Explore by tag: legal

Open source projects lean toward meritocracies, rather than democracies. As a result, some voices and votes in open source projects mean a lot more than others, and nobody pretends otherwise. Democracies, on the other hand, claim that everyone’s vote should be equal. But is that really the way it is?

Certainly the concept of “one citizen, one vote” must be the bedrock upon which all democratic theory and protections are based. Indeed, any government would presumably have to grant the validity of this tenet, lest its own validity be questioned. After all, at the end of the day, when all else is stripped away, the debatable and the subjective, the polemical and the political, is this not the one undeniable standard upon which everyone must agree, the fundamental principle of natural law that philosophers of any persuasion must certainly unite in supporting?

And yet…

Down through the millennia and ...

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Although much of the brouhaha of the OOXML adoption process has abated, the post-partum process of reviewing how SC 34 gave birth to IS 29500 continues. SC 34 is the committee in ISO/IEC that adopted both ODF and OOXML. SC 34 continues to hold meetings in which a variety of related matters are being considered, including the ongoing maintenance of each standard, and whether and how the Directives that control the deliberations of JTC1 committees might profitably be amended to address the concerns that arose during the consideration of these two overlapping document format standards.

Most recently, SC 34 met in Nara, Japan to review these weighty matters. As has been the case in the past, a variety of those directly involved in the ODF/OOXML saga wrote about the results of this latest meeting, including three bloggers who attended the Ballot Resolution Meeting that served as the climax ...

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If you hail from one of the hot beds of high tech - Silicon Valley, say, or (in my case) the Route 128/495 area of Massachusetts, you’ve doubtless heard the phrase “serial entrepreneur.” What those words describe is someone who has started several companies, and the phrase, when used, is invariably regarded as a compliment. These days, if such a serial entrepreneur has some major successes under her belt, that makes her one of the elite of the high tech nobility - someone with the golden touch, that can turn ideas into huge returns for founders and investors alike.

But should this be a compliment?

That may sound like a silly question, until you remember that in order to start a new company, you need to get rid of the old one - or at least leave it in someone else’s care. That isn’t how the great companies of ...

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How do you measure the value of free and open source software (FOSS)? That’s a puzzler, because it’s, well, free. Moreover, a popular distribution like Linux can incorporate the contributions of thousands of individuals working remotely from around the world. That means that there are almost no associated overhead costs over and above the time of the developers themselves.

Even the question itself is a bit of a misnomer, because one measure of the value of FOSS is not the cost to build it, but rather the avoided cost of not having to do so. Because you don’t have to pay anything to download FOSS, and since the same project that developed the software will continue to maintain it for you, using free software can allow you to launch products and services that, for economic reasons, you would never otherwise attempt. In an effect that’s near ...

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Note: Nominations for the awards noted below will close on October 8, so please act now

I almost missed this story, until I caught a link to it at Bob Sutor’s blog. As I was about to do the same and simply add a link to it to my News Picks column, it occurred to me that there’s more of a story here than meets the eye. That said, let’s start with the superficial story, as announced in a posting at the ODF Alliance Web site, issued on September 9, which begins as follows (as usual, the full text appears at the end of this blog entry):

Know someone in your community—an individual, government official, NGO or other entity—who has significantly advanced the cause of document freedom, yet whose actions have not received the public recognition they deserve?…The purpose of the award is to ...

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Although most of the thunder of the OOXML adoption battle has now died away, the after effects of that controversial process continue to linger. Some of the residual effects have been intangible, such as hard feelings on the part of at least four National Bodies over their inability to obtain a formal review of their complaints over how the OOXML adoption process was conducted. But there have been other responses that are more concrete, and directed at taking specific actions to raise the bar and avoid a repeat performance. One of those efforts has been ongoing since late last spring, and today the first tangible results of that effort are being made public.

The process in question was a Wiki-based conversation conducted over a six week period last May and June, involving over 70 government, academic, industry, policy and standards body thought leaders from around the world. And the public ...

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In the latest twist in the OOXML - ODF document format story, ISO and IEC, two of the most venerable standards organizations in the world, have been dealt a slap by government IT agencies in six countries. In a public statement, the agencies deplore the refusal of ISO and IEC to give full attention to appeals against the OOXML process earlier lodged by Brazil, India, South Africa, and Venezuela, and suggest that if the two global standards organizations are not interested in listening to member concerns, then these members may no longer be interested in adopting ISO/IEC standards.

