ideOS

Vietnam gives priority to open source software
18 Ap 2007

The Vietnamese government has approved the software industry development programme to 2010, in which priority will be given to the use of open source software in state-funded IT projects. The state will encourage and assist organisations and businesses in providing services supporting the use of open source software.

Source: VietNamNet Bridge

Labels: advocacy, asia, government, trends

ITerating.com, Wiki-Based Guide to Commercial, Open Source and Hosted Software

Press release

Founder of sourceforge.net, former Microsoft VP join as advisors and investors to new software-comparison site.

New York, April 18, 2007 -- ITerating.com, the first Wiki-based directory of open source, commercial and hosted software, announced today its worldwide availability at www.ITerating.com. The site is the ultimate reference guide for the IT industry and includes reviews, ratings, articles, and detailed product feature comparisons. ITerating.com uses Semantic Web tools (including RDF) to combine user edits with Web service feeds from other sites.

“The software industry is broad, diverse, and constantly changing,” said Nicolas Vandenberghe, Founder and CEO, ITerating.com. “To offer comprehensive, relevant and up-to-date information, a Wiki-based model is the only choice.”

Designed for use by developers and industry consultants alike, ITerating.com allows users to easily contribute to popular categories such as Software Engineering Tools; Website Design & Tools; Website Software Tools; Website & Communication Applications & Social Networking; or to create their own category if does not exist yet.

ITerating.com encourages contributors to be bold, by editing existing products if it’s apparent that there isn't enough information in a particular "data sheet". Nothing can be ‘broken’ because it can be improved or fixed at any time. If a favorite product is not listed, contributors can add by clicking the [Add product link on the homepage. Contributors can invite other users to rate entries, giving them a chance to be included in the ‘Top Rated Products’ section.

Larry Augustin, founder of VA Software, parent company of open source repository site sourceforge.net, and Brian Roberts, former Corporate Vice President of Corporate Development at Microsoft, have joined to support ITerating.com as advisory board members and investors. Coming from opposite sides, these industry leaders recognize that the technology community needs a single repository for commercial, open source and hosted software.

“Nothing like ITerating.com exists on the Web today,” said Larry Augustin, venture investor and open source evangelist. “It’s one of these ideas that seems so obvious once you see it -- an obvious need in the industry.”

“In response to its customers, even Microsoft today has to address the issue of open source, best demonstrated by its investment to increase interopererability between Linux and Windows,” added Brian Roberts, Senior Managing Director of Evercore Partners. “ITerating.com supports healthy competition among different companies and solutions by making things more transparent. Ultimately, everyone benefits.”

About ITerating.com
ITerating.com is the first Wiki-based software guide, where IT professionals can find, compare and give reviews to thousands of software products. Founded in October of 2005, and based in New York, ITerating.com was created by CEO Nicolas Vandenberghe, who saw that there was an industry need for a comprehensive resource to help evaluate software solutions. All the content in ITerating.com is covered by the Creative Commons and contributions (rating, reviews, text) remain the property of their creators. For more information, visit www.ITerating.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:
LaurieAnne Lassek, for ITerating.com
C: 415.225.2236

Labels: directory, guides

McNealy Touts Open-Source Education Site

17 Apr 2007

Since Sun Microsystems Inc. co-founder Scott McNealy stepped down as chief executive to focus on his chairmanship full-time, he's been spending a lot of time as pitchman for a project called Curriki -- short for curriculum and wiki, which is a Web site allowing users to add and modify content and claim a piece of authorship.

With Curriki, parents, teachers and students can post and download free lesson plans, sample tests, book chapters and other materials.

Read the full report from here @ MyFox Twin Cities

Labels: advocacy, education, sun-microsystems

Premier Open Source Services Automation Solution Gets Major Facelift

Apr 18th 2007

allocPSA, the premier open source Professional Services Automation solution, has just seen its second major release under the popular GNU General Public License (GPL). Businesses worldwide can now download and deploy a proven, production-grade online services management solution, free of charge.

allocPSA is a complete, organisation-wide business solution that integrates all practice groups and functions in a professional services company, into a single computer system.

Read the full news release from here @ Linux PR

Labels: enterprise-applications, project-management

Can open source save Second Life?

Asks Dana Blankenhorn in this April 18th, 2007 post at ZDNet

Second Life has lots of buzz, lots of fans, not a lot of money coming in. It has been a business model problem that many otherwise successful Internet businesses have faced.

Will open sourcing the servers change things, asks Dana in this post. Read on.

Labels: internet, web-2.0

Create Ringtones The Open Source Way

The folks over at younevercall.com have put together a handy guide for Linux users looking to create their own ringtones. With cellphone companies charging as much as $3 for a twenty second ringtone, the guide should help Linux users save a little cash.

Source: Compiler @ Wired News

Labels: mobile, music

Open Source, Transparency and Electronic Voting

By John P. Mello Jr., Linux Insider

18 Apr 2007

Using open source software for voting can add credibility to the electronic process, according to Joseph Kiniry, a computer science lecturer with University College Dublin in Ireland and a researcher in open source software for voting.

With open source software, he told LinuxInsider, "not only can experts evaluate the software and make sure it does what it says it does, but it also increases the level of trust that normal, non-expert users can have in that software system."

