tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18116945059916122692024-03-14T00:05:05.742-07:00Open Source BuzzOn technology, community, culture.ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-60779750443824307112008-04-29T15:57:00.000-07:002008-12-04T15:59:25.168-08:00I've movedThanks for visiting. My blog has moved <a href="http://opensourcebuzz.technetra.com/">here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-48931266140305425522008-04-04T19:11:00.000-07:002008-04-04T19:55:42.751-07:00So who are the top contributors to the Linux Kernel?Greg Kroah-Hartman of SuSE Labs along with Jon Corbet of LWN.net and the Linux Foundation just published a very informative <a href="http://www.linux-foundation.org/publications/linuxkerneldevelopment.php">state of the union</a> of the Linux Kernel development world. <br /><br />The kernel is one of the largest collaborative software projects on the planet. According to the report, over 3700 individual developers from over 200 different companies have contributed to the kernel since 2005. That's amazing!<br /><br />I found a couple of very interesting facts in this report - the top 30 contributors and the top 30 organizations sponsoring kernel development.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The top 30 contributors include:</span><br />(Reference: <a href="http://www.linux-foundation.org/publications/linuxkerneldevelopment.php">Linux Kernel Development Report</a>)<br /><blockquote>Al Viro<br />David S. Miller<br />Adrian Bunk<br />Ralf Baechle<br />Andrew Morton<br />Andi Kleen<br />Takashi Iwai<br />Tejun Heo<br />Russell King<br />Stephen Hemminger<br />Thomas Gleixner<br />Patrick McHardy<br />Ingo Molnar<br />Trond Myklebust<br />Neil Brown<br />Randy Dunlap<br />Jean Delvare<br />Jeff Garzik<br />Christoph Hellwig<br />David Brownell<br />Paul Mundt<br />Alan Cox<br />Jeff Dike<br />Herbert Xu<br />David Woodhouse<br />Greg Kroah-Hartman<br />Linus Torvalds<br />Dmitry Torokhov<br />Alan Stern<br />Ben Dooks</blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The top sponsors of Linux Kernel development are:</span><br />(Reference: <a href="http://www.linux-foundation.org/publications/linuxkerneldevelopment.php">Linux Kernel Development Report</a>)<br /><blockquote>None (developers who are doing work on their own)<br />Unknown (anonymous contributors doing work on their own time)<br />Red Hat<br />Novell<br />IBM<br />Intel<br />Linux Foundation<br />Consultants<br />SGI<br />MIPS Technologies<br />Oracle<br />Monta Vista<br />Google<br />Linutronix<br />HP<br />NetApp<br />SWsoft<br />Renesas<br />Freescale<br />Astaro<br />Academia (Universities)<br />Cisco<br />Simtec<br />Linux Networx<br />QLogic<br />Fujitsu<br />Broadcom<br />Analog Devices<br />Mandriva<br />Mellanox<br />Snapgear</blockquote><br />It is pretty cool to learn from the report that 70% of all kernel developers are now getting paid to do what they enjoy the most!<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-78065998504546233772008-04-03T05:30:00.000-07:002008-04-04T17:43:21.905-07:00OOXML victory taints ISO credibilityMicrosoft’s controversial OOXML private file format was voted in as standard DIS29500 by the International Standards Organization, err… the “I Sold Out” (ISO) this weekend. Amid serious allegations of irregularities in the voting process, political manipulation, cronyism, influence trading and unfair practices employed to secure favorable votes, ISO committees stuffed with inept members representing various countries voted 75% in favor of OOXML.<br /><br />All for a document format! What a shame to demolish the credibility of such a prestigious standards body. And for a format from a corporation which fiercely opposes competition, cannot tolerate open standards and cannot get over misusing its corporate reach.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/the-last-lap.html">Open Malaysia blog</a> has some interesting stats about the vote.<br /><br />* 24 out of 32 P-Members (Participating Members) voted in favor of OOXML (75%). The requirement for confirmation is >= 66.66%.<br />* A total of 61 P-Members and O-Members (Observing and Other Members) voted in favor.<br />* 10 out of 71 member countries voted against (14%).<br />* 16 countries abstained and were not counted in the total.<br /><br />According to <a href="http://noooxml.org">noooxml.org</a> , a lot of last minute vote switching occurred due to heavy influence brokering by Microsoft, its subsidiaries and its business partners. This carried OOXML forward to approval. But approval at what cost? Desperate efforts to win by compromising institutional integrity can only backfire and is already leading to <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,143903/printable.html">erosion of brand credibility</a> for Microsoft around the world. Microsoft is its own worst enemy.