Jan
06
2009
And Nokia didn’t know about it. The Linux-based Maemo platform had all the potential to radically change the cell phone landscape long before Apple came out with the iPhone. But Nokia preferred to be ultra-conservative and marketed the Internet Tablet devices such as the Nokia N810 as a toy for geeks.
Maybe this strategy has paid off since now Nokia is hiring those geeks to work on the Maemo software platform. This is a good sign for the free software movement because Nokia is flexing its muscles in the business arena pushing both its free/open source platforms: QT/GTK+ Maemo and the upcoming open sourced Symbian.
Way to go Nokia. Only be fast because I need a new phone and I have decided to buy one that comes with freedom attached, no strings.
Are you a developer? Apply here: Nokia - Apply Your Imagination.
Tags: community, free software, freedom, internet tablet, maemo, mobile, n810, Nokia, qtopia
Dec
30
2008
After one year spent using my (pretty old) cell phone for more than just sms and audio calls, I understand better some of the new challenges that the free software movement have to face. I already wrote about the implications of GPLv3 on mobile handsets, but that post only scratches the surface of the issues.
The free software movement is a social movement whose ultimate goal is to liberate every person in cyberspace, that is every computer user. But the meaning of computer and of cyberspace has expanded logarithmically in the past few years and I fear that the rethoric of the movement has not evolved at the same pace. I am for sure one of those that only recently realized how much the handheld devices extend the cyberspace beyond the usual desktop frames.
The computational capability of these devices is impressive, but those pale compared to the social impact on human behaviour. Have a look at the scenarios described in this video, for example, and think of how much your life changed since you had a cell phone. Did you ever try to organize a meeting with many people in a remote place without cell phones or network coverage? You’d need lots of preparation beforehand, gather addresses, start ahead of time, get everything printed; still somebody would get lost. Or think how much the micropayments via sms, so popular in Africa, are changing life and social habits.
All the interest and hacks on the new powerful and only slightly-less-closed platforms such as iPhone and G1 demonstrate that there are enough free software developer ready to play with truly open platforms. There is a force waiting to be unleashed to liberate the mobile aspect of cyberspace. I’m not sure if and what is holding this force. Maybe it’s the fact that cell phones are not really free software developers friendly (only the Neo Free Runner is, at the moment). Or maybe it’s the lack of a clear call from a moral authority, like the one that Stallman launched in 1984 for the GNU system. Maybe all this and something else.
All I know is that our movement needs to evolve its rethoric, extend its reach beyond the desktop computer and beyond the ‘cloud’, and include the mobile computation into the big picture of freedom for computer users. What can we do to obtain more freedom on mobile platforms?
Tags: free software movement, freedom, gplv3, handset, mobile, social
Dec
18
2008
Savio questions the usefulness of AGPL and his argument seems very slippery to me. He questions whether the Affero GPL is an obstacle to the development of more free/libre open source software. He uses Facebook as an example company that is contributing back modifications to memcached, software that FB uses after having it heavily modified even if it is licensed under the very permissive BSD license. Do we need copyleft licenses, when self interest of the companies makes them contribute back just the same?
I believe the question is tricky because it confuses the scope of copyleft with that of companies. Many people make the same mistake: copyleft is a tool designed to spread freedom in software, at any cost with all tools at our disposal. The FSF, which wrote the GNU and Affero licenses, has the goal to make all software free as in freedom. Companies are ‘free’ to join the revolution, or to look somewhere else for their needs. The GNU project existed and survived long before it was mainstream (it started 25 years ago); the whole free software movement has now become too big to kill. The movement counts on good will and self interests of people and also of companies for the contributions, that’s for sure. But the same movement is well aware that sometimes good will doesn’t last for long. Stallman saw it happen during the 80s. We are seeing it happening again, at each downturn of the economy. Who was around when SourceForge turned its software proprietary? I was around and I remember the delusion.
There is no question in my mind that freedom must be fought for and defended with all means available. We have copyright laws and we use it. The GNU system and copyleft is mainstream on personal computers and servers. Now, with the Affero GPL it’s time to take freedom to the web.
PS don’t forget to donate to FSF. Do it now!
Facebook shows self-interest may trump licensing |Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker | InfoWorld.
Tags: affero, agplv3, community, fsf, gplv3
Dec
16
2008
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Apple's USB engineers have confirmed off the record that it was a conscious move to prevent iPhone customers to jailbreak their phone. It's amazing the amount of disrespectful behavior that Apple manages to throw at its customers without losing their loyalty. It is really a cult, in the end.