Read the full article from here @ Tech News World

Labels: government, society

Open-source embedded database jumps on .NET CF

Apr. 18, 2007

McObject has released a version of its open source, object-oriented embedded database system for the .NET Compact Framework (CF). Perst for .NET Compact Framework offers a smaller footprint than the standard Perst product, as befitting applications running on resource-constrained, Windows CE-based mobile phones, set-top boxes, PDAs, and other smart devices.

Read the full news report from Windows for Devices

Labels: databases, dot-net, embedded-devices

Bloggers Call for Open Source Lobbyists & Advocacy

Via a post by Lora Bentley @ IT Business Edge, April 18, 2007

A Florida legislator’s efforts to insert pro-open source/open standards language into a bill that would create an enterprise information technology office in the state’s executive branch were foiled by lobbyists from Microsoft, according to Linux.com.

Rep. Ed Homan added text to Senate Bill 1974 that advocated the state’s adoption and implementation of systems that support open formats. Shortly after, it appears Microsoft’s men arrived at the Florida Legislature to convince its members that the addition to the bill was not a good idea.

Linux.com has now urged its readers to take up the cause of open source in Florida. So has ZDNet Dana Blankenhorn in a post.

Labels: advocacy, microsoft, problems, usa

Autodesk’s Contribution to the Geospatial Open Source Community Gains ’Seal of Approval’ From Developers

Press release

April 18, 2007
Company: Autodesk, Inc
Industry: Open Source GIS
Location: San Francisco, CA, United States of America

SAN FRANCISCO,CA- Following the first anniversary of its launch, MapGuide Open Source has achieved a new status within the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) as a fully endorsed project. Originally developed as Autodesk MapGuide software by Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), and released to the open source community in 2006, MapGuide Open Source is a Web-based platform that enables users to develop and publish online mapping applications and geospatial web services.

During its incubation process, the project's community of more than 600 members actively engaged in development and application efforts to validate the software's functionality, viability and support. As part of the project's graduation, Robert Bray, platform software manager and architect of geospatial solutions at Autodesk, has assumed the role of OSGeo vice-president -- MapGuide Open Source.

"As a new open source project, it was crucial that MapGuide Open Source show clear signs of an open development process and community involvement. Early in the incubation process, community members were already collaborating to identify new ways to use the technology and to request new features needed in future releases," said Tyler Mitchell, executive director of OSGeo. "Now that it has graduated from the incubation process, becoming an official OSGeo project, developers can have added confidence applying the MapGuide Open Source platform to meet their specific web mapping needs."

With more than 25,000 downloads in its first year and an average of four to five thousand downloads per month in 2007, the software is already being embraced by the geospatial open source community. To date, MapGuide Open Source has had three version releases, with the most recent update in January 2007 adding direct support of KML files for Google Earth mapping service.

"As a sustaining sponsor of OSGeo, Autodesk is excited by the number of innovative projects that open source developers are building with MapGuide Open Source," said Lisa Campbell, vice president of geospatial solutions at Autodesk. "This network of professionals brings new capabilities to local and regional audiences around the world much faster than Autodesk could, if the software were still proprietary."

One new geospatial project using MapGuide Open Source is the San Francisco Urban Forest Mapping System, a dynamic online resource for residents, community groups and city employees to update and share information about trees within the city's urban forest. As the Urban Forest Mapping Project is a community-based initiative by public and non-profit organizations, MapGuide Open Source was the ideal platform because it offered the flexibility to adapt the technology to suit the project's unique needs. The project partners plan to contribute the Urban Forest Mapping Project technology to the open source community for the benefit of other cities or organizations. The source code for the map will be released to the open source community at www.sftreemap.org.

In addition to MapGuide Open Source, Autodesk contributed its Feature Data Object (FDO) data access technology as an open source project to OSGeo. Autodesk is also a sustaining sponsor of OSGeo, further showing their support of the open source community.

For more information about MapGuide Open Source, visit mapguide.osgeo.org/.

About the Open Source Geospatial Foundation
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration. The foundation's projects are all freely available at www.osgeo.org and useable under an OSI-certified open source license.

About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art digital prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real. Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation.

For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

Contact: Toni Cole, (503) 471-6841 Email: toni.cole@edelman.com

Labels: gis

Exclusive report on open source portals

April 19, 2007

Lukasz Wilczynski writes "GridwiseTech, a vendor-independent Grid computing expert, released an exclusive report on Grid-Compliant Open Source Portals, available for free download on the website www.gridwisetech.com/portals. The report is an outline of the complete research and software testing of the leading solutions in the field: GridSphere, Liferay and uPortal. It is addressed to technology investigators from business sector, who are in the process of selecting portal technologies suitable for their specific needs.

Read the full product announcement news report from News Forge

Labels: internet

Startup commercializes open-source microkernel

Richard Goering, EE Times, 18 Apr 2007

The open-source OKL4 microkernel, developed by Australia's Center of Excellence for Information and Computing Technology (NICTA), is about to receive a strong commercial push. Open Kernel (OK) Labs, a NICTA spinoff, is setting up its U.S. headquarters in Chicago and rolling out commercial support package.

OKL4 is an open-source microkernel aimed at embedded consumer and mobile devices. It claims fast performance and supports virtualization, real-time programming, software componentization, fine-grained protection domains, and dynamic resource partitioning

Read the full news report from here @ EE Times

Labels: australia, embedded-devices

OpenOffice deal pushes open-source to business

China Martens, Apr 19, 2007

Open-source business intelligence (BI) software vendor Pentaho is hoping a new tie-up unveiled today with the OpenOffice.org community and Sun Microsystems will bring its BI offerings to the attention of many more new users.

