How does one patch KDE under FreeBSD?
Here is an interesting article regarding an upcoming internet interview, with Kazakh president Nazarbayev, his first. From the looks of it, this may end up being Nazarbayev’s toughest dialog to date.
ALMATY (Reuters) - He may be experienced at fielding questions on geopolitics but when the Kazakh president logs on next week for his first Internet news conference he will have to tackle some more bizarre matters.
Just a week before the June 7 webcast, most Kazakhs who wrote in wanted President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s advice on how to set up a piece of complicated software on their computers — as well as his mobile phone number.
The cryptic software question — “How does one patch KDE under FreeBSD?” — appeared to be the most popular query posted on the webcast site, with more that 11,000 people asking for it to be forwarded to the 66-year-old leader.
It especially seems interesting that it appears to be a Digg-like social promotion site that the Kazakh government is using to allow citizens to post questions and community members to vote on their favorite query. Of course, just like Digg (or IdeaStorm), some suggestions are wittier than others:
More than 9,000 people wanted to know “when the authorities will start chopping off civil servants’ tongues for lying to the president in the most outrageous way”, was the portal’s second-most favorite question as of Friday evening.
One user, backed by more than 2,000 votes and identified as Aizhan, asked: “What is your mobile phone number? Can I call you directly?”
June 7th, 2007
Thanks to Matt Asay for bringing my attention to the United States Navy’s User Guidance Memorandum regarding Open Source [pdf].
The objective of the Department of Defense (DoD) goal of achieving an interoperable net-centric environment is to improve the warfighter’s effectiveness through seamless access to critical information. A key piece in supporting the DoD goal is the ability to utilize OSS as part of the Department of the Navy’s (DON) Information Technology (IT) portfolio.
According to John Scott, this usage document is the first in a series of memorandums regarding U.S. Navy policy on Open Source, future updates will address "distribution" and "development".
June 7th, 2007
The government of Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India, has begun deploying Linux and other open source software solutions throughout their government IT systems.
"Initially, 99 per cent of government systems have been running on Microsoft systems but then 2007 will be a watershed year for the state IT sector. We are fast migrating to Linux operating systems which are so much cheaper and can be operated at low cost, besides offering continuous updates and freedom from viruses," says Mr C. Umashankar, managing director of state-owned ELCOT, vested with the responsibility of overseeing such ambitious government projects as e-governance, enumerating the beneficiaries of the free TV scheme, family ration cards and the free sari-dhoti distribution.
January 3rd, 2007
I am assuming that no members of the Council of the European Union are regular visitors to OSG, which I must admit is a little bit disappointing.
It certainly appears that Council of the European Union did not read Bruce Perens’ paper, recently covered here, on "Principles for e-Government and Government-Funded Research Software Development".
In a move that can be only described as counter-intuitive, the Council of the EC has decided to provide their streaming video services exclusively in the proprietary and exclusionary Windows Media format rather than embracing an open standard format that can be consumed by all constituents.
In the current situation, citizens must play ball with a specific vendor to access the public records. In contrast, Open codecs for the video streaming make these records available to the entire computer-using population, not just a subset. At the same time open standards keep the council independent from any specific vendor, giving them freedom of choice in both access and maintenance. Likewise, for the web pages the issue is not a question of web browsers but again a matter of supporting open standards.
Please, sign the petition and ensure your voice is heard.
January 2nd, 2007
Bruce Perens has posted a paper on Technocrat.net which outlines some of the considerations to be addressed by technical policy makers in the public sector.
The choice of technology in e-government projects and government-funded research can result in unfair discrimination and unintended harm. This set of guidelines will help the technologist avoid that harm.
Goals
Government should be fair to all citizens, while giving preference to none. It’s important for government and society to protect people who are at a disadvantage - for example those with physical handicaps - and to make sure that they can participate in society and interact with their government to the same extent as the more normally able. And government should give the people the most possible benefit for their tax dollars, and should use those dollars efficiently.
December 27th, 2006
The City of Amsterdam will be testing out open source software in two administrative districts, the housing department and one of its borough offices. Amsterdam is one of ten Dutch cities to sign the "manifesto for open software in government"
"Earlier this year, a study ordered by the (Amsterdam) city council showed that an ‘open’ software strategy leads to more independence from suppliers," the city said in a statement. "In addition, the use of open software can lead to better exchange and storage of information, without unacceptable financial or logistical risks."
The test is scheduled to run during the first half of 2007, and, if successful, the rest of the city may start using open source software, the city statement said.
It said it didn’t plan to stop using Microsoft software entirely in any case, but "it is the expectation that a new contract with … Microsoft will be smaller." The current contract expires in at the end of 2008.
December 26th, 2006
…Well, Let’s run it on Transparent Software
That is the philosophy of James Willis, Rhode Island director of e-government services, a nationally recognized pioneer who helped bring Open Source to Rhode Island.
Willis first brought his open-source philosophy to Rhode Island government six years ago, when, as a consultant, he used open-source code to write an application for filing regulations.
The application he wrote was the first ever written for a state government using an open-source code, and it garnered national attention in the governmental IT community.
When he moved into the Secretary of State’s office four years ago, he implemented one of the first open-source initiatives by a state government, making it easier to share information such as meeting notices, new regulations, lobbyist registrations and corporate filings.
Today, many states and municipal governments in the United States use open-source software to disseminate public information and share data across internal departments, and the trend is quickly spreading around the globe. Unlike the proprietary software sold by Microsoft and other private technology firms, open-source software costs nothing and its accessible source code can be modified and freely redistributed.
Starting with a website, and moving it to a LAMP setup, the article outlines how the Open Source philosophy has spread throughout varied governmental organizations, fostering greater collaboration amongst formerly disparate institutions.
Over time, other state departments and agencies also began sharing information in the same way. The phenomenon was a departure from the strongly adversarial relationship that has historically limited sharing information among the silos of state government, Willis said.
In recent months, the secretary of state’s office has been assisting the state attorney general’s office in its efforts to prepare and make public all of its electronic content from The Station nightclub fire trial.
Willis’ open-source initiative also has spread to at least 10 municipalities in Rhode Island, which are syndicating data from the secretary of state’s databases onto their own Web sites.
Willis’ tenure as Director of eGovernment will be over on January 1st, due to a change in Administration, after which Willis plans to return to consulting in New Jersey. Hopefully, Rhode Island will continue using technology to transform democracy, James Willis has certainly set them in the right direction.
December 18th, 2006
Another win for Open Source and Free Software in France, this time in Parliament itself:
Starting in June 2007, PCs in French deputes’ offices will be equipped with a Linux operating system and open-source productivity software.
The project, backed by parliament members Richard Cazenave and Bernard Carayon of the Union for a Popular Movement party, will see 1,154 French parliamentary workstations running on Linux, with OpenOffice.org productivity software, the Firefox Web browser and an open-source e-mail client.
Interesting that the actual Linux distribution has yet to be chosen, and that the Government is endorsing the concept of an Open Desktop system in general. Already using Open Source Software on some of their servers, including Apache, Linux and Mambo, the Government expects to achieve significant cost savings in the long term using Open Source desktops as well:
“The study showed that open-source software will from now on offer functionality adapted to the needs of MPs (members of parliament) and will allow us to make substantial savings despite the associated migration and training costs,” the parliament said.
November 27th, 2006