article

An overview of Open Source Licensing

 in OSSG Article / OSSG Events  tagged article by (updated 1748 days ago)

An overview of Open Source Licensing: Obligations that licences, do or do not, place on users, distributors and modifiers of Open Source Software given by guest speaker Andrew Katz a solicitor with specialist legal firm Moorcrofts. A buffet and refreshments will be available during the evening.

For more information, visit https://ossg.bcs.org/2006/02/23/an-overview-of-open-source-licensing-london-thursday-2nd-march-2006/

What
Meeting
When
2006-03-02 from 18:30 to 20:30
Where
BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA
Name
Mark Elkins
Contact Email
mark_elkins@bcs.org
Contact Phone
023 80 319560

Introduction 4

 in Education / OSSG Article  tagged article by (updated 1748 days ago)

Hi,

I have just joined BCS and now this Open Source group. I thought I would introduce myself, but after looking at the members list I know quite a few names, so it would probably be best off to say look at my info page.

I think I will mainly be staying in this forum as it’s my ‘chosen subject’, so to speak, but may venture out sometimes if I feel brave.

It seems a bit quiet on these forums, and I was wondering what it was that people were hoping to do, we have a lot of knowledgable people in one place but noone is talking

Thats all from me,

Jo

Open Source Software Hardware Requirements and Environmental Waste 2

 in Business / OSSG Article  tagged article by (updated 1748 days ago)

Several million Pentium PCs currently end up in UK landfill sites each year. At the same time the minimum hardware requirements for much Open Source Software continues to increase. For example in 2002 there were then several current packaged releases of Linux that had no difficulty running on a Pentium II PC or equivalent. Today in 2005 it might be possible to install some of the current releases on such a machine, but only someone who has an interest in slow-motion would appreciate the end result at run-time. Also unlike an older car or computer monitor an older PC generally uses less not more power than a newer one.

Although an older version of Linux is still fairly secure compared to some other operating systems it is not likely to have the level of support enjoyed by more recent versions. It can for example become an extremely time consuming business to get drivers for some hardware using older releases and dependency problems between releases are common. On the plus side it could be argued that because the code is open a user has in theory a chance to overcome such problems. However that kind of user will almost certainly need above average technical skills to do this, which means that most users will go for the easiest option of upgrading the hardware to match or exceed the minimum requirements of the latest software.

In some cases it maybe possible to get a reasonable run-time result using the latest Open Source Software on older hardware by adding more memory. Other upgrades such as adding a more powerful processor to an older board can only be taken so far, but in any event this leaves the environmental problem of what to do with the replaced component.

I might suggest that there is money to be made from a potential market need to develop Open Source Software that successfully tackles minimum hardware requirements in the most environmentally friendly way. There are many who claim that the use of Open Source Software is already extending the life of computer hardware, but in my view there is considerable potential to do more.

Mark Elkins

Open Source and eGovernment 3

 in E-Government / OSSG Article  tagged article by (updated 1748 days ago)

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

Open Army 1

 in Knowledge / OSSG Article  tagged article by (updated 1748 days ago)

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

Call to boycott OASIS Standards that are not open 3

 in Licensing / OSSG Article  tagged article by (updated 1748 days ago)

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