Read the full report from here @ PC Advisor, UK

Labels: business-intelligence, partnerships, sun-microsystems

Red Hat tries spreading open-source idea

Posted by Stephen Shankland, April 18, 2007

Red Hat is taking a second crack at trying to spread its open-source philosophy beyond the realm of software development.

On Wednesday, the Linux seller announced a partnership with the nearby University of North Carolina to try to encourage use of the open, collaborative model in the fields of health care research, biotechnology, bioinformatics and public policy.

Read the full news report from here @ News.com

Labels: advocacy, government, healthcare, linux

Norwegan Liberal Party Passes Resolution in Favor of File Sharing

New Proposal Would Move Copyright Laws into the 21st Century

By TheCaptain, April 15, 2007

Norway's liberal party, Venstre, has recently passed a resolution that is nothing short of revolutionary-in favor of file sharing. Copyright law is out of date, the party says...technology now makes it such that current copyright laws actually impede the cultural progress that could otherwise take place, by stopping a tremendously efficient mechanism of sharing information. A new system is necessary that would facilitate the production of content while at the same time giving users access to it. The new resolution calls for a change of policy in four areas: file sharing, sampling, commercial copyright lifespan, and the use of digital rights management software (DRM).

Read this interesting article from Associated Content

Labels: advocacy, copyright, europe, government, laws, norway

Open Source in Arts, Writing - Collage not copyright

Apr 15, 2007

Author Jonathan Lethem, would like to see copyright laws tweaked to recognize the intrinsically collaborative nature of art. Taking up the fight against lifetime-plus-70-years copyright laws, Lethem wrote a clear and heavily documented 13-page essay for Harper's magazine in February titled 'The Ecstasy of Influence: A plagiarism.' In this well-researched and convincing piece, Lethem compares ever-lengthening copyrights and patents to the fencing in of the public commons in ancient England for private use...

Lethem also plans to give away an option on the film rights to his novel 'You Don't Love Me Yet.' He explains why on his Web site: http://jonathanlethem.com

Read the full article from here @ Santa Cruz Seninel

Labels: advocacy, arts, copyright, creative-commons, films

Microsoft: Never Really Helping Open source

16 April 2007, SDA India

It is Microsoft once again against open source! (So what's new?). This time, it is over their ClearType technology. The reason why the fonts are better in Windows as compared to Linux is the ClearType technology that Windows uses. Doug Schaefer feels that Microsoft is never going to extend the patent protection on ClearType to all of the Linux community, and that in the fuzz between ClearType and FreeType, and between open source and software patents, it is the user who pays the price.

Read this brief news item @ SDA India

Labels: microsoft, patents, problems

Sun to Contribute to Open Source Storage

16 April 2007

Sun has said that it plans to give some of its storage software and hardware technology to the open source community. The donated technology includes Sun-only administration features of Solaris ZFS to be given over to the OpenSolaris open source community...

This will enable community members to combine OpenSolaris with hardware from any source to create storage solutions at a fraction of the price of traditional proprietary storage vendors. This combination of open source and commodity hardware could herald a new stage in the storage industry...

Read the full news item from here @ SDA Asia Magazine

Labels: it-hardware, it-storage, prices, sun-microsystems

What makes an open source Project successful?

16 April 2007

Is the enthusiasm for open source software projects a "bubble" ready to burst and take the model down with it? That's what the CEO of one of the most successful open source projects thinks...

"Right now, open source is hot," said Rod Johnson, author of the Spring Java development framework and CEO of Interface21, the company he founded to market it. Most open source projects are supported by an army of volunteers who buy into the hype, but "capitalism will inevitably reassert itself" and developers will find they need to put more effort into steady jobs and private lives, leaving "open source zombies"--unsupported, unmaintained projects--he predicts.

But wait! All is not lost. In his opinion, while the majority of open source projects will fade into obscurity, companies and products that have the critical mass of customers, developers, and employees and financially viable business models could yet make the open source paradigm a force to reckon with.

Read this interesting article from IT News Australia

Labels: business-models, opinion, problems, trends

Open Source fund loses money source

By Nick Farrell, 09 Apr 2007

An open source outfit which funds open source projects through financing from credit cards, is losing its card provider. The Linux Fund cardholders received notice from the Bank of America recently that the program is being discontinued.

The letter says that the Linux Fund recently agreed to discontinue the existing credit card programme after June 30, 2007.

Read the full news report from here @ The Inquirier, UK

Labels: advocacy, investments

Varien Announces Magento, a Ground Breaking Open Source eCommerce Platform

Press release

The open source software will change the eCommerce playing field by allowing greater functionality for a fraction of the cost.

Los Angeles, CA, April 9, 2007 -- Varien, an industry leading eCommerce provider, announced a revolutionary new open source eCommerce platform today that brings the power and security of an enterprise solution without the hassle and cost.

"Magento is the flexible, feature-rich and secure eCommerce solution business owners need to propel their online business," said Varien President Roy Rubin. "It gives the control of a proprietary system without the 6-digit price tag."