<br /><br />Another report discussing the problems at the Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) can be found at <a href="http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080328090328998">Groklaw</a>. Ubuntu’s Mark Shuttleworth has also commented about the process in an <a href="http://http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2222">interview</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-36205575540429883152008-04-02T17:29:00.000-07:002008-04-04T17:30:50.367-07:00Mozilla turns 10!Mozilla’s 10th birthday party in SF on March 31st felt like a Netscape reunion. Hundreds of geeks and cat-herders, many with Netscape jackets, shirts, and nostalgia, gathered together to celebrate Mozilla’s phenomenal success. Mitchell Baker, Brendan Eich and the Mozilla community were all there to party, to enjoy the cake and to be merry. As the galactic chocolate birthday cake was being cut, Mitchell predicted that many opportunities and challenges lay ahead in the next 10 years and that the greatest achievements for Mozilla are yet to come.<br /><br />Mozilla has millions of reasons to celebrate. After 500 million downloads, Firefox stands tall as the world’s best free and open source web browser. After 500 million downloads, Firefox has single-handedly turned the tables on IE and has prevented Microsoft from closing the Web. Mozilla is Netscape done right.<br /><br />Life would be almost unimaginable without Firefox.<br /><br />Way to go! Mozilla. Live long and prosper.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-52840597996217687662008-03-27T17:23:00.000-07:002008-04-04T17:28:35.403-07:00From OSBC 2008: Open Source and True InnovationRed Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst delivered the first keynote of the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco with a state of the union on Red Hat’s leadership in open source - $500 million dollars in revenues, millions of servers, thousands of customers. Whitehurst highlighted Red Hat’s leadership in the Linux market with 80 percent marketshare with RHEL and 30 percent of the application server market with JBoss. His speech sounded like it was being delivered to “shareholders” of open source.<br /><br />The new CEO is not quite 90 days into his job. But he’s been all around the globe - meeting customers, heads of government and policy makers in China, Russia, and Europe. He feels that open source is gaining more popularity internationally due to anti-US sentiment.<br /><br />Whitehurst explained that one of Red Hat’s key challenges is to bring the value of the open source community development model to enterprise customers. For example, the “oVirt” project for building management tools around virtualization is helping Red Hat engage enterprise customers as participants in building these tools together. Another challenge is for Red Hat to be the defining company of open source for the 21st century - by changing the way technology is developed through “iterative innovation“. Patent reform is one of the biggest issues that Red Hat is currently facing and he hoped to see a broader strategy of protecting the whole community instead of just focusing on individual companies.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-25887405881895986962008-03-27T17:20:00.000-07:002008-04-04T17:24:19.750-07:00From OSBC 2008: Bringing Television to the Web with Open SourceIn another interesting keynote at OSBC by Steven Pearson, VP of Advanced Technologies at CBS Interactive, we learned about how deeply open source is being used in his organization. Almost every online property of CBS - CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSNews.com, Last.fm - is using open source for their application requirements, ranging from news simulcasts, live election reporting to connecting users who share similar tastes in music and customizing radio streams.<br /><br />Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, Lucene, Tomcat, PHP, Spring are among technologies that CBS is using heavily. Open source has offered greater ROI for CBS with increase in speed of development, ease of access to source code and documentation, and the ability to enhance source code when needed. CBS Interactive has also contributed back to several open source projects such as CPAN.<br /><br />The future of open source is bright at CBS with more and more open source projects for the online services that CBS is offering its audiences. Interestingly, Pearson did not feel that competition with other media organizations such as NBC, ABC, and Fox prevents CBS from contributing to open source projects. After all, having content platforms, made robust through open source practices, for delivering ads helps drive up CBS’s revenues.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-90207019764845935112008-03-21T08:29:00.000-07:002008-11-18T23:03:51.876-08:00Support ODF on Document Freedom DayKeep your data free. Free from vendor lock-in. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/R-P_SuV7HaI/AAAAAAAAAOU/EujcqLpda1M/s1600-h/Dfd08_banner_120x60.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/R-P_SuV7HaI/AAAAAAAAAOU/EujcqLpda1M/s200/Dfd08_banner_120x60.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5180264693548916130" /></a>Support Document Freedom Day on March 26. Activities and events will be held around the world to promote awareness of free document formats such as ODF.<br /><br />It is great to see that India voted <span style="font-weight:bold;">NO</span> for OOXML yesterday. According to <a href="http://osindia.blogspot.com/2008/03/india-votes-no-for-ooxml.html">Venky Hariharan</a>, 13 members voted "No", 5 members voted "Yes" (including Microsoft India, Infosys, TCS, Wipro and NASSCOM), 1 member abstained and 3 members did not attend.