Monday August 31, 2009 Mine, all mine (& theirs too)
One of our design principles for blogs.sun.com over the years has been to allow everything and let good sense and existing rules prevent mishaps - at least until it's clear we need a new rule of some kind. It's been almost entirely effective, and the few cases where it hasn't have been quickly addressed by the Sun blogger community on an internal mailing list that almost every blogger subscribes to. Self-policing definitely beats supervision. Another design principle has been to encourage people to be themselves, and mix up the technical and the personal in their blogging. The resulting blogs have often been compelling and we've grown an unmatched bench of authentic, respected voices.
Of course, those principles leave unanswered questions. One of the questions Sun's present context has raised is, "who owns the blog content?" It's not obvious, since the postings include a mix of personal and Sun content, are posted on a Sun property but often in personal time, and so on. To make it crystal clear, Sun has created a licensing option for every employee that simply shares ownership of everything that's posted equally between Sun and the blogger. That allows Sun to continue to host blogs.sun.com in perpetuity and it allows employees to sort out their own uses for their content. I want to write a book for example, and other want to move their blog to their own domain.
The new license was rolled out today, to accompany the handy new function to export all blog content for use with (for example) WordPress. From now on, every Sun blogger has (if they choose to accept the new license) a clear, documented set of rights to their blogging content. Huge thanks to the team of people that made it happen, especially my favourite lawyer, Tiki Dare, who completely "gets" this stuff and without whose quiet and largely unsung help the open source community would be much the poorer.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 31 2009, 08:30:59 AM PDT )
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☞ Policy and Plots
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Seems obvious to me that the US was built on the entrepreneurship of immigrants and that shutting them down will lead to decline. After all, the comfortable are rarely hungry for change. So the article itself isn't very interesting to me. But the comments - they are are an often sad eye-opener.
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Watching the UK government attempting to go down the anti-citizen three-strikes route. Presumably some politician has been lobbied by the copyright old-guard and told the only solution to "theft" (AKA unmanaged market-creation) is to whip the entire population randomly until they forsake progress. We need to get some voices of wisdom into this debate, but unfortunately the consultation system is structured in favour of businesses rather than citizens.
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Of course, every company is using its spending power to lobby in DC so while this alleged activity is completely in character, I fully expect that other businesses are engaging actively in similar anti-competitive lobbying in both Washington and Brussels. I heard rumours that certain Oracle competitiors were encouraging the US and EU authorities to engage in long investigations of the Sun acquisition, for example. No data, but it's to be expected. The best solution? Bringing it out into the daylight and requiring all lobbying activity to be documented.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 31 2009, 07:30:35 AM PDT )
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Friday August 28, 2009 ☞ Drat That Cat
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Stuff that definitely won't work A couple of problems for the household computers here.
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Toying with upgrading the household Macs to Snow Leopard, but a bit worried by the list of applications that aren't compatible with it (especially Photoshop Elements).
Posted by webmink
( Aug 28 2009, 07:30:45 AM PDT )
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Monday August 24, 2009 ☞ The Power of Corporate Thinking
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It used to be said that what's good for IBM is good for America. This article looks at the way more and more of the skilled roles needed by companies like IBM are leaving the country.
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This is a step in the right direction. The only solution to the abuse of passengers by over-empowered individuals is to make sure there are consequences at least as severe as would face any passenger who took matters into their own hands. In this case in Rochester, someone at the airport deserves to lose their job, very publicly.
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My son's entry into E4's competition - please vote it up by clicking "Yay" (well, unelss you think it sucks, obviously)
Posted by webmink
( Aug 24 2009, 07:30:31 AM PDT )
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Saturday August 22, 2009 ☞ Endings & Beginnings
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As I read their explanation of why they don't like the Google Voice application for the iPhone, I can't help wondering if their definition of "confusion" differs a little from mine.
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Worried what will happen to your dog or bird after the Rapture? Committed athiests are available to look after Fido when you get snatched up to glory, on $110 for ten years of cover.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 22 2009, 07:30:35 AM PDT )
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Friday August 21, 2009 ☞ Monkey Business
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Very interesting overview of the story of Mono and Miguel's role in it. If you've not been following that story all along, it's an especially useful summary and briefing. Note also the GNOME acronym expansion.
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In which Bailey shows he has the makings of a modern Hoffnung. Best TV I have watched this year - don't miss part 4, the guide to Cockney music.
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O'Grady is circling an important discovery here - that software freedom actually matters as a principle because it leads to growing, free markets of innovation. We may be discovering that dual-licensing is actually a parasitic game played on software freedom caused by placing monetisation before liberty. I sense a discussion forming...