We examined and improved every process encountered by our staff of project managers, analysts, developers and designers. The result is a complete open source eCommerce solution that promises to not only grow with your business, but also grow it.
Magento is open source software built by Varien, an industry leader and eCommerce provider for over 6 years. The software includes cutting-edge features such as single-page checkout, ship-to-multiple-addresses and a wealth of other high-end components that will improve conversions and elevate online businesses.

"We're committed to developing the leading eCommerce platform," said Rubin, "and Magento provides the flexibility required in today's environment. The industry reported $108.7 billion in sales last year and companies need a solid platform like Magento to compete."

With Magento, you no longer have to mold your business logic or site design to the will of your eCommerce platform. Varien built Magento from the ground up to provide unprecedented control and allow for total customization. The modular and open architecture makes integrating with third parties through web services and API's a breeze, and the system includes robust marketing, analytics and catalog tools right out of the box.

"Calling on our experience and extensive understanding of our clients' needs we set out to develop the ultimate open source eCommerce solution," said Rubin. "We examined and improved every process encountered by our staff of project managers, analysts, developers and designers. The result is a complete open source eCommerce solution that promises to not only grow with your business, but also grow it."

Look for Magento's release in the summer of 2007. Sign up at MagentoCommerce.com to get updates on the development and a chance to be among the first to use the new eCommerce platform set to revolutionize the industry.

About Varien:
Varien is an eCommerce development firm devoted to creating engaging web sites, rich internet applications, and innovative user experiences. We pride ourselves on effectively and consistently integrating new web technologies with user-friendly interface design. Our solutions generate our customers over $150 million/year in sales. Varien is located in Los Angeles, CA. For more information call (866) 4.Varien or visit www.varien.com

For more information contact:
Chris Marshall
Varien
(310) 280-3908

Labels: e-commerce, internet

Open Source Telephony Becoming More Compelling

By Greg Royal, 04/09/2007

One of the most interesting transformations in the telecommunications industry is the transformation of business models, specifically in this case, the Asterisk PBX. The fascination is in applying the Linux Open Source Model, give away the product and sell the services, to your telephone system.

Read more from this post on the pros and cons of open source telephony / networking, and hints on where the market could be headed - Network World

Labels: networking, telecommunications

CosmosCode Brings Open Source to NASA

Posted by Lora Bentley on April 9, 2007

NASA is embracing open source this month with the launch of CosmosCode. Taking public the project, designed by Jessy Cowan-Sharp and Robert Schingler at NASA’s Mountain View, Calif.-based Ames Research Center, will enable the agency to recruit software engineers to develop code for live space missions, the story says

Read the full blog post from here @ IT Business Edge

Labels: aerospace

RadView Moving to Open Source Model

By Sean Michael Kerner, April 6, 2007

Internet application testing vendor RadView plans to migrate its flagship product to an open source model using the General Public License (GPL), internetnews.com has learned. The announcement is expected to be made on Wednesday April 11.

The move to open source its products could have implications for commercial vendors in the sector, such as Hewlett-Packard's Mercury Interactive and IBM's Rational Software division.

Read the full news report from here @ Internet News

Labels: software-testing

Open Source Market: OpenLogic’s CEO unveils new trends

by Roberto Galoppini, April 5, 2007

Steven L. Grandchamp, OpenLogic’s CEO, has written an insightful article entitled “The Evolution of Open Source”, explaining that there are many sourcing and selection issues and how this market is evolving.

Roberto discusses Steven's article in this blog post and also provides his perspectives on the trends.

One quote that I'd like to carry from this post, "The real opportunity for growth is in demystifying the use of open source. Those third-party, open source firms that focus on helping enterprises develop policies, pick projects, and manage deployments are the ones most likely to succeed and excel." Similar to what Roberto says, I'm not sure if these horizontal business models are more likely to succeed (I hope this indeed is what Roberto has meant by his term "horizontal" business models!), but I can see a distinct value addition and a distinct avenue of making serious money as well in this model!

See the full post here

Labels: business-models, perspectives, trends

The theory of Twitter & of social imbalances

April 05, 2007 by Dave Winer.

Dave in this post expands on a notion that he had discussed about Twitter's change of subscription policies.

Well, from what I understand, he essentially is trying to analyse whether systems can be entirely democratic in their decision-making processes (in the piece he had written about on Twitter's policies, the system was not fully democratic). Dave feels that social systems could be perceived as being in one of the two sets - balanced and imbalanced systems. Balanced systems are perceived to be democratic and fair, and the imbalanced ones are not, put crudely.

Imbalances continue happening in social systems, and so they will in Twitter, predicts Dave - somewhat on the lines of the evolution of the A-list bloggers...but is this "imbalance" a problem? Quite on the contrary, feels Dave. Such an imbalance could be quite necessary for these systems to function, similar to similar imbalances being necessary for efficient decision making in companies (at least medium and large companies).

One can easily see the relevance of this discussion to many open source projects, and we have already heard of quite a few open source project leaders being called "dictators" at least in a humorous sense (but perhaps not always meant lightly!). But unless there exist such (hopefully) benevolent dictatorships, would the world ever see the likes of more Linuxes and Phps and Apaches? If two's company and three a crowd, just imagine what combined decision-making by dozens of geeky and strong-minded developers would add to :-). A word pops in my mind - pandemonium.

Interesting post, read the full post here @ Scripting blog

Labels: analysis, perspectives, problems, project-management, social-networking

eBucks Rewards Programme Going Open-Source

05 Apr 2007

Johannesburg - eBucks, the rewards programme offered by First National Bank (FNB), is the latest South African business to turn its back on traditional software platforms such as Microsoft in favour of an open-source platform.

