critisims. I do read and write the wikipedia. I got the i-name, xri, data and social web pagest going.

R0ml is blogging (again)

Not that I read him the first time he was blogging.
I was just surfing around and found out that he was blogging. I have heard him talk in person once and on IT Conversations twice. So entertaining.
Excited to read his blog musings regularly.

Hosting for the open source set.

Text Drive is catering to the open source online publishing set.

It works for Schools in the UK

Open Source just got the nod to be used in UK Schools. A report was released with extensive case studies.

Becta's report, based on a study of 15 schools, will state that open source office products have been demonstrated to offer schools a cost-effective alternative to proprietary software.

Among the key findings will be that primary and secondary schools using OSS substantially reduced the total cost of ownership per PC. Support costs - typically accounting for more than half a PC's total cost - showed the biggest reduction. Furthermore, case studies showed that the cost advantages of OSS were often used to increase provision, rather than reduce overall budgets in schools.

It will also highlight that OSS can provide an appropriate infrastructure for schools and is well supported, with good reliability and performance.

I think I am going to learn how to program

It occurred to me today that I am getting geeky enough to perhaps learn how to program.
I am going to attempt to learn Ruby.

Open Source TV

The Participatory Politics Foundation is working on building blogTorent - basically Open Source TV.

The Participatory Politics Foundation open source TV. Essentially this allows video providers to distribute full-length television programs over the internet...bypassing Hollywood, cable providers, the FCC, Clear Channel, Adelphia, stupid local channels, and the almost moribund PBS.

Pretty cool. I have met them too. Great bunch of folks. They are looking for PHP progammers too.

The BuzzPhraser...

I am continually reminded about the ever present and unfolding genius of Doc Searls. I just found the BuzzPhraserand I wonder how many in the open source will be inspired to use it now that it has 'gone mainstream'. At least the marketing folks might be.

My kind of MPG - FreeCiv is free...

I am not much of a gamer. I played Quest when I was a kid mostly version 4 and 5. Then I tried Myst - didn't "get it". I had a geeky boyfriend into Quake in the late 90's. Since then I have watched the gaming world 'go by'. This really peaked my interest - a game that actually was free. I wonder if the Games for Change folks have anything to do with it.

Agile Development Conf. Covers Agile Contracts

My little company Integrative Activism has just got its first few contracts. We have done our best to estimate our costs and put this forward to our clients as the price. This process is one of the more difficult aspects of running the company. I just found this post about a workshop on Agile contracts at the Agile development conference. Both look very interesting and informative.

Open Source Intelligence in the Blogosphere?

The Washington Post isreporting that the NSA wants to get DARPA to scour the Blogosphere for terrorist messaging and threats.
mmmm....

Demos book on Open Source Released

I first learned about Demos when I was exploring the net about a year ago. They have a great paper called Open Source Democracy - really cool - talking about how open source ideas could influence how we 'do democracy' in our society.

They have just released a new paper Wide Open:Open sourcemethods and their future potential. I am psyched and will be reading this week. Hopefully others can too. Would love to know what you think.

from the blurb

the principles of open source promise to radically alter the we approach complex social problems....Just as it is now impossible to think about getting things done without considering the role of the Internet, so will it soon be impossible to think about how to solve a large social problem without considering the role of open methods.

Lego using Open Source

Pretty Cool - Who knew!
There is an Open Source Java based OS for Lego Mindstorms RCX (to run lego robotics) called leJOS - cute pun on the name, eh. (ooo.. that was a native canadianism.
Here is the link to it on sourcefordge.

Israel, IBM and Open Source.

I just found this on Open Sourcery...

IBM and the Israeli government have made a pact to encourage open-source technology start-ups. Under the terms of the pact, IBM will supply all of the technical parts, know-how, market-expertise and support and the Israeli government will back the start-ups financially. While no figures were released, IBM has said individual companies may stand to receive up to $100,000 or more.

Very interesting development. I wonder if our government will every 'get this' paradigm (I know the government of Mass. does).

]]> I will put my 'activist' hat on with what I know from my visit to Israel/Palestine in 2000.
Palestinians don't enter the sciences because they can't get jobs for 'security reasons' cutting of that very lucrative industry to a whole generation of Palestinians. It seems that western companies invest in Israel they might consider links to this investment including a stop discriminating against Palestinians with technical and engineering hiring. Opening up real economic opportunities for people who are oppressed reduces terrorism because it gives them hope for the future.

Certification - which one and why?

Peter Hosikins ponders...

So what makes one certification better or more thorough/more trustworthy than another? Is methodology enough? Or is it the menu of open source stack permutations that are certified that makes one company the go to source for open source?

Why doesn't IBM/HP/Dell just ship a server with a certified LAMP stack image already burned?

Not sure I know the answers to these but they are worth thinking about.