<br /><br />It appears that revenue partners and their special interests take precedence for India's software export companies over preserving freedom of knowledge and rights of users to share data using open formats. Can money buy standards?<br /><br />Take a stand and just say no! Support free document formats next week on March 26th. Organize awareness programs in your community, work with your favorite Linux Users Group and support <a href="http://documentfreedomday.org">Document Freedom Day</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-77997528087105919712008-02-18T15:11:00.000-08:002008-11-18T23:03:52.423-08:00GNUnify 2008 - It only gets better!<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/R74TnKYma9I/AAAAAAAAAN8/ZOxYOG6l16M/s200/gnunify08-002.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169590985791269842" /><a href="http://gnunify.in/">GNUnify</a> opened with a roar this year! More than a thousand smart developers and hackers, technology-hungry engineering students, foss enthusiasts, international open source gurus and successful entrepreneurs gathered for two days of great tech talks, install fests, hack fests, BOFs and lots of hallway and canteen conversations. The energy throughout the conference was amazing. Every year, I've seen this energy rise and add to the momentum of the conference.<br /><br /><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/R74T86Yma_I/AAAAAAAAAOM/lQrWxm4wlXc/s200/gnunify08-004.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169591359453424626" />Harshad and his organizing team did a phenomenal job of covering an excellent range of topics in the conference program - from Mozilla Prism, Ruby on Rails, PHP, MySQL, Erlang, Django to visual design tips, network management and security. Every room was packed with spillover seating on the speaker dais. BOFs on <a href="http://indlinux.org/">IndLinux</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sayamindu/249301929">Karunakar</a>, <a href="http://linuxchix.org.in/">LinuxChix India</a> by <a href="http://linuxchix.org.in/wiki/index.php/RunaBhattacharjee">Runa</a> were well attended. The workshops and hands-on tutorials were packed beyond lab capacities with more than 80-90 attendees in each session. Topics such as mobile Linux, Ruby on Rails were immensely popular and the install fests for Fedora and Mandriva were just plain fun. <img style="margin: 10px 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/R74TxKYma-I/AAAAAAAAAOE/KeD5n8MRN3Y/s200/gnunify08-003.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169591157589961698" /><br /><br />There were a lot of talks I wanted to attend but could only manage to squeeze into were <a href="http://www.collab.net/about/directors/brian_behlendorf.html">Brian</a>'s 10 things to know about open source, <a href="http://www.niyam.com/">Niyam's</a> talk on visual design (really well done), <a href="http://www.zmanda.com/management.html">Chander's</a> talk on building a open source company (great talk!) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Axmark">David's</a> MySQL state of the union. I ended up helping out for the Ruby on Rails workshop by <a href="http://www.technetra.com/about">Bob</a> and it was sensational to see 80 keen hackers going through the process of building a Rails application and building an interface to MySQL. Talk about some serious energy, enthusiasm to learn and hack some cool code!<br /><br /><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/R74TV6Yma8I/AAAAAAAAAN0/4Lqr97giR48/s200/gnunify08-001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169590689438526402" />I particularly enjoyed meeting friends from all over India's FOSS community from Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Goa and many more places. My many thanks to Harshad and his super team of wonderful volunteers from SICSR's student community and the tireless Pluggies (Sudhanwa and his team) who put in countless hours of effort and commitment to make GNUnify a rip-roaring success this year. Thanks to Vijay for his great photo coverage as part of Team GNUnify again! <br /><br />GNUnify just keeps getting better and better :-) and better (keep going like the <a href="http://www.energizer.com/energizer-bunny/Pages/bunny-history.aspx">Energizer Bunny</a>)!<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-54902597897827417922008-01-16T22:30:00.000-08:002008-01-17T09:30:33.102-08:00LAMP flickers with MySQL acquisition by SunSun Microsystems announced today that it will buy MySQL for a billion dollars, paying off the MySQL founders and investors.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">For only a billion dollars... Now, that's a steal, don't you think?</span> If MySQL had gone IPO perhaps they could've raised 5 billion dollars or more - I believe they could have because the open source market is only growing stronger. On the same day, Oracle announced its acquisition of BEA for 8.5 billion dollars - just for acquiring market share. So a billion dollars for MySQL seems cheap.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">How does this affect Linux?