This comes after government announced in late February that all government departments would switch from Microsoft to the open-source Linux operating system in a bid to lower administration costs and enhance local IT skills.

Read the full report from here @ News 24

Labels: advocacy, banking, finance, south-africa

Open source mechanics: Comp'ing renewals, hiring inside sales

April 05, 2007

The author (Matt Asay), in the middle of finalizing his company's (Alfresco) sales compensation plan for their open source software, realises that it is not as easy as putting down commissions and incentives based on sales...

The core of the issue had to do with how to compensate for renewals. After some thought, Matt opted to fully compensate and credit renewals. Why? Because it aligns interests between the salesperson and the customer.

Dwelling on these issues, Matt extends these thought processes and provides some interesting perspectives. One of them is a quote from his CEO:"Software is simply an excuse for a business relationship." That is, in the case of open source software, the bits are simply an excuse to provide service to a customer.

Once you see sales from this relationship and support perspective, it is not surprising that folks decide to incentivise salespeople on renewals as well. Because, to quote Matt, "Because as an open source company selling subscriptions to services, those subscriptions end the minute I stop providing value." And so will renewals!

Interesting post, read the full post from here @ Open Sources

Labels: analysis, customer-service, perspectives, sales

Imity Source is Now Open

Feb 2007 news item

Consider Imity as your pocket radar. Imity uses your mobile phones to sense people around you. If Imity is active on your phone, from your pocket, it will sense other Imity users and mobile phones with discoverable Bluetooth...

Interestingly for the open source world, Imity has announced that the source will be open.

Read the brief announcement from the Imity web site

via: O'Reilly Radar post

Labels: mobile

Open Source Licensing: is StillSecure trying to redefine Open Source? asks Roberto Galoppini in this April 4, 2007 post at his eponymous blog

Roberto believes that being compliant with OSI or FSF definitions should be mandatory if one wishes to call their products open source or free software...However, he finds that Cobia, StillSecure's security platform, does not strictly comply with OSI and in fact a StillSecure representative whose comments are included in the post appears to feel that compliance with OSI is not the most important issue as far delivering value to end users are concerned. Roberto, and a few others, would most likely beg to differ on that...

Interesting post, read the full discussion here

Labels: compliance, it-security, opinion, osi

Stretching the Education Dollar With Linux

By Lisa Hoover, LinuxInsider (Part of the ECT News Network)

03 Apr 2007

While there are differences in the different distributions of Linux specifically aimed at educators and students, most bear striking similarities both in basic code and in the software offerings bundled in the distribution. This variety may actually work to a user's advantage.

As the cost of equipping classrooms with everything from chalk to chairs continues to escalate, many schools are turning to open source solutions. School IT managers are discovering that Linux-based distributions are a great way to save money, and that access to the software's source code may introduce students to more technical aspects.

Read the full news report from here @ Tech News World

Labels: education, linux, operating-systems

CitizenSpeak Developer Announced as Winner of Prestigious $10,000 Pizzigati Prize at Leading Nonprofit Technology Conference

Press release

George Hotelling to be Honored as First Annual Winner of the Nation's Top Public Interest Computing Award at The National Technology Conference in DC

NTEN Conference, Washington, DC, April 4, 2007 -- The inaugural $10,000 Antonio Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest will be presented to George Hotelling for his development work on CitizenSpeak -- a free email advocacy service for grassroots organizations. The award ceremony will take place in Washington DC on April 6 at the National Technology Conference, the largest annual conference for technology professionals in the nonprofit space.

"This award is really an honor for me," notes Hotelling. "This award highlights the importance of public space software and how it's helping grassroots organizations and individual activists get their voices heard."

The new Pizzigati Prize -- a project launched by Tides Foundation's Florence and Frances Family Fund -- aims to honor individuals who, in the spirit of open source computing, fashion outstanding applications that help nonprofits become more effective in their ongoing efforts for social change.

"Our judges faced a difficult choice," notes Jason Sanders, the Tides Foundation philanthropic advisor who coordinates the Pizzigati Prize. "Each of the six finalists for our first prize has made a valuable contribution to public interest computing."

Hotelling's work on the CitizenSpeak project began when he realized that local groups needed a tool that could help them impact local decisions and decision-makers. He soon discovered that CitizenSpeak.org, a free online service founded in 2002 by Jo Lee and Pablo Calamera, shared the same vision. Hotelling, with over a decade of experience working with open source tools, rebuilt the CitizenSpeak service and made the code available as open source software.

Community groups have been putting the revamped CitizenSpeak to work in a wide range of campaigns, everything from a Rhode Island effort to stop the siting of new schools on contaminated land to a multi-denominational offensive against religious intolerance in the Delaware town of Indian River.

The National Technology Conference is organized by the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (NTEN), the national trade association for this sector. Jo Lee, executive director of CitizenSpeak, will accept the award at the conference on behalf of George Hotelling. Jo will also be part of a conference panel called "Strategies for Linking Social Network Campaigns with Advocacy Tools."

The code that runs CitizenSpeak is available as a free module for Drupal, the popular open source Web content management platform. For more information, please visit http://www.citizenspeak.org.

