Can Mozilla Unify Open Source?
This week saw a quiet landmark in the history of the open source movement with the formal release of version two of the Mozilla Public License (MPLv2) and its approval as an official open source...
View ArticleComing to FOSDEM?
One of the most important events of the year for Europe's open source software developers is the Free and Open Source Developers' European Meeting - FOSDEM. It's held annually at the start of February...
View ArticleWhy SOPA and PIPA are bad for open source
The widespread internet blackout yesterday in protest at unbalanced legislation being rushed through the US Congress was dramatic and notable. I did have some questions though on why it was important...
View Articlee-books: You Can't Take It With You
There's a big market for digital books, but I think they're being sold badly, almost to the point of dishonesty. I think it's time the way their vendors talk about them was changed. First some...
View ArticleInsecurity By Obscurity
This week saw a surprising and shocking announcement by Symantec. According to ComputerWorld's Gregg Keizer: Symantec this week took the highly unusual step of telling users of its pcAnywhere remote...
View ArticleInsecurity By Obscurity
This week saw a surprising and shocking announcement by Symantec. According to ComputerWorld's Gregg Keizer: Symantec this week took the highly unusual step of telling users of its pcAnywhere remote...
View ArticleACTA's Back
Now that the US bills SOPA and PIPA have been put on ice, attention has returned to their parent, an international treaty called ACTA. I've written extensively about ACTA before, but in summary it is...
View ArticleA New OSI
OSI is changing, and you can help! I spoke at FOSDEM in Brussels on Saturday, on behalf of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) where I serve as a director. My noon keynote ("A New OSI For A New Decade")...
View ArticleEolas Patent Failure A Hollow Victory
There's no doubt it's a double delight to see an East Texas jury decide that the ridiculous software patent Eolas has been using to shake down the software industry for the last decade is invalid. So...
View ArticleLibreOffice Foundation Symbolises Maturity
It's been a notable month for the LibreOffice open source office suite project (to which I also contribute), with a steady stream of news releases on their blog. They released version 3.5, described as...
View ArticleWhy I Want My Pi
Today's open hardware movement is a renaissance of the spirit that first got me interested in technology as a teenager. I was fascinated by the assembly of electronic components into flashy, noisy...
View ArticleTop Digital Rights Speakers In London
The Open Rights Group is the UK's answer to America's Electronic Frontier Foundation. A small but energetic staff works on a range of important campaigns concerning your freedoms in the digital domain,...
View ArticleThe Software Patent War Escalates
One of the things that makes me most wary of the new legislation that corporate media and software companies support is the way they are behaving under the existing laws. As Doc Searls recently wrote,...
View ArticleSeven Tips For Google+ Success
Impatience among geeks is nothing new. When it comes to Google's new Google+ social media system, that impatience is easy to find expressed. Just as in the early days of each social media system we've...
View ArticleThe Magic of Editable PDFs
One of the scourges of e-mail is file attachments, and particularly those from people sending files made by their new word-processor or presentation programme that half the people receiving it can't...
View ArticleA New Kind Of "Public"
As wave after wave of privacy news arrives, it's easy to believe that public postings on social media sites are the problem. But I believe we are facing an issue caused not by public sharing but by an...
View ArticleWhy Microsoft's New Open Source Company?
Microsoft has announced a new, wholly-owned subsidiary to allow it to engage open source projects. Decent explanations of why they have done this are a bit thin on the ground despite widespread...
View ArticleWhy RAND Is Bad For Open Source
By now, you're hopefully aware that there's a consultation in progress by the UK government on certain key aspects of their procurement strategy. Specifically, lobbying has re-opened the question of...
View ArticleMemetic Fragments
Here are some of the things on my mind this week, in random order from my social postings (Twitter, Identi.ca and Google+): The web media hosting application MediaGoblin is a year old this week....
View ArticleOSI Supports Open Standards
Back in 2006, a detailed discussion at the Open Source Initiative - where I am today a director - led to the creation of a statement about what makes a standard open, and a set of criteria for...
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