</span> Sun has marketed open source initiatives such as OpenSolaris, Netbeans, GlassFish and OpenOffice. Now MySQL joins that list. MySQL is a key player in the Linux solution set. Linux could benefit if MySQL is provided with more resources to help build more powerful open source solutions. Linux could be hurt if MySQL becomes more encumbered and less free.<br /><br />2008 promises to be an interesting year for open source. Let's hope Sun will play to its strengths of great engineering and innovation and support the entire open source community. This means Linux too.<br /><br />Some interesting comments on this acquisition:<br />1) <a href="http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=376">Glyn Moody</a><br />2) <a href="http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080116110733421">Groklaw</a><br />3) <a href="http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9851662-16.html?tag=head">Matt Asay</a><br />4) <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/01/16/the-sun-sets-on-mysql.aspx">Motley Fool</a><br />5) <a href="http://gigaom.com/2008/01/16/sun-buys-mysql-for-1b-and-wall-street-mourns/">GigaOm</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-5269770767201096632008-01-07T22:55:00.001-08:002008-04-05T00:34:01.528-07:00Uniting Open Minds at GNUnify on Feb 8-9I've been part of <a href="http://www.gnunify.in/">GNUnify</a> for a few years now - this will be my fifth year. It has been a marvelous experience to see the conference grow and gain wide national and international participation. GNUnify is organized by the professors and graduate students of the <a href="http://www.symbiosiscomputers.com/">Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research</a> (SICSR) in association with the <a href="http://plug.org.in/">Pune Linux Users Group</a> (PLUG) to provide a platform for exchange of ideas and knowledge among industry professionals and academia. This year promises to be exciting - with international keynotes, in-depth technical sessions, hands-on workshops on the latest FOSS technologies, install fests and BOFs. Two days of intense discussions, hallway networking, learning about red-hot open source applications, BOF-ing with the gurus and of course enjoying SPDPs. For those who don't know about the famous "SPDP" - come to GNUnify to find out more about it. Be there! <p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-11018545895951570212007-10-20T13:29:00.000-07:002008-11-18T23:03:52.625-08:00Pune's PLUG Mash a resounding success!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/R2ryfgmbmmI/AAAAAAAAANs/17XAHX8PQcE/s1600-h/plugmash_blk.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/R2ryfgmbmmI/AAAAAAAAANs/17XAHX8PQcE/s200/plugmash_blk.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146192147365206626" border="0" /></a><br />Participating at PLUG's mashup camp in October was an exciting opportunity for me to be among friends and Pluggies again.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.plug.org.in/mashup/">PLUG Mash</a> organized by the Pune Linux User's Group and its friends and supporters was a resounding success. The 2-day camp had a combination of formal talks as well as a hack-a-thon for FOSS hackers to gather together and code. Major sponsors including Thoughtworks and Zmanda did an outstanding job of participating in the sessions. I found the talks by various open source contributors - Chris Stevenson (of Thoughtworks), Ramki (of Red Hat), Friji (of Radio Schizoid), Satish (of Red Hat), Valsa (of Intel), KK George (of Zmanda), Niyam (creative guru), and Karunakar (of Indlinux.org) - led to a valuable discussion of how developers, users and FOSS advocates are doing their part in making open source contributions possible from India. I presented about the OSI and its global initiatives and enjoyed the discussion thereafter about how OSI could become more pertinent in India's ecosystem.<br /><br />Many thanks to my friends for putting in a lot of hard work, for being such fantastic hosts and making this 2-day camp in Pune memorable and successful for me. The great conversations, wonderful food, and the "coffee" added just the right touch. And reminded me of what makes Pune's community so enjoyable to be part of.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-12099720724408181542007-08-07T15:30:00.000-07:002007-08-15T20:56:46.613-07:00Pharma patent loss is a win for healthcare and free software in India<p>In January 2006, India's Patent Office rejected a patent application for Gleevec, a leukemia cancer drug by Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis. Now, in August 2007, the Chennai High Court has rejected Novartis' appeal to overturn this rejection.</p><br /><p>Novartis claims that India's ruling will stunt R&D and innovation in pharmaceuticals and violates WTO intellectual property agreements. But the Indian government sees this decision as helping ensure that affordable medicines continue to be available for her people and those of other developing countries. Such medicines are essential to combat killer diseases like AIDS and cancer. Indian companies manufacture generic Gleevec (known as Glivec in India) for one-tenth the price offered by Novartis.