March 17th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Swapnil Bhartiya, of the EFY News Network, interviews Matthias Ettrich, the founder of KDE.
Ettrich talks about how he started KDE in 1996 to provide a Free Software answer to Windows 95, and how it has grown until today, when KDE offers a generally superior environment to Microsoft’s: “Try to compare Windows XP with KDE 3: nobody in their right mind would choose Windows over GNU/Linux based on the desktop experience alone.” (Why he specifically mentions the previous version of each desktop environment, I’m not sure.)
He also points out some of the remaining obstacles for Free Software: “Microsoft Office is still a major hurdle; we need more governments and companies to have the bravery to standardise on truly open formats. A proprietary undocumented text format as the de facto standard — and that’s what .doc is — is a shame for all parties involved. It’s like using a special patented ink that can only be read with special patented sun glasses.” (KDE is promoting ODF, as one of its earliest and strongest backers.)
He’s also optimistic about India’s future as an open source powerhouse. “India is a major commercial software development centre, home to some of the world’s largest software companies, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t play a similar role in the Free Software space.”
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, ODF, Open Source | Comments Off on EFYtimes Interviews Matthias Ettrich
March 13th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Jim Zemlin interviews Mark Shuttleworth for the Linux Foundation.
It’s a very thorough and valuable interview. A few choice quotes:
Shuttleworth on his decision to start Ubuntu: “I had sort of assumed that Linux would power ahead to become more part of the every day sort of computing experience and when I saw the folks who were driving Linux at the time in 2004 weren’t really interested in taking Linux to the mass market, I thought there was an opportunity to do that… And that then led to the genesis of Ubuntu.”
Shuttleworth also explains what he thinks it takes to create a successful open source community: “If you look at the projects that are successful, that produce inspiring work and that produce it predictably and address issues and manage change well, I think they do two things very well and the first is, obviously, they have very good technical leadership.
“Whether that comes from a company, whether it comes from an individual or whether it comes from a collection of individuals, it’s really important that there be a meritocratic process of letting the best thinker, the best idea, the best work effectively bubble to the top.
“But they also do something else and that is that they manage a very positive social process. I think the best projects recognize that they have to maintain really constructive, positive relationships internally and with other projects if they want to continue to have really good ideas and get really good input.”
Shuttleworth’s Ubuntu project has mastered both sides of the open source coin, and it shows in the quality of Ubuntu releases and the enthusiasm community members and Ubuntu users share for the software.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Linux Foundation Interviews Mark Shuttleworth
March 12th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Jorge G. Mare writes “Use Drupal to Empower Your OSS Project Community” for Linux.com.
It’s an overview of some of the tools Drupal can provide to support an online community not just of users, but of participants. As an open source application itself, and with such a strong toolbox, Drupal makes a great platform for the online presence of other open source projects.
In fact, Drupal has been used since 2004 to power the Spread Firefox community site, which has been a resounding success for the growth of Firefox and open source overall. It’s also used to power Ubuntu’s website, and many, many more.
Posted in Drupal, Free Culture, Open Source | Comments Off on “Use Drupal to Empower Your OSS Project Community”
March 10th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
SchoolForge.net has a great collection of Education Case Studies.
The studies are written by the teachers and educational technologists implementing these projects every day, which demonstrates the grassroots nature of the migration, even in the USA, of educational institutions to open source software. It also shows the vast array of possible creative solutions to computing infrastructure, with migrations to Linux on fat clients, thin-client networks, or smaller migrations to open source applications on legacy Windows operating systems all occurring.
SchoolForge itself is a great community, describing itself thus: “SchoolForge’s mission is to unify independent organizations that advocate, use, and develop open resources for education. We advocate the use of open texts and lessons, open curricula, free software and open source in education.”
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source | Comments Off on Case Studies of FOSS in Education
March 7th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Ubuntu has launched a new public feedback website called Ubuntu Brainstorm. Based in part on Dell’s IdeaStorm website (which led to great public demand for Dell to ship Ubuntu-based computers), Ubuntu Brainstorm is an easy way for people to submit suggestions and ideas to the project, to comment on other submitted ideas, and to vote for those they would like to support.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Ubuntu’s Brainstorm
March 6th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
My friend and former intern Matt Leung hosts a weekly radio show on Vassar’s WVKR radio station called “The Technology Beat.”
