Scott Wilson works for OSS Watch and the Apache Software foundation in addition to being the maintainer for HtmlCleaner. In this article, he discusses the open source tools he relies on, the lack of open source in administrative systems, and the ‘FOSS bubble’ that prevents open source from being a part of certain business communities. […]
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-via Ars Technica (External Link)
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The Open Knowledge festival was started as an effort to improve collective sharing, learning, and making, and to bring positive change to society by improving access to knowledge and tools. This group seeks to improve accessibility to music, films, books, government information, and scientific, historical, and geographical data. The festival is being held in Berlin, […]
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An update to the U.S. children’s Internet Protection Act in 2011 stipulates that schools who receive federal funding from the FCC’s E-rate program must educate students on cyber safety. Charlie Reisinger offers ideas for how this education could be updated to include information related to technology rights, open formats and licenses, ethics and privacy, and […]
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Karen Sandler’s career has spanned multiple areas of software freedom; working for organizations like the Software Freedom Law Center, the GNOME Foundation, and the Software Freedom Conservancy. Her work has taught her that one of the most crucial requirements of a successful open source project is having a clear foundation for the community that prevents […]
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The Python Software Foundation has the mission to “to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers.” The organization is led by an elected board with membership limited to invite-only. Now, the foundation is opening membership to anyone in […]
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-via Jim Nelson (External Link)
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South Korea’s ministry of ICT wants to increase the country’s participation in the development of open source projects. The ministry views this as an opportunity to expand the development of new technology in South Korea and to increase competition between software vendors and service providers. More from joinup.
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Robert David Steele is a former Marin, CIA officer, and co-founder of the US Marine Corps Intelligence Activity. Steele has been a champion of open source and transparency in governance, specifically the intelligence community. In his latest book: The Open-Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth, and Trust, he outlines what he believes to be the coming […]
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-via OpenSource.com (External Link)
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Many governmental institutions around the world have long relied on proprietary technology solutions, making it difficult to adapt to changes in technology. Proprietary solutions make it more challenging to handle issues when businesses move, get bought-out, or go bankrupt, and staff need to be retrained whenever new technology is adopted. Using open source cloud technologies […]
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Microsoft makes and estimated $1 – $2 billion a year from royalties associated with Android OS due to the exceptionally large patent portfolio they have built. Untill now, the patents they used to force royalty payments from manufacturers of Android devices had been kept secret, but it has now been revealed by the Chinese Government. […]
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Last year, the State of Vermont passed a law to prevent patent trolls who try to force the targets of copyright infringement suits to settle without going to court. Since then, over 20 states have either passed a similar law, or are in the process of doing so. More from OpenSource.com
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In 2012, researchers from the UK explored the usage of the patent system in the UK and the US. They found that only 1.6% of businesses in the UK had filed a patent between the years 1986 – 2006. High-Tech manufacturing led in the use of patents, but only 10% of companies had filed a […]
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Computer technology has decreased the barrier to sharing information widely and openly. This allows populations to establish transparent systems of governance that include systems of interaction and feedback. More from OpenSource.com
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33 parliament members from 7 member states in the European Commission have pledged to support and promote free software. More from the European Commission
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AF holdings sought to acquire the identities of over 1,000 internet users as a part of a suit against people that infringed upon copyrighted media, but was refused by a federal appeals court in Washington DC. More from The EFF
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In response to security and privacy issues in the wake of the revelations of NSA spying, China has begun investigating the use of Linux as a replacement to proprietary operating systems the don’t believe they can trust. The Chinese government has had some failures in this area in the past, so it will be interesting […]
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Vienna has been a leader in the adoption of open source for city governance. The city utilizes a number of open source applications and even developed their own distribution of Linux: Wienux. More from OpenSource.com
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Leigh Heyman is an advocate for open governance and has helped the White House develop a number of outreach programs. Heyman helped create We the People, host hackathons, start the White House GitHub account, and promote the use of API’s to access public data and services. More from opensource.com
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OST Original
The State of Open Source: Android
A Giant is Born Andy Rubin founded Android INC in 2003. Originally, his plan was to create a camera platform that included a selection of third party apps, but this was ultimately expanded to include smartphones after concluding the digital camera market was too small. Google purchased Android in 2005 and went public with its […]
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DemocracyOS is a program designed to bring democratic systems into the 21st centuryby offering a suite of tools that makes it easier to conduct governance in a way that is transparent, and open to the citizenry. This tool is based on the concept of Net Democracy, a hybrid of delegative democracy and direct democracy, which […]