</p><br /><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why does this matter?</span> India's ruling will deter international pharma giants from trying to extend their monopolies by patenting newer versions of existing medicines. This ruling allows India to continue manufacturing inexpensive generic drugs. For example, 85% of AIDS generics to Africa are provided by India's pharmaceuticals. That's significant.</p><br /><p>This precedent also establishes a model for rejecting software patents in India. The arguments that favor availability of generic medicines equally apply to free and open source software (FOSS). India cannot afford the monopolies and high prices brought about by software patents. FOSS is the only practical way developing nations can afford long-term, large-scale IT automation. Without automation, India and others cannot scale to provide the infrastructure and banking, education and health care needed to ensure prosperity for billions of people across the globe.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-61198645133130044372007-07-10T16:30:00.000-07:002007-07-10T17:59:07.768-07:00Partners may be worse than enemiesAn intriguing <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100134488/index.htm">article</a> by Fortune Magazine on Microsoft's China strategy reveals how Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy officer was deployed by Bill Gates in 1999 to fix the company's problems with the Chinese market and its government. Mundie turned around Microsoft's strategy from short-term to long-term engagement - one from antagonism to partnership. Mundie even hired famous China lobbyist Henry Kissinger as advisor.<br /><br />Bill Gates is quoted in the article, "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not... You can get the real thing, and you get the same price." After walking hand in hand with China's leadership, Microsoft's alliance with officialdom is but a short term gain. Arrogance, Microsoft's true partner, is the enemy of progress. In the long run it will only blind Microsoft to the paradigm shift that open source signifies.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-88795831438560523402007-07-09T19:00:00.000-07:002007-07-10T18:40:29.096-07:00iPhoneDevCamp in SF - An absolute hitThe <a href="http://barcamp.org/iPhoneDevCampSF2007">iPhoneDevCamp</a> this weekend (July 7-8) was an absolute hit! The hack-a-thon to develop iPhone applications resulted in 48 apps and websites being demonstrated. Some great collaboration took place! Creative enthusiasts, developers, designers and testers all worked together to have some fun creating neat iPhone Apps. However, FOSS people like me do feel that the iPhone platform should be opened up to encourage lots of useful apps to be developed by talent outside Apple. The web sites and applications created at the hack-a-thon are available <a href="http://barcamp.org/iPhoneDevCampHackAThon">here</a>.<br /><br />My thanks to the organizers - Raven Zachary, Whurley, Chris Allen and other team members for a tremendous job managing logistics, press and the sub-events. And Adobe's venue was perfect for the camp.<br /><br />Here is the <a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1264/750701139_a3af00d70b.jpg">group photo</a> of some of the attending iPhone owners. I missed it. Hopefully, better luck next time.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-36092021681768902052007-07-06T17:37:00.000-07:002007-07-10T18:25:12.083-07:00iPhone Developers Camp this weekendIs this cool or what? An <a href="http://www.barcamp.org/iPhoneDevCamp">iPhoneDevCamp</a> starting today at sundown (July 6) through Sunday (July 8) in San Francisco at Adobe's offices at <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=601+townsend+st,+san+francisco,+ca&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=107.820801,104.765625&amp;amp;amp;amp;ie=UTF8&z=16&om=1">601 Townsend St.</a><br /><br />Many companies and individuals have pitched in to make this camp happen. My friend, <a href="http://danesecooper.blogs.com/divablog/">Danese Cooper</a> said about the camp - <span id="bodytext" class="georgia md">"It's a great example of a spontaneous community forming around really compelling technologies," in an <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/05/BUGKEQQJ771.DTL&type=tech">interview</a> with the SF Chronicle about the upcoming DevCamp.</span><br /><br />There are 400+ designers, developers, testers and iPhone owners signed up already. By the end of Sunday, there will be some cool web apps and sites which are even iPhone friendly. If you're in the area, <a href="http://barcamp.org/iPhoneDevCampAttendees">sign up</a>, bring your laptop or iPhone and join in. See you there this weekend.