He interviewed me recently to discuss open source software for musicians and students, and we discussed applications including OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Miro, Jokosher and others. (See the site above to listen online, or download an MP3 of the interview here.)
Matt’s show has focused on open source software and Creative Commons licensing for creating and sharing music. I’m the first interviewee who is not a musician, so check out some of the other shows to hear a lot of great songs from smart bands, including my friends Dave Michalak and Jay Olin’s band “Toxic Waste.”
Posted in Announcements, Free Culture, Open Source | Comments Off on Interviewed on “The Technology Beat”
February 28th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
LinuxWorld calls SCaLE 6x the “Best Yet.”
SCaLE is a very community-oriented event that fosters a lot of nuts-and-bolts interaction. “The goal of SCaLE has always been to serve Southern California by bringing together as many regionally relevant community groups, Open Source project advocates and enthusiasts, plus curious outsiders, to Open Source together as possible. SCaLE is a local tradition, organized and managed year around by a core committee of dedicated local volunteers…”
I attended SCaLE 4x, two years ago, and had a great time. It’s great to see non-profit projects with booths just as big and given equal treatment among those of large companies like Google and IBM. And it’s good to see the big company booths happily coexisting and attracting lots of attention from the individual open source enthusiasts and project developers, just like the small project booths do.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source | 1 Comment »
February 26th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Google understands the importance of open file formats, and Zaheda Bhorat, Open Source Programs Manager at Google, has recently blogged about it on the Official Google Blog in a piece titled “A renewed wish for open document standards.”
She summarizes the issue succinctly: “The subject of open document standards grows in importance not only for the technically- minded, but for anyone who uses a computer to work on editable documents. Across the board, standards are crucial. They ensure that the devices and technology you use today will continue to work tomorrow, that your DVDs will play in your player, that your calls will go through to any network, and that your documents will be accessible from whichever system you choose today and in the future.”
Support for ODF is especially important now, as Microsoft’s major effort to undermine it is approaching its climax. The ISO will vote again next month on whether MSOOXML can also be an international standard alongside the already-approved ODF. But MS has attempted many unethical tricks to rig the process, and these seem to be catching up to the company as their publication in the media has galvanized opposition to keep them away.
Posted in Free Culture, ODF | Comments Off on Google’s Zaheda Bhorat on ODF
February 25th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Ian Lynch, creator of the INGOTs, recently emailed one of the OpenOffice.org mailing lists to give a little update on the project.
INGOTs stands for “International Grades – Open Technologies” and describes itself as “qualifications designed to motivate students and reduce administration through innovative use of the internet. Ingots are accredited in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
By encouraging students to participate in web 2.0 communities, the INGOTs helps them learn new software skills, as well as the ability to be self-directed in their learning experiences, something extremely valuable in a field with the innovation and rapid change of internet software and open source tools. On top of this, the students receive accreditation that can be used toward their school requirements.
Lynch’s latest email alerted us to student blogs about learning and teaching younger students OpenOffice skills. This demonstrates the project functioning as a self-sustaining community, as well as reinforcing students’ learning process as they go on to share it with others.
And building a business on top of open source software helps expand the software’s community as well as make an ongoing living for the business. It’s a great project, and I am glad to see it thriving.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Students Blogging about OpenOffice
February 23rd, 2008 Benjamin Horst
FOSDEM, in Brussels, EU, is a huge and important annual open source conference happening this weekend. According to its site, “FOSDEM ’08 is a free and non-commercial event organised by the community, for the community. Its goal is to provide Free and Open Source developers a place to meet.”
OpenOffice.org is at FOSDEM with a developer room for hacking, and plenty of coders and others to represent it and work together on projects small and large. It’s a great opportunity to start or increase your involvement with the OOo project.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OpenOffice.org at FOSDEM