http://www.ndiyo.org/
http://www.ndiyo.org/files/sustainable-networking-presentation.pdf
Look interesting. Worth considering for a branch event (with my Oxfordshire hat on)
We already have Mark Shuttleworth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth pencilled in to talk at our branch meeting on 10 November 2005.
Giles Palmer, of Runtime Collective, will be defining what open source software is, why it is different and the responsibilities and risks associated with implementations using it. He will illustrate how to manage a project with particular reference to those risks and responsibilities. He will look at issues that arise in an environment where both open source and proprietary software are being used, what it means to be part of an open source community and where the future lies with open source software. Note: Although this is not an OSSG organized event it looks like it will be of considerable interest to OSSG members. Please visit the proms-g URL listed below to register for this event.
For more information, visit http://www.proms-g.bcs.org/events/ed-tv0410.htm
For more information, visit https://ossg.bcs.org/
Is anyone else totally frustrated trying to deal with the Government electronically if you DON’T use Internet Explorer? I run my own small business and for 4 years, successfully used NetScape 4 and a digital certificate to access Government email, VAT, PAYE and Corporation Tax. Gradually the applications have stopped working under NetScape 4 (reasonably enough) but the ONLY browser supported with Digital Certificates is Internet Explorer.
Our company’s security policy prohibits IE – too insecure, too many patches and anyway we now run Linux on the Desktop. Some eGovernment applications have some support for Open Source browsers but not with digital certificates.
I have spent countless hours talking to eGovernment helpdesks with bug reports and screenshots. Eventually they all gradually fade away, especially if you ask about strategy with regard to supporting open source browsers. Didn’t this government have a splash in the press last October about supporting open source?
The argument is always “it’s not worth supporting open source because no-one uses it”. Self fulfilling prophecy! The Government should be leading the way on Open Source, not prohibiting it.
Does anyone have access to the office of Ian Watmore, head of eGovernment?? I tried writing to the CEO of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) but other than a secretarial response saying it had been passed on, I’ve had no reply.
Jane Curry
Written by Patrick Tarpey and published in Computing on the 26th May 2005 Open Source elitism – its own worst enemy discusses the problems of elitist behaviour in Open Source projects and user communities.
Hi all,
Over the past several months, I have been toying with an idea in my head. The idea is to create a site where anyone can come to “richly” collaborate (I’ll define richly in a moment) with other programmers and develop in this rich collaboration environment.
I also want the site to be an organization that develops its own open-source software. This development will be performed by members of the open-source community. Project members will be tracked in the system and a higherarchy of positions and responsibilities will be kept like a normal organization. The positions will be volunteer until donations or other money starts to come in for any of the projects developed for the Open Army. At such a point, some volunteer positions would begin to be solicited for hire.
The first project of the Open Army will be to create the Open Army online collaboration environment. The front of this environment is simply the Open Army website where visitors can view current projects in the forge, view products such as documentation, make donations, sign up, donate a project, etc.
The backend of the environment will be the actual collaboration section. It will be rich in that there will be embeded Java IRC clients, flash (laszlo) presentation layers for quick collaboration, there will be on-the-fly file transfers, private development stations (chat/file/bbs/whiteboard/desktop sharing). The idea is that when developers decide to go to work for the Open Army, they log in and are immediately jacked into the present timeline for their project. So idealy, instead of walking into a building to go to work, the programmer opens a website.
This architecture will also allow project to be slaved over 24 hours a day by developers all around the world. When new programmers come in, they just pick up where the project is at the present time.
Many of the projects behind OpenArmy will be actual OpenArmy projects that are being developed by approved developers. However, anyone will be able to create their own project on the site and allow developers to work on their open-source project. Anyone can also log in to get coding help, etc.
If you are interested in being one of the first programmers to assist in setting up this rich callaboration environment and you at least have HTML experience coupled with one other skill such as design talent, Java programming, or PHP programming, please contact me at central_operations@hotmail.com
Thank you,
Aaron Belovsky
For more information, visit http://opensource.ucc.ie/icse2005/
Computer Weekly (2005,01 March p.12) reports on a row between leading Open Source Developers and standards organization OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). OASIS has recently changed its rules allowing developers the right to charge royalties for contributed code.
This has met with strong disapproval from leading members of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Community including Lawrence Rosen, Richard Stallman, Bruce Perens, Mitchell Kapor, Lawrence Lessig, Doc Searls, Tim O’Reilly, and Eric Raymond. They have all signed an email letter – a copy of this is shown at http://osdir.com/Article4278.phtml – calling for OASIS to drop its plans and to boycott any of its standards that are not open.
More about OASIS can be found on its website at http://www.oasis-open.org/who/ which amongst other detail describes itself as a not-for-profit consortium that produces more web services standards than any other organization.
Lawrence Rosen has recently published a book entitled Open Source Licensing Software Freedom and Intellectual Property. An online version is available at http://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm published under the Academic Free Licence version 2.1.
Mark Elkins