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-49120293756729342042007-06-29T23:46:00.000-07:002007-07-02T00:42:48.227-07:00The iPhone PhenomenonThe world has changed. We've all been hearing about the <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/">iPhone</a> for months now and its finally out. And unexpectedly, while watching the waves of eager customers line up to enter the <a href="http://www.apple.com/retail/paloalto/week/20070701.html">Apple Store</a> along Palo Alto's University Blvd., my friends and I got bitten by the iPhone bug too. So there I found myself standing on opening day (June 29), in a line that was surprisingly fast moving, and got myself an iPhone. The gadget is sleek. It's glamorous and it's just plain cool. What a beautiful user interface. Very easy. Very, very intuitive. It's got maps, music, movies, email, weather, stocks, wi-fi, camera, and a quad-band phone - everything a professional needs. The integration of Google maps, YouTube, Yahoo weather, iTunes music and movies is fantastic. This gadget sets new standards for convergence and raises the bar for all handheld devices to aspire to.<br /><br />The only thing I don't like is the bundling of a 2 year mandatory phone service contract from AT&T. The user should be able to select their own voice carrier and have more flexible monthly plans available. But, on the positive side, the bundled data service is unmetered. That's a revolution for the US market. Unrestricted data connectivity will assure iPhone's success because the network apps and features can be accessed at any and all times without being nickle and dimed to death.<br /><br />But the iPhone whets my appetite and expands my wish-list for a comparable open source software solution. I want to see an 'openPhone' with the same level of integration from the OS to the GUI. Perhaps Red Hat with its '<a href="http://www.mugshot.org/">mugshot.org</a>' will aim to achieve the same standard of integration and do a 'Fedora Fone' :-)<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-52218498211797451412007-06-14T18:06:00.000-07:002007-06-24T18:15:08.739-07:00Connecting EyeballsIn his keynote at the <a href="http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Linux_Foundation_Collaboration_Summit">Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit</a> at Google, Ubuntu chief Mark Shuttleworth focused on the importance of collaboration. For Mark, collaboration inspires innovation and tools and processes that help collaboration are key to maintaining the edge of innovation in FOSS. I couldn't agree with Mark more. Mark observed that barriers to collaboration include too many interfaces to communicate with, rigid community structure management, attitudes of "us vs. them", poor project management, and insufficient standardization. He said that while there are many collaboration techniques and tools WITHIN global open source projects, there are not many ACROSS these projects. Many of his efforts try to connect islands of eyeballs through the tools the Ubuntu community is building - <a href="http://launchpad.net/">Launchpad</a>, <a href="http://bazaar-vcs.org/">Bazaar</a>, <a href="https://launchpad.net/rosetta">Rosetta</a>, <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/">UbuntuForums</a>. Otherwise, a lack of tools and standards across projects are hampering bug tracking, submission of translations & patches and testing. He cited the GNOME project as a great example of communication across projects especially in helping downstream developers.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-57217697395283834692007-04-28T13:11:00.000-07:002007-05-01T13:17:05.794-07:00Open Invention Network (OIN) visits IndiaJerry Rosenthal, CEO of intellectual patents company - <a href="http://www.openinventionnetwork.com">Open Invention Network (OIN)</a>, was in India last week to interact with technology companies in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. During its trip, OIN met with leaders in government, the IT industry and with India IP experts to discuss ways Linux can promote innovation as well as how to better protect Linux end-users and developers. Two Indian companies were announced as new licensees of OIN - ClickforHelpIndia.com and Quad One Technologies. ClickforHelpIndia.com is a partnership between ClickforHelp.com of Vienna, Virginia and Sumangala CreativeTech India Pvt. Ltd. (SCTI) of Hyderabad. It offers call center helpdesk services. Quad One Technologies Pvt. Ltd. of Hyderabad provides offshore software consulting services for the healthcare/pharmaceutical industry.<br /><br />Indian law does not recognize software patents as of now, though it is under tremendous pressure from the WTO to buckle under. Today, Indian IT companies involved in offshoring and outsourcing for US clients are the prime candidates for joining OIN's license network.<br /><br />OIN was formed in 2005 by IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony. It has more than 100 worldwide patents and patent applications as part of its patent commons. These patents can be licensed royalty-free by companies to provide IP protection to Linux end-users, distributors and developers. OIN, a for-profit company, is one of the many organizations such as the Linux Foundation and SFLC who have set up groups to defend Linux against possible patent attacks. One of OIN's goals is to evaluate software and hardware Linux-based solutions and potentially acquire, for its patent commons, the IP embodied in the best solutions.