The statement is titled the “COMSEGI 2008 Declaration,” named for the South and Latin American government open source conference held in Brasilia, Brazil, at which the Declaration was signed. Those that attended included senior government officials, such as Brazil’s Minister of Science and Technology, as well as representatives of the six ...

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ISO and IEC have announced the rejection of the four appeals submitted by the National Bodies of Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela, as earlier recommended by the Secretaries General of each of the two standards organizations. to their respective management boards not to give the appeals further consideration.

This paves the way for the as-adopted version of OOXML, now called IS0/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology - Office Open XML, to proceed to publication. That version is substantially different than the current implementation of OOXML in Office 2007, and its text has still not been publicly released by ISO/IEC. According to a joint press release, publication “is expected to take place within the next few weeks on completion of final processing of the document.” Intriguingly, the press release goes on to say, “and subject to no further appeals against the decision.

Read the rest

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Today those who believe in free content and free and open source software won a major victory in court. The underlying facts, and counsel, were hardly major figures on the commercial landscape: the open source software at issue had been developed for model train buffs under an infrequently used free and open source license, and the attorney was young and inexperienced. But as often happens, a small case between small parties can have huge implications. And decisions that may make good strategic sense to the parties can also have disastrous consequences for those that are not in the same situation.

But as often happens, an insignificant case between small parties can have huge implications. And decisions that may make good strategic sense to the parties can also have disastrous consequences for those that are not in the same situation.

The case in question is called Jacobsen v. Katzer. It’s ...

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The latest edition of Linux World ground to a halt in San Francisco today. I made it into town just last night for a VIP party hosted by the Linux Foundation where I caught up with lots of the true believer friends (developers, journalists and corporate supporters), and for the Board meeting today. The LF board meeting today was productive, though (a highlight was a walk around the Linux Developers Network Site we brought live today, as well as the new Linux Application Checker that Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols immediately pronounced to be a “killer development tool.”

Some things never change, although some things never change in ways that are fresher than others. Linux World was Linux World, or so I heard from all that attended. I tried to scan the agenda, and on a reasonably fast hotel connection it took forever to load, what with all the dynamic content and ...

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Ever since Steve Jobs addressed the adoring crowds at this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, the press, Apple fans - and most especially, Apple investors - have been concerned over the state of his health. The reasons are obvious: Five years ago, Jobs announced that he had been diagnosed, and cured, of a rare and happily less pernicious form of pancreatic cancer (the more common variety is almost never discovered before it has become incurable). And, when Jobs took the stage this June, he was far thinner and more haggard than he had ever been seen to be before.

Since then, although rumors have swirled, Apple has refused to state whether or not Jobs has had a recurrence of his cancer - or disclose any meaningful details at all. Even on calls with securities analysts, Apple’s response has only been that “Steve’s health is a private matter.”

Thus you might ...

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Back in December of last year, Google posted a brief announcement of a new experiment in online publishing. At first blush it seemed to represent a challenge to the Wikipedia - but with a few differences. Google summarized the concept as follows:

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

Then the project dropped out of sight, while the chosen authors contributed initial content, and while Google decided whether to green light the project ...

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Long time followers of the ODF-OOXML story will recall that there is a third editable, XML-based document format in the race to create the documentary record of history. That contender is called UOF - for Uniform Office Format, and it has been under development in China since 2002. Last summer, UOF was adopted as a Chinese National Standard, and on Friday the first complete office suite based upon UOF was released. It’s called Evermore Integrated Office 2009 (EIOffice 2009 for short).

How successful could this new entrant be in China? For starters, Evermore Software Co. Ltd., its developer, is reportedly the largest software vendor to the Chinese government. And then there’s price: Evermore’s professional edition is less than a quarter of the price of the comparable version of Office 2007. And finally, it’s clearly no coincidence that on July 11, Evermore Vice President Cao Shen called for ...

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Although I’m a little late doing so, I’d like to add my voice to Amanda McPherson’s in welcoming Brian Proffitt to the Linux Foundation. Amanda is the Linux Foundation’s Vice President, Marketing and Developer Programs, and posted the official welcome on Thursday at the Linux Foundation Web site here.

As I expect just about every reader of this blog knows, Brian has been the Managing Editor of LinuxToday for quite a few years (as well as Managing Editor of various other Jupiter Media properties: LinuxPlanet, Enterprise Linux Today, AllLinuxDevices, LinuxPR, and JustLinux). If you missed it, you can find Brian’s farewell column at LinuxToday here. As he disclosed there, his new role will be to help launch the Linux Foundation’s new Linux Developer Network site and project, which Amanda has been already been working on for some time. When it launches, Brian will be ...