About the Pizzigati Prize
The Pizzigati Prize honors the brief life of Tony Pizzigati, an early advocate of open source computing who spent his college years at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, working at the MIT Media Lab and later the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. Three years after his 1992 graduation, Pizzigati, then 24, died in an auto accident. The deadline for the 2007 Pizzigati Prize will be July 1, 2007. Applications forms and background information will be available later this fall at the Pizzigati Prize Web site.

About Tides Foundation
Tides Foundation partners with donors to increase and organize resources for positive social change. Tides brings together people, resources, and vision through Tides Donor Advised Funds, Tides Initiatives, funding collaboratives, gatherings and learning opportunities, foundation management services, comprehensive and flexible program services, and a framework for strengthening the progressive movement.

About CitizenSpeak
CitizenSpeak is a non-profit that provides grassroots organizations and local activists with an easy-to-use, powerful e-advocacy service. Since its inception, CitizenSpeak has supported organizations from all across the country, including formal organizations with long term goals, as well as individuals using CitizenSpeak for one-time issue-oriented actions. The code that runs CitizenSpeak is available as a free and open source Drupal module. CitizenSpeak is based in Providence, RI. For more information, please visit http://www.citizenspeak.org.

Labels: awards, non-profits

Linux Foundation Expands Membership With Marvell, Nokia and VirtualLogix

Press release

BEAVERTON, OR -- April 04, 2007 -- The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced three new members who represent the increasing opportunity for Linux as it continues to mature on devices.

New members include Marvell®, the leader in storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions; Nokia, a world leader in mobile communications; and VirtualLogix™, the global leader in real-time virtualization™ technology for connected devices.

"It's really important to understand the issues and opportunities for Linux in multiple environments, and the addition of Marvell, Nokia and VirtualLogix will deepen our understanding and help us all push the envelope even further," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. "We're looking forward to rolling up our sleeves with these new members in the coming months, including at our first Member Meeting this June."

About the New Members

Marvell silicon solutions power a range of consumer electronics and the gateways that form connectivity among us all. Marvell joins The Linux Foundation with a focus on the standardization of mobile and embedded Linux and its adoption on a wide range of devices.

"There has been strong interest in Linux among Marvell's silicon solutions customers. By joining the Linux Foundation, we feel that we can better support this increasing demand and help bring embedded Linux into the mainstream through the Foundation's unified resources, services and standards," said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, vice president and general manager, Embedded and Emerging Business Unit, Communications and Consumer Business Group, Marvell.

In addition to its leadership position in mobile communications, Nokia is recognized for its Linux-based Maemo platform, open source mobile web browser and developer portal. It is interested in working with the LF on Linux-based technologies, including its Internet Tablet, in a vendor-neutral environment.

"It is important that Linux will not be controlled by any single company," said Ari Jaaksi, director, Open Source Software Operation, Nokia. "The Linux Foundation's protection mission helps provide that assurance. We also believe the Foundation's collaboration role will provide us a good venue to work with the industry's leaders in important areas such as desktop architecture and mobile Linux initiatives."

VirtualLogix joins LF to contribute its real-time virtualization expertise to help device manufacturers incorporate the rich functionality of Linux into mobile handset and network infrastructure applications, while reducing bill of materials.

"VirtualLogix looks forward to working with the LF and the LF virtualization workgroup to help speed the adoption of Linux into embedded devices at a lower cost," said Michel Gien, executive vice president of corporate strategy, VirtualLogix. "With virtualization technology, manufacturers will be able to reduce bill of materials, manage multiple operating systems within a single hardware environment and increase product performance."

About the Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007 by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group, it sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org.

*Trademarks: *The Linux Foundation, OSDL, Free Standards Group, and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.

Marvell and the Marvell logo are registered trademarks of Marvell or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contacts:

Jennifer Cloer
Page One PR
503-867-2304

Diane Vanasse
Marvell Public Relations
408-242-0027


SOURCE: The Linux Foundation

Labels: it-storage, linux, mobile, operating-systems, partnerships

TIBCO First to Deliver Complete Suite of Open Source AJAX Software for Creating, Deploying and Testing Enterprise Applications

Press release

TIBCO'S New General Interface Test Automation Kit Provides a Free, Comprehensive Solution for Quality Assurance Testing

By: AJAXWorld News Desk
Apr. 2, 2007 06:15 PM

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 2 -- TIBCO Software Inc. today announced that it has open sourced a high-performance test tool -- TIBCO General Interface(TM) Test Automation Kit (GITAK) -- to free developers from the labor-intensive process of quality assurance (QA) testing of enterprise asynchronous communications, JavaScript, and XML (AJAX) components and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).

TIBCO is the first company to offer a comprehensive suite of proven enterprise-class AJAX RIA libraries, visual tools, and automated QA test cases and run scenarios. This allows developers and end users to more easily combine and leverage the powerful capabilities of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) with RIA technology.

TIBCO GITAK, which extends the popular Selenium Core test tool for Web applications, runs directly in a browser with your TIBCO General Interface powered AJAX application. TIBCO GITAK provides a fully automated solution that enables companies to create automated test cases and run scenarios to validate an application is performing as it should. Once a library of test cases has been built, the AJAX applications and changes to them can be tested with the push of a button, reducing the time and money required for quality assurance significantly.

"JavaScript and AJAX applications have been inherently difficult to debug," said Kevin Hakman, director, General Interface product marketing, TIBCO. "As the first open source product on the market today, TIBCO GITAK offers a free, reliable solution to automating application testing. Furthermore, our product tests the entire application versus merely testing the application components as independent units to detect errors that are often not exposed until runtime. This improves productivity by identifying issues at an earlier stage in the software development lifecycle."