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-17661827622913943002007-04-21T11:48:00.000-07:002007-04-26T11:52:39.050-07:00BIS revisits Indian IT standardsThe Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) held their second seminar on IT standards in Bangalore on April 12 where they seem to have acquired a semblance of political rectitude by including participants and speakers from a wider swath of the industry. In contrast to the <a href="http://opensourcebuzz.blogspot.com/2007/02/interoperability-through.html">first seminar</a> held earlier this year in New Delhi (February 21), they allowed competing industry stakeholders to represent their positions on IT standards. Proponents of the Open Document Format (ODF) such as IBM, Sun, and Red Hat emphasized the need for open, global standards. Microsoft with its Office Open XML (OOXML) standard reiterated Craig Mundie's message from his talk in Delhi that standards should support interoperability and innovation should be forged through strong IPR. <br /><br />BIS's additional director general Rakesh Verma announced the formation of a panel of 30 organizations to work along with BIS to help build IT standards for India. Action items for this panel include identifying relevant international standards documents and creating India-specific standards as needed. One hopes that BIS will keep the process transparent to ensure open dialog and comments by the public and experts at large. <br /><br />Today the digital world has multiple vendors and multiple standards. From a nation's point of view, choosing only one standard from among multiple non-universal standards may be premature. However, enforcing interoperability via adopting open formats and promoting a level playing field can ensure that competing standards play together and communicate productively. An open standards development process can only enhance the prospects of interoperability. The government's interest lies in having all stakeholders compete fairly to protect and support the consumer's interests.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-68308643456708368162007-04-11T18:34:00.000-07:002007-04-11T19:03:42.367-07:00Mystifying Open Source and Open StandardsThis <a href="http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20070402/technology03.shtml">article by the national technology officer of MS India</a> represents the kind of misinformation about open source and open standards being disseminated in India. This type of FUD confuses the government as well as the market. It points to the need for all stakeholders in India's open source industry and community to rise up to this challenge.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-57937027613699159672007-03-16T18:14:00.000-07:002007-03-26T20:08:00.832-07:00Tax hike proposal threatens VC interest in Indian IT<p>India's finance minister P. Chidambaram has proposed a 35 percent tax on stock options issued by Indian companies. Software and hardware information technology, telecommunications and biotechnology - all high growth industry segments - would be affected.</p><br /><p>If Chidambaram's proposal becomes law, Indian companies will have to pay the tax on all stock options (ESOPs) issued to employees. This could dampen VC investment into India and discourage entrepreneurial activity in software as well as in biotechnology.</p><br /><p>However, surprisingly, most Silicon Valley investment firms are optimistic that these short term tax changes won't make India less attractive for long-term investment. They predict that money will continue to roll into India's markets.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-49305390915559701482007-02-26T03:44:00.000-08:002008-11-18T23:03:52.856-08:00Standardization through Interoperability - A Seminar with BIS and Microsoft<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/ReLZ7HJsV4I/AAAAAAAAAKk/Nrb1QUxtuTY/s1600-h/bis_for_blog_200x150.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/ReLZ7HJsV4I/AAAAAAAAAKk/Nrb1QUxtuTY/s200/bis_for_blog_200x150.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5035826942908848002" /></a><br />At a Bureau of Indian Standards (<a href="http://www.bis.org.in/">BIS</a>) seminar on Feb 21st in New Delhi on "IT Standardization", Mr. Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy officer of Microsoft delivered the inaugural keynote.<br /><br />Curiously, no industry representative besides Microsoft was allowed to be part of the formal presentations. The BIS leadership -- Alka Sirohi (Director General), Rakesh Verma (Addl. Director General), Sukhbir Singh (Deputy Director General) along with the Secretary of Consumer Affairs Mr. Bhave -- were all present, deeply worshipful of and indebted to their chief sponsor.<br /><br />Mr. Mundie zealously discussed the need for standardization through interoperability. In the digital world, standardization should no longer be thought of in terms of uniformity but rather in terms of translatability and interoperability. Mr. Mundie explained that interoperability achieved through meta description languages like XML is key to practical standardization. Single solutions that emphasize uniformity of standards are not the answer. If Microsoft really followed Mr. Mundie's advice, perhaps we'd all live in a less contentious digital world.