Posts filed under 'FOSS'
activeCollab - making the numbers but not sharing the values
The community backlash over Ilija Studen’s announcement to alter the development path of activeCollab is a typical example of what happens when successful FOSS projects go proprietary. Perhaps it was Ilija’s lack of faith in FOSS values from the very beginning, or perhaps it was simply the lure of venture diesel, but the decision has been made and damage already done. Only time will tell if a free (as in freedom) fork would take off and become mainstream.
Serendipity User Survey
We have reached the first milestone of the Season of Usability project I’m participating in: the Serendipity user survey is now online. If you’re a Serendipity user, please participate! It’ll no doubt help us improve your blogging experience.
Season of Usability 2006/2007
I’ve had no formal training in interaction design, information architecture or usability (not many card-carrying IxDs do anyway, let alone grasshoppers like us). I’m very lucky to gain a certain amount of practical insight through the work we do at Vesess, but that hardly makes up for the lack of theoretical knowledge. That’s one of the reasons why I’m really excited about being selected for the Season of Usability 2006/2007.
Net neutrality survives
Companies like AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth and Comcast spent more than $150 million to push Congress to gut Net Neutrality. But in the end, they couldn’t overcome widespread public opposition. Net neutrality survives, for now.
Thank you Google
Google SoC has come to an end. This is not my official thank you note - that’ll come in a later, longer post. This is a pointer to the Thank you Google image created by Manu Cornet.
I was overjoyed to see the blue-green padma of this site, used as my avatar, all over the place - apparently it was a good source for creating the blue letters.
FOSSSL 2006
We have improved a lot over the years. Last time when Sri Lanka announched a FOSS week, some people thought it was a joke. But thanks to the commitment, talent and sheer determination of the small yet very active FOSS community of our country, we no longer have to worry about nay-sayers. Needless to say, I’m thrilled (and indeed, honoured) to have been able to play a small role in organizing these events.
FOSSSL 2006 starts on Monday next week, and it’ll be a week of knowledge sharing, community building, hacking, chatting and fun.
Pushing your limits
A few of my best friends are in Japan, doing their higher studies. One of them has come back on vacation, and while talking to him I was amazed to hear about the insane hours he’s working there. Apparently he gets two hours of sleep before heading off to work on the night shift at a restaurant, and then comes back to have one more hour of sleep before going to uni the next day. I never thought the human body could endure such torment, seeing how I get dizzy after a couple of days of sleep deprivation. I mean, it’s not like my friend is using polyphasic sleep, but here he was, fit as a fiddle, and yet sleeping only three hours a day.
OpenDarwin not open anymore
The project to build a free (as in freedom) Mac-like OS is dead. The team says it has failed to achieve its goals in 4 years of operation, and moves further from achieving these goals as time goes on
.
The reasons?
Availability of sources, interaction with Apple representatives, difficulty building and tracking sources, and a lack of interest from the community have all contributed to this.
I don’t know what commitment was there from Apple when the project was initiated, but they don’t look like a company who want to share information, let alone source code. As far as I know, Apple representatives speak in legalese, not the ideal way to communicate with hackers. No wonder the community was not interested.
But above all, OpenDarwin was destined to fail because it was trying to fix a problem that didn’t exist. The Cult of Mac is not searching for a way out of Apple’s tight grip. They just want more ways to play with the system. John Gruber speaks for many of them when he says:
I don’t want the source code to their software; I just want to be able to script the hell out of it.
ApacheCon Asia in Colombo
ApacheCon Asia is the first ever Asian offering of the popular ApacheCon Conference of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). ApacheCon Asia provides an excellent opportunity to experience first-hand what ASF technologies and development communities can do for you and your enterprise. Priced at a very affordable level, the conference will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from August 14th to 17th at the Trans Asia Hotel. See ApacheCon Asia website for further details.
Eben Moglen at Redhat Summit
This month’s Redhat magazine has videos of Eben Moglen, Cory Doctorow and Matthew Szulik talking on various FOSSy topics, including digital freedom, DRM, patent legislation, and the value of transparency and truth.
