graham brookins’s blog

Well after the afterglow of becoming a published author had faded I was nominated for an eZ Award for my first article published earlier this year and today my next article has been published on ez.no! This latest (second) article has been titled “How to Use eZ Publish Extensions: Google Analytics“. It is quite an exciting year.

I noticed today that the free software community members have spoken clearly over say the last 6 months, purely as an example of a much longer arc.Their answer to the world has been, we support GNU, the FSF, including the GPLv3.

For example taking an item from the news and events around the world, if the leaders, maintainers, developers, distributors, Linus do not consult the members of their own community (Linux,kernel.org) on the licensing, securing, protecting, engaging of the contributors ( http://gplv3.fsf.org/ has for GNU and Free Software) then what will become of developers who value and protect their freedom? I suspect they will look for other existing efforts to achieve their goals without forsaking their freedom.

I know the GNU System is no one operating system, server, application, software package, component, kernel, ad nauseam. All pieces are replaceable, interchangeable and reusable, but not always redistributable ;D

We learned this from the story of the GNU tar program and the GNU gunzip (otherwise known as gzip).

This was proven again (if not many times before) by the transition from XFree86 to Xorg. XFree86 a front for the x consortium (old world player for everyone) and Xorg the young upstart to protect freedom. Xorg also devastated XFree86 very quickly by accepting contribution and engaging it’s community in ways XFree86 had always refused to the detriment of everyone in all our communities.

The net benefit from XFree86’s non-gpl-compatible license changes (without engaging their community) was a very large improvement to the community, new, better, more stable, more feature rich, more flexible, more free X11 package (Base GUI / Desktop System Service).

I have been watching the GNU Hurd for sometime, watching it’s activity. I’ve learned a lot about the Hurd; more than enough to also pine for the Hurd’s triumphal return to popularity in the wake of the current events in the free software community and all things kernel related.

A number of people point out how clear it is that Linus while he is using the GNU GPLv2, Linus appears to only truly support the freedoms of others, under gpl-incompatible notions more akin to BSD than Free Software and Copyleft.

Back to the Hurd, I have not spent enough time trying to get a copy running on my own machine for the most basic hobieing. I foolishly (like others tho …) keep looking for that one build/distro of the Hurd (to help me quickly install the system for testing …), that I can pop a iso text installer into a computer and install a FSF/RMS Approved/Sponsored copy of the GNU Hurd + System.I know if I was just a little more tenacious I could get build of the Hurd running on some spare hardware and start helping others fully enjoy all of their freedom. Still, I can’t wait for GNU Hurd licensed under the GNU GPL v3 for all my free software computers.

Seems like a good time to try again and try harder!

As a child I would sneak out of bed to watch tv at all hours of the night / early morning. I was, am, and will always be fatally addicted to the medium of media in all it’s wondrous forms. Every now and again I am reminded of a technology / computer show which fueled my imagination and desire to learn all that I could about the world of computers and technology, from very young to teenager, this show is called the Computer Chronicles.

Back in 2003 I began thinking about how I would like to see a Computer Chronicles DVD Box Set. I spent some time researching the subject to find that a large amount of material was available in MPEG2 (DVD Ready) video files. The quality is really good for the video equipment the which the show was recorded and later digitized with.

I actually contacted on of the creators and hosts of the show Stewart Cheifet via email and phone to discuss the idea. It was amazing to get such an opportunity to talk with one who was such an inspiration in my childhood.

The problem for me at that time was I did not have the bandwidth, disk storage, video editing software, dvd authoring software or dvd burning hardware resources to complete such a project, even as a homebrew dvd myself.

I gather that while there is an interest in a dvd box set of the Computer Chronicles world wide, the production team have not yet chosen how to approach the subject and tackle the rather large project. I learned this in 2003 and again touching base with Stewart again in early 2006.

Flash forward to 2006; Today I basically have or can fairly simply obtain all of the resources which I lacked 3 years ago to start the project. I wrote a bit about my ideas in a private forum (summary) and did a bit of documenting (txt) again on how to break the project down into manageable chunks.

This is where I now stand. Looking to do a small best of Computer Chronicles DVD (<7 episodes). I’m putting together the software I need (most trouble), and assembling the needed plans to edit, master and distribute the test among my friends.

References: There are so many mentions of the Computer Cronicles all kinds all over the interweb There are people in the shaddows of the web, private forums, im, and irc talking about how much they want to see Computer Chronicles on DVD in our lifetime.

Ciao,
//graham

Jem - 24

Well now I’ll always know
and who knows? It might
just work out overall

http://ipgnu.com/

Time will tell …

//graham

I saw this today browsing planetapache.org and found it very insightful.

October 25, 2005

preparing for the post-sourceforge world

People have asked the question What if SourceForge disappeared? for years now, but I have to wonder if we should be asking this question again. Now, SourceForge has its warts, but it’s ultimately a beneficial service. And, even if they did disappear, it’s highly unlikely that the open source movement would be handicapped for any real length of time.

But here’s why I ask the question:

phil goes into some more detail, wondering whether GOOG or YHOO might be prepared to take over. Maybe the woes of sourceforge can bring some long-needed fresh air though:

I think that the problem with SourceForge is that they are providing 1999-era functionality based on a business model that really is not much more than an afterthought after the collapse of their hardware business. Consequently, the core functionality in the SourceForge project hasn�t changed all that much in the past six years. All the projects on SourceForge are effectively partitioned we don’t see any tools for figuring out code reuse possibilities or anything particularly innovative.

3 years ago, i researched the state of the art of open source production, and developed a matrix to map activities, actors and tools.

To say that there are many areas of improvement in the way open source software is produced is an understatement. The obvious observation that there are a power laws in effect with regards to quality and popularity of a project makes me wonder what can be done to improve life for the countless small projects out there that have neither their act together code-wise, nor any audience.

A considerable subset of these projects deserves to do better on both fronts with the right tooling. Done correctly, a post-sourceforge integrated site could act as a large-scale lab for novel collaboration and software engineering techniques. Tool vendors might be willing to integrate their technology in return for widespread usage and name recognition, and the rest of us might finally break free of the anachronisms of mailing lists and other 1980s-era solutions.

Furthermore, the site could be made to emit statistical data for open source research. Most academic papers in the field already look at sourceforge anyway, if they had a way to get better data, they might actually arrive at some useful conclusions, including reuse patterns, social network analysis, and many more. Such a site could therefore be a downpayment on discovering the finer points of peer production, slated to become ever more important in the larger economy.

Posted by gregor at October 25, 2005 10:46 PM