<br /><br />However, other Microsoft sponsored presentations lionized the need for IPR protection as the basis for healthy standardization -- proposing a so-called "virtuous cycle" of digital products: R&D developed IPR flows into products which then flow into the consumer market and then, through market results, back into R&D. But, somehow without the guiding hand of industry and protection of its IPR, the virtuous cycle short circuits and no innovation is possible.<br /><br />Now, if I had been invited onto the dias, to keynote alongside Mr. Mundie, my presentation would have included the following. I would have congratulated Mr. Mundie on his vision for redefining standardization in the digital age. I would then have taken the opportunity to inform him of all the wonderful FOSS products, like <a href="http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/12572/OpenDocument-v1.0-os.pdf">ODF</a> and <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/">OpenOffice</a>, that his company could support on the road to full interoperability.<br /><br />But I would have been less generous toward the IPR proponents: How can all innovation only come from absolute IP control. Today, India is at a deadly disadvantage in the IT IP regime game. India cannot be regarded as a serious contender at all. Innovation in India should be allowed from anywhere and everywhere. FOSS can provide a level playing field that allows innovation and creativity to grow from within. So why play this one-sided "Innovation = IP" game? Why lock ourselves out of the game with the rules of the leaders before we're even ready to play.<br /><br />Perhaps my turn on the dias at a future BIS Seminar will come. I look forward to being their next chief guest!<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-76118091080496301402007-02-23T20:43:00.000-08:002007-03-27T14:16:40.448-07:00Thailand caught between a rock and a hard place<p>In its latest efforts to promote the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently awarded the King of Thailand HM Bhumibol Adulyadej, an avid artist and an inventor with over 20 patents and 19 trademarks - its new "WIPO Global Leaders Award". This award is intended to recognize world leaders who promote IPR in their sphere of influence at national and international levels.</p><br /><p>Ironically, Thailand, a country of 60 million people with a per capita income of $8,300 USD, has been marked as a serious offender of IPR because of piracy and copyright infringement. Piracy accounts for a high percentage of the Thai market for movies, music (approx. 50%), software (approx.<br />80%), and books, most of which are produced in developed countries. The country has been targeted by IIPA's Priority Watch List for 2007 (see my <a href="http://opensourcebuzz.blogspot.com/2007/02/india-in-iipas-crosshairs.html">post</a> on IIPA's Special 301 report).</p><br /><p>The Global Leaders Award may now increase pressure on Thailand to comply with WIPO rules, starting right from the top with the King.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-64269646969456775592007-02-17T09:05:00.000-08:002008-11-18T23:03:52.942-08:00Envisage Knowledge Sharing at IIC's FOSS Festival on Feb 24-25 in New Delhi<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.iic.ac.in/envisage" target="_blank"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Vihbhfqg0kA/RdglV5C87eI/AAAAAAAAAKY/xT_FalrAGfc/s200/envisage07-stamp.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032813641607212514" border="0" /></a>If you happen to be in Delhi next weekend on February 24-25th, come and visit Envisage'07, the annual inter-collegiate open source technical festival organized by the students and faculty of the Institute of Informatics and Communications (IIC), University of Delhi. A range of competitive challenges, both technical and non-technical will be held. The event is FREE - so stop by and encourage the engineering students and faculty of IIC and participating teams from all over the country. For more information check out <a href="http://www.iic.ac.in/envisage">www.iic.ac.in/envisage</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1811694505991612269.post-19927096768098823442007-02-15T20:28:00.000-08:002007-02-15T21:18:23.512-08:00India in IIPA's crosshairs!Reading through the International Intellectual Property Alliance's (IIPA) <a href="http://www.iipa.com/rbc/2007/2007SPEC301INDIA.pdf">Special 301 report</a>... It is shocking to see an alliance of special interests declare itself judge, jury and executioner. "Comply or lose WTO/WIPO favors" is the message. The IIPA seems to think that the whole world should further the interests of its members who are primarily US organizations such as the MPAA, RIAA, AAPA and BSA.<br /><br />India has made it to <a href="http://www.iipa.com/2007_SPEC301_TOC.htm">IIPA's "Priority Watch" list</a> this year. Countries lucky enough to be on this list are being admonished for not doing enough to protect US Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Should this be the highest priority for developing nations? Wealthy nations like the US must use their vast repetoire of IPR to improve the state of the world instead of hoarding all knowledge for their own gain.<div class="blogger-post-footer">OpenSourceBuzz by Alolita Sharma</div>ashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376574226855689698noreply@blogger.com0