TIBCO General Interface Test Automation Kit (GITAK) is now general available for download at http://developer.tibco.com/

About TIBCO
TIBCO Software Inc. provides enterprise software that helps companies achieve service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) success. With over 3,000 customers, TIBCO has given leading organizations around the world better awareness and agility -- what TIBCO calls The Power of Now(R). To learn more, contact TIBCO at +1 650-846-1000 or on the Web at http://www.tibco.com/.

TIBCO, The Power of Now, TIBCO Software, TIBCO General Interface and TIBCO General Interface Test Automation Kit are trademarks or registered trademarks of TIBCO Software Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.

TIBCO Software Inc.
CONTACT: Jenna Kuhl of TIBCO Software Inc., +1-650-846-5396, or
jkuhl@tibco.com; or Bill Bourdon of Bateman Group, +1-415-602-1491, or
, for TIBCO - Web site: http://www.tibco.com/

Labels: enterprise-applications, middleware, quality

Simple Machines' Influence On The Open Source Community Draws Go Daddy's Attention

Press release

Domain registrar mega giant Go Daddy (godaddy.com) proudly announced last Thursday its support of Simple Machines LLC (simplemachines.org) with a cash donation of $10,000.

For Immediate Release

FOLSOM, Calif., April 2, 2007 --- The Internet's largest domain registrar, Go Daddy (godaddy.com), proudly announced last Thursday its support of Simple Machines LLC (simplemachines.org) with a cash donation of $10,000.

"The open source community really helped make the Internet what it is today. These projects help millions of Web users everyday and we are grateful to groups like Joomla and Simple Machines for moving open source initiatives forward," says Warren Adelman, president and COO of Go Daddy.

"We've made great strides in our [short] three year existence. A donation of this magnitude from Go Daddy is further validation of just how much our software has impacted the open source community," says Project Manager Amacythe of Simple Machines LLC.

"We would like to thank Go Daddy for their generous contribution and hope that it sets a precedence for other organizations to take notice of Simple Machines LLC," says Rick Caudill, marketing team member of Simple Machines LLC.

Simple Machines LLC develops Simple Machines Forum (SMF) software - a free, professional grade, highly-customizable software package that allows users to set up their own online community within minutes. SMF is written in the popular scripting language PHP and makes use of MySQL for databasing. It is designed to provide users with a fully customizable a feature-rich bulletin board while having an absolute minimal impact on the resources of the server. SMF is the next generation of forum software, and best of all it is and will always remain completely free. Learn more at 'http://www.simplemachines.org'


CONTACT:
Rick Caudill
Simple Machines LLC
1015 Riley Street
Suite 1453
Folsom, Calif. 95763-145
PHONE. 9167431433
http://www.simplemachines.org

SOURCE: Simple Machines LLC

Labels: internet, social-networking, web-2.0

The open source attitude - USA & Canada

By Vawn Himmelsbach, 4/2/2007

In the first of a three-part series, this article from IT Business Canada offers a comparative look at how firms in the U.S. and Canada decide which software model works for their enterprises

Because of differences in the two markets, what works south of the border (USA) may not work in Canada, at least in some respects, according to Michael O'Neil, managing director of Info-Tech Indaba. In a survey of 1,180 respondents in the U.S. and 557 in Canada, the research firm found that, in general, Canadians are more likely to leave the door open for open source software (OSS) than their American counterparts – though only a small few in either country would be willing to rule it out completely.

Read the full report and details from here @ IT Business Canada

Labels: canada, trends, usa

Launchpad.net: Easy open source collaboration

By James Archibald, 3 April, 2007

Launchpad.net, a web-based collaboration service that improves the flow of communication between different software projects, has begun public beta testing of Launchpad 1.0.

The site allows for easy collaboration between software projects that have traditionally been isolated from each other. It aims at helping projects develop quicker by preventing coders duplicating work such as bug fixes

Read the full blog post from here @ Tectonic

Labels: collaboration, communications

Open Source Trends

Nat Torkington talks briefly about the following trends in Open Source:

1. Adoption - convincing users to adopt it, requires usability, marketing, and support.
2. Freedom Wins - Embracing open source's strengths, and not treating it as a weakness.
3. Web 2.0 is Open Source
4. Open Beyond Source - open source extending to proprietary software development, hardware, and data.

Read the full blog post from here @ O'Reilly Radar

Labels: trends

Facebook Releases Open Source Project

Facebook has released Thrift, a software package designed to generate code to create programs that communicate easily and efficiently across programming languages, as an open source framework.

Originally developed by Facebook for use on the popular social network site, Thrift is a code generation engine to build services that work “efficiently and seamlessly” between C++, Java, Python, PHP, and Ruby.

Read the full report from here @ Wired

Labels: social-networking, web-2.0

Open-source Mambo opts for central authority

April 3, 2007

Mambo, an open-source software project that can handle content-management tasks such as online catalogs, has opted to govern itself with a single leader rather than its previous consensus-based approach.

The leader is Chad Auld, who has worked on the project for more than a year

Read the full report from here @ News.com

Labels: content-management, project-management

Open-source mobile phones could unleash sales

ARNAT LEEMAKDEJ, Apr 4, 2007

The Chinese government joined with a large cellular phone manufacturer, First International Computing (FIC) to create the first phone that runs an open-source operating system called OpenMoko.