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"What this episode really uncovers is that AT&T is dying. AT&T is dragging down the rest of us by overcharging us for voice calls and stifling innovation in a mobile data market critical to the U.S. economy."
Posted by webmink
( Aug 21 2009, 07:31:14 AM PDT )
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Wednesday August 19, 2009 ☞ Nothing Serious
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Truly delicious selection of Celtic tracks, full of variety and innovation while embracing tradition. Warmly recommended, and free of charge (you have to have a US account though).
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The second song was just released and United's problems seem far from over.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 19 2009, 07:30:57 AM PDT )
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Monday August 17, 2009 ☞ It's Quiet. Too Quiet.
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I'm not a fan of flash mobs but this one looks happy and delightful.
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If you have the design skills you could get your design on every public transport seat in London through this competition.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 17 2009, 07:30:41 AM PDT )
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Tuesday August 11, 2009 ☞ "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" in action
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See how far "organic" has been hijacked by the food industry, to the point that the popular view of 'organic' ignores its holistic vision and just views it as a health fad. This is the fate of the term "open source" if we can't get OSI rebooted. As for the survey, this quote positions it nicely: "Pesticides were specifically excluded from the scope of this work. This is because our position on the safety of pesticides is already clear: pesticides are rigorously assessed and their residues are closely monitored. Because of this the use of pesticides in either organic or conventional food production does not pose an unacceptable risk to human health and helps to ensure a plentiful supply of food all year round."
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Sounds like a miracle cure. Pity it tastes of beetroot.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 11 2009, 07:30:35 AM PDT )
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Monday August 10, 2009 ☞ A Busy Weekend At The Link Mine
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Apple appears to be going through exactly the same transition - from underdog to overlord - that Microsoft so spectacularly failed (from an ethical standpoint) to navigate a decade ago and is only now beginning to emerge from its self-referential bubble and notice. The Apple response on Daring Fireball is an encouraging sign that someone over there cares about the problem, but Calacanis makes a strong case in this article and the answer from Apple had better not be like the idiots in the comments underneath it.
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"In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless" -- Exercise makes your body need food & drink. If you already lack the skills to eat & drink in the proportions you need for your health, the extra opportunity to screw up provided by each exercise session probably just makes things worse...
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"Van Halen's standard performance contract contained a provision calling for them to be provided with a bowl of M&Ms, but with all the brown candies removed." It's true, and they have an excellent reason for demanding it that provides a great pattern for people planning events.
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I don't think this comes as much of a surprise; it's clearly a nasty chemical. The question has to be "is it worth the risk", and the research doesn't answer that one.
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I encountered this last week, sending a pretty routine reimbursement to a friend. Paypal now charges a fee regardless of the funding source, unless you indicate that it's a "personal payment". My friend refunded the payment I'd made & we did the transaction again as a "personal transaction". They are of course free to charge what they like, but the way PayPal announced it is pretty scummy.
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Just in case you didn't think the TSA were abitrary enough...
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I've always suspected that a prime motivation for Bush and Blair in Iraq was connected to the evangelical theology of Revelation. The source in this case (an fundamentalist secularist web site) needs treating with suspicion, but the line of investigation deserves exploring as I fear it was the background dialectic biasing (undoubtedly hard) strategic decisions.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 10 2009, 07:30:31 AM PDT )
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Friday August 07, 2009 ☞ FOIA Ombudsman
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It slipped past me when it was announced in June, but the US Federal Government has appointed an excellent candidate to serve as Ombudsman for federal Freedom of Information Act requests. I loved working with her at UNESCO and she will certainly be up to this huge challenge. So, how about lodging a reprise of the ACTA FOIA request and referring the refsal to the Ombudsman once she is in-post?
Posted by webmink
( Aug 07 2009, 07:30:42 AM PDT )
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Wednesday August 05, 2009 ☞ Two Games
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Monty's concerns about cases where the commercial license takes away freedoms available under the open source license. Investigating.
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Are dictionaries a threat to the moral fabric of society if they provide definitions for words you already know that you'd tell your child off for using? In other words, should you tell your child they may not consult the Oxford English Dictionary under any circumstances because it defines words related to sex? If so, you should keep checking the Situations Vacant listings for Apple, because they need you.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 05 2009, 07:30:34 AM PDT )
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Tuesday August 04, 2009 ☞ Approaches to Open Source
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There had to be a reason beyond goodwill, and it seems that reason was avoidance of a lawsuit.
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Four podcasts (including one with me) explain what the new Open Source for America initiative is all about.
Posted by webmink
( Aug 04 2009, 07:30:50 AM PDT )
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