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how to use Twitter and other micro-messaging services at work. It covers the the benefits and challenges of this exciting new medium, along with best practices and potential pitfalls you can avoid.
Dec
12
2008
Yesterday I went to listen to the conference where MIP, Politecnico Business School, published the results of the research about Mobile Marketing and Services. The research was based on 200 case studies, involving all the major actors of the supply chain (advertising investors, media buyers, creative agencies, telecom operators and service providers) and also a survey focused on marketing directors of medium and big enterprises.
The good things are that mobile is being more pervasive and it’s starting to extend beyond the cell phone to netbooks and gaming consoles. And that over 70% of the Italian mobile users are of age between 25 and 55, so in their full spending power. The youngest group, 18 to 25, is just 11%; this seems to contradict the myth that mobile ads are only good to target youngers. I’ve also learned that location-based advertising is being held back because of privacy issues. In Italy the fact that Mario Rossi is *now* in Via Carlo Farini, Milano cannot be passed from the mobile operator to the advertiser. It seems that this is a grey legal area that lawyers are trying to sort out.
Strangely, Google was not present. I didn’t hear the word Google or Adwords connected to the mobile world. But according to the slides presented by Niumidia, 30% of the users that access TIM/Virgilio WAP portals do it to use the search. It seemed as if mobile web is a different thing from the desktop web. Are we so far away from having full web experience on mobile handsets that it’s too early to say goodbye to those depressing WAP portals?
I was surprised that for Dada (Vodafone) and Niumidia (TIM), mobile advertising is SMS, MMS/VMS and banners on WAP portals. They still have made no plans for mobile email. I found it strange because ’smart phones’ are being sold in huge numbers (40M last quarter, 27% increase since Q2) and when users get a new powerful phone they want to get their email on it. Am I missing something?
Tags: advertising, business, funambol, marketing, mip, mobile
Dec
11
2008
Wow! As far as I know, this is the first time FSF is forced to go to court to enforce its copyright.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced that it has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Cisco. The FSF’s complaint alleges that in the course of distributing various products under the Linksys brand Cisco has violated the licenses of many programs on which the FSF holds copyright, including GCC, binutils, and the GNU C Library. In doing so, Cisco has denied its users their right to share and modify the software.
If you haven’t done this already, now it’s time to donate.
Full press release and another comment from Brett’s blog.
Dec
10
2008
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Enough with FUD: GPLv3 is now the fifth most chosen license in the open-source community, used in 6,300 projects. And growing.
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Mozilla Marketing Plans. The few I looked at contain really interesting suggestions. I haven't finished watching them though.
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Funambol's CEO sees AGPL as essential for FOSS in cloud computing's future
Dec
07
2008
Last month I had the luck to listen to Muhammad Yunnus speak about leadership and change. His speech was full of inspiration and hope, his work showed that radical changes can start by questioning what we take for granted. Mr. Yunnus reported a dialogue with the director of a bank where he went to ask for them to start lending money to the poors. Quoting from “Banker to the poor”:
Yunnus: “But if you are certain that the money will be repaid, why do you need collateral?”
Bank director: “That is our bank rule.”
Y: “So only those who have collateral can borrow?”
B: “Yes”
Y: “It’s a silly rule. It means that only the rich can borrow.”
B: “I don’t make the rules, the bank does”
Y: “Well, I think the rules should be changed”.
And then he went on and created Grameen Bank, radically changing those rules.
I see in his logic the same kind of logic that lead Richard Stallman to start developing the GNU system. He knew the rules of copyright were being used to deprive computer programmers of freedom to learn and evolve software, so he changed them with copyleft.
The lesson I got from this is that if the rules seem broken then it’s time to fix them, even if everybody else takes them for granted.
Tags: change, freedom, gnu, grameen, rms, social responsibility, stallman, vision, yunnus
Dec
06
2008
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Novell's Linux business grew by 33 percent over the fourth quarter last year, according to the company's latest financial figures. Identity and access management revenues were up 11 percent compared to the same period last year, and systems and resource management revenues climbed 15 percent.
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Consumers and journalists are beating the Storm to a bloody pulp. Too bad. I was thinking of getting one, now I'm stuck again with the old 6680. If only OpenMoko had UMTS
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Finally: The Tango icon theme and native widgets will make Thunderbird conform with the appearance of the GNOME desktop environment.
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"The Web platform is getting richer and richer,"
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A blog about free software creativity tools, GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, Miro and more. I love it. In Italian