Their phone comes with a touch screen, micro SD flash card slot, Bluetooth, GPRS, and GPS, and can run Windows Mobile as an alternative OS.

Called Neo1973 in recognition of the year the cell phone was invented, the prototype is now ready to ship to developers and the public release has been set for Sept 2007.

Read the full news story from here @ Bangkok Post

Labels: china, mobile, telecommunications

Tibco Releases Open-Source AJAX Test Kit

4/3/2007, By Kurt Mackie

Tibco Software Inc. has provided its test tool suite as an open-source offering to developers of asynchronous Web technologies for the enterprise, especially in SOA (service-oriented architecture) environments.

With the release of its General Interface Test Automation Kit (GITAK) test suite, the company claims to have delivered the first open-source test product that helps debug JavaScript, AJAX and rich Internet applications.

Read the full news report from here @ Application Development Trends magazine

Labels: enterprise-applications, saas, service-oriented-architecture

ESB Open Source Dev Platform Available for EAI

Includes Pre-Developed Gateways for uPortal, Sakai, CAS and Other Applications

Enterprise Open Source News Desk, Apr. 3, 2007

The OpenEAI Software Foundation, a non-profit corporation organized to develop and promote open source enterprise application integration, announced the general availability of the OpenEAI 4.0 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Development Platform, Software Utilities, and Sample Enterprise 2.0. Targeted primarily to educational institutions and other enterprises, OpenEAI 4.0 provides an open source architectural framework and development platform that includes a comprehensive of set of software APIs, utilities, reference implementations, and other administrative tools designed to enable mission critical data integration between enterprise applications

Read the full news release from here @ Enterprise Open Source Magazine

Labels: enterprise-applications

Bazooka - An Open-Source Tumblr You Host Yourself

April 03, 2007, Michael Calore

Tumblelogs are the hot new thing in blogging. They are basically blogs for people who don't have time to blog. Tumblelogs favor short posts, videos and pictures rather than long posts or editorial think-pieces.

Tumblr, a hosted service primarily, is the software app at the head of the movement. Now there's a tumblelog app for the DIY set - Bazooka.

Read the full post from here @ Wired

Labels: blogs, internet

Defense kicks off open-source encryption program

By Jana Cranmer, GCN Staff, 04 Mar 2007

The Defense Department has launched a new program to encourage the use of open- source encryption software within DOD systems.

The Open Source Software Institute of Hattiesburg, Miss., will support the OpenCrypto Management Program, which is part of DOD’s Open Technology Development road map initiative. The goal of that program is to provide DOD with greater system development and acquisition flexibility through collaborative software development.

Read the full news report from here @ GCN

Labels: government, it-security, military

Sun plans open source NAS?

By Beth Pariseau, 03 Apr 2007, SearchStorage.com

Sun Microsystems Inc. is planning an announcement next week on a new strategy for open source network attached storage (NAS), according to industry insiders.

The initiative, that some say is code-named FISH for fully integrated software and hardware, will feature NAS on servers running Solaris. It will include the ZFS file system and another open source performance-monitoring tool called DTrace. The goal is to generate interest in Sun's NAS storage products in the open source community where Java has already been a success.

Read the full news story from Storage Technology News @ Tech Target

Labels: it-networking, it-storage, sun-microsystems

Lumen: Open source SaaS

April 03, 2007, Matt Asay

Matt has a brief note at this post about Lumen, an open source SaaS platform.

He says, "Microsoft talks about Windows Live Core. Salesforce talks about Apex. But PHP applications are out there and making browsers sing right now, every day, all day. Applications are obviously moving to the web (whether as SaaS or some other trendy word). Lumen is a new entrant into the market with a free PHP app server that is used to make commercial and open source SaaS (web applications)"...

And Matt quotes from Lumen's press release, "Lumen's SaaS platform is in use by more than 200 commercial customers with over 150,000 users of on-demand applications....Lumenation is the industry's first PHP platform to focus on SaaS developers, making PHP an effective alternative to proprietary SaaS development platforms such as Saleforce's AppSpace and Microsoft's Live Core...."

Open source software moving into applications has been a hotly discussed topic of late with folks even coming up with open source ERP (though SAP thinks it is not that easy), so it will be very interesting indeed to easy where open source SaaS goes...

One naturally wishes the best for Open Source apps, unless of course the one happens to be from Microsoft, SalesForce or SAP!

Read the full blog post of Matt Asay's here at his Open Sources blog @ InfoWorld

Labels: applications, php, saas

Open Source Communications Appliances Becoming the 'Rage' These Days

By Rich Tehrani

The rage these days seems to be that of communications appliances - as installing software seems to be so last year, and plug-and-play seems just so 2007.

Read the full article from this blog post @ TMC Net

(Original source: Rich Tehrani's VoIP blog)

Labels: communications, trends

What's More Open, Apache Geronimo or JBoss?

March 30, 2007 - By Sean Michael Kerner

IBM (Quote) is heating up the open source middleware space with a new migration tool for moving from Red Hat's JBoss Application Server to Apache Geronimo.

IBM claims that the Apache model offers greater community collaboration that what JBoss offers, a claim that Red Hat disputes

Read more from this news report @ IT Management

Labels: application-server, competition, ibm, middleware