Friday, December 31, 2004

Brazil, China and Hawaii

Where is the next center of innovative software technology?

China has recognized the value of Open Source and formed the China Open Source Software Promotion Alliance and Brazil has the National Institute of Information Technology.

For the latest from Hawaii here is a quote from the HOSEF website:

"As a way to show our local businesses, non-profits, governments, and private individuals just how pervasive and valuable free and openly sourced software has become, HOSEF has worked hard to invite some globally respected speakers to join us for TPOSSCON, the Trans-Pacific Open Source Software Conference. It will be taking place at the Convention Center this January, and we have a schedule worthy of your attention."

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Semantics of Free Software vs. Open Source

"There are some people who are passionate about the differences between 'free software' and 'open source'," wrote Kevin Bedell earlier this year. But he was beginning to wonder if the difference matters, he added. "I think it's time to stop dividing the community using labels. We don't need different names for the same thing." Read the rest of his essay here, in the start of our end-of-year "Best of 2004" round-up of articles from LinuxWorld Magazine.


Full Story

Monday, December 27, 2004

Open and Free Information via Wikipedia

The goal of this blog is not to educate but rather to dialog with other like-minded individuals. Therefore a lot of terma and concepts are not explained thoroughly.

Fortunately, there is a lot of online information available for those wishing to learn more about open source, free software, free content, etc. One of the most useful for short definitions and descriptions is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Wikipedia is at one time an almanac and an online magazine. Current events are also covered intensively.

Who edits/updates Wikipedia?

Anyone who wants to!!!

This quote is from the Wikipedia website:
"Any visitor to Wikipedia can edit its articles, and many do. Pages are always subject to editing, so no article is ever finished."

Surprisingly, it all actually works!

Check it out!

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Oh, THAT Bethlehem!

Here's an interesting article by Mark Hennessey advocating Open Source:

"In political campaigns, flexibility, speed, and cost really are killer apps. Candidates are more interested in results than process. Strangely enough, open source solutions really fit well into this kind of environment.

Bethlehem, N.Y., is a town with a population of 31,000 people. Every two years, the town elects a town supervisor. I became one of the campaign managers for the town supervisor campaign, and we put together a strategy that would try to get our message out with the lowest cost and highest flexibility. That's where open source came in.
..."

Read the whole article at:

A decisive victory for open source in the political arena

Monday, December 20, 2004

Introduction

As an Open Source Advocate, one of my desires has been to help educate the world about Open Source and its many advantages. Like so many other dreams, a great place to start planting seeds is with the young.

My inital goal was simply to form an organization to re-cycle older pc systems for the benefit of lower income families and non-profit, service organizations, such as Boys and Girls Clubs and the like.

Lots of older computers can do a great job of meeting the needs of many people when running Linux operating systems. Not everyone needs to be caught up in the MicroSoft trap of more hardware and more software.

As I shared ideas with some close friends I learned about the Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation and decided to start sharing my own personal thoughts and ideas with others. Many concepts (including the organization name) have been copied after the HOSEF model. This was done intentionally as someday I would love to see an organization in each and every state in the union.

Ideally this initial blog post will lead to the establishment of a dialog with other like-minded individuals and eventually non-profit groups to provide low-cost computing. As a result, a large pool of individuals experienced in Open Source software and its advantages will develop right here in Tennessee.

A skilled talent pool such as this could be very beneficial in bringing high tech companies to the state along with awesome job opportunities and incredible boosts to the economy.

Today I learned how important knowledge about Open Source would be to everyone. Many schools are requiring students to purchase laptop computers that run WindowsXP! Even with "student discounts", Linux is a lower cost alternative operating system and is ideal for "student budgets".

Some schools also require MicroSoft Office even though OpenOffice.org provides all the functionality of MicroSoft Office for considerably less (FREE vs $???)!

Please add thoughts, ideas, and suggestions via comments to this blog.

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Choosing and Using Open Source Software For Non-Profits

Ran across this article and wanted to make others aware of it.

Choosing and Using Open Source Software: A primer for nonprofits

As I talk with more and more people within my Circle of Influence, I am becoming more and more aware of the need to educate the general public about Open Source.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Spread of FireFox Shows Open Source Momentum

The darling of the Open Source set, FireFox, is featured in two page ad in New York Times on December 16.

While Linux is slowly gaining strength in the desktop environment, FireFox is taking the world by storm.

Check out these two articles about FireFox

10,000 Firefox enthusiasts make history!

Open-source geeks are modern heroes, says think tank!

Over the next several years there will probably be a shortage of Open Source talent. The sooner the talent pool gets started in Tennessee, the more valuable that pool will be.

Check this quote from Martin Bean, COO of New Horizons Computer Learning Centers in his article, Top 10 Predictions for 2005 for Certification Magazine.

"Open-source technologies will see continued growth, fueling demand for qualified IT professionals in that space. The more that Linux and other open-source technologies underpin organizations, the greater the need will be to have properly trained and certified professionals to support these fast-growing technologies."