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Last night someone sent me a copy of a document delivered by the CEOs of ISO and IEC earlier that day to the ISO Technical Management Board (TMB). That documents summarizes the four appeals filed in relation to the adoption of DIS 29500 (OOXML), and provides a response to each claimed basis for appeal. Those appeals, you will recall, were registered by the National Bodies of South Africa, India, Venezuela and Brazil, not all of which have became publicly available. Under the Directives, the next step in the Appeals process is for the TMB to vote on each appeal, with each member being entitled to vote yes, no or abstain on one or the other of the following resolutions, in each case as to each appeal separately:

a) Not to process the appeal further

b) To process one or more of the appeals, which would require setting up of a ...

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Microsoft has made many acquisitions for many reasons over its history - 122 to date, according to the list maintained at the Wikipedia. Almost 100 of these have been consummated in the last decade, as the company that triumphed in operating system and office productivity software has sought (often unsuccessfully) to achieve similar success in other domains. Other purchases have demonstrated pragmatic “build versus buy” decisions, serving to add functionalities to products that needed them more quickly and efficiently than in house efforts could achieve.

In its earlier days, Microsoft was much more likely to mimic the products of other companies rather than buy them, in part reflecting its engineering-driven culture, and in part its hardball approach to competition. When it did add features this way, it invariably added them for free into its existing products to make them more desirable. The result was often to drive the originators of those ...

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Regular readers will notice that I’ve been woefully silent the last few weeks, at first due to having too many irons in the fire, and for the last ten days due to being on a family vacation abroad, returning not till July 2. As a result, I’ve been not only behind on blogging, but also on keeping up with the news while limited primarily to Blackberry access since I left. But I thought that it might be useful to take a break and share the “Huh?!?” I experienced when I stumbled across this article by Andrew Donoghue at ZDNet while briefly enjoying an island of laptop connectivity in a hotel lobby in Florence. The article is titled, “Microsoft admits to standards ignorance pre-OOMXL” and is based on remarks by Microsoft national technology officer Stuart McKee. Even more incredibly, it bears the following subtitle:

Microsoft has admitted that, despite ...

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On Thursday I reported that Brazil had filed an appeal of the ISO/IEC JTC 1 approval of Microsoft’s OOXML specification, including the text of that appeal, with it’s many charges of irregularities. The Brazil appeal followed on the heals of the earlier appeal by SABS, the National Body of South Africa.

Thursday of this week marked the deadline for filing additional appeals to the adoption of OOXML by ISO/IEC JTC 1, and on Friday morning a spokesman for the IEC acknowledged the receipt of a total of three appeals by the deadline, with the third and final appeal being filed by India, as reported by Peter Sayers, of the IDG News Service. I have no news as yet whether the fourth country that planned to file an appeal has decided not to do so, missed the deadline, or sent its letter only to ISO (Peter reports ...

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OpenDocument and OOXMLMicrosoft today announced that it would update Office 2007 to natively support ODF 1.1, but not to implement its own OOXML format. Moreover, it would also join both the OASIS working group as well as the ISO/IEC JTC1 working group that has control of the ISO/IEC version of ODF. Implementation of DIS 29500, the ISO/IEC JTC 1 version of OOXML that has still not been publicly released will await the release of Office 14, the ship date of which remains unannounced.

The same announcement reveals that Office 2007 will also support PDF 1.1, PDF/A and Microsoft’s competing fixed-text format, called XML Paper Specification. XML Paper Specification is currently being prepared by Ecma for submission to ISO/IEC under the same “Fast-Track” process by which OOXML had been submitted for consideration and approval.

Yesterday afternoon was when I first began to hear ...

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On Wednesday, I introduced The Hague Declaration to those that visit this blog, promising to write again shortly to introduce the new organization that created the Declaration. That organization is called the Digital Standards Organization (Digistan, for short), and I’m pleased to say that I am one of its founders. In this entry, I’ll give you my perceptions of what Digistan is all about, and what I hope it will accomplish.

You’ll notice that I just used the words “my perceptions.” This is for a number of reasons, the first being that this is still a very young organization that has taken shape, primarily via a listserv. I was welcomed onto the founders listserv on November 12, bringing the total number of participants to 13. Since then, that list has grown. As of today, there are 19 individuals that have agreed to publicly associate themselves with the ...

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