<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html">Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 9th December 2010
+ 30th December 2010
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
-student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
-Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
-get their own 3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my
-work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
-offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
-the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look
-forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver
-picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
-last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
-operational.</p>
+ <p>After trying to
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
+Ogg Theora</a> to
+<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
+definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
+to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
+this. As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
+the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
+JPEG, PNG, SVG and others. But to be able to complete this in a
+reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
-<p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
-and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look
-forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
-<a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>. I even got
-some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
-the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
-very cool 3D scanner.</p>
+<p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
+<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
+wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
+to help out. The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
+place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
+NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
+of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
+
+<p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do. Do not be
+scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b_nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html">Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 9th December 2010
+ 27th December 2010
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/">Martin Bekkelund</a> ved
-<a href="http://www.friprog.no/">friprog-senteret</a> har skrevet
-følgende
-<a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/09/en-stille-bonn/">korte
-oppsummering</a> rundt datalagringsdirektivet, som jeg videreformidler
-her.</p>
+ <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
+"<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
+Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
+the term has been decided by Digistan. The term "Open Standard" has
+become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
+about standards. One end up discussing which definition is the best
+one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
+de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
-<p><blockquote><strong>Det pågår i disse dager en intens diskusjon om
-innføring av Datalagringsdirektivet (<acronym
-title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>) i norsk rett. Kanskje
-har du gjort deg opp en mening, kanskje er du usikker. I begge
-tilfeller ber jeg deg lese videre.</strong></p>
+<p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
+standards, here are a few that I know about. This list is not
+complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
+complete survey. More definitions are available on the
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
+page</a>.</p>
-<p>Samtlige fagmiljøer, både i Norge og EU, har konkludert med at
-<acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> ikke bør
-innføres på nåværende tidspunkt. Den tekniske kvaliteten på direktivet
-er dårlig, det griper uforholdsmessig inn i personvernet, det har
-store mangler og viktige spørsmål som hvem som skal ha tilgang og
-hvordan data skal lagres er fortsatt uavklart.</p>
+<p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
+Interoperability Framework version 1.0. Really sad to notice that BSA
+and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
+framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
+their own people. Anyway, the definition is still available and it
+include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
+specification on equal terms.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
+and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
+open standard:</p>
<ul>
-<li><a href="http://ikt-norge.no/norge-kan-slippe-datalagringsdirektivet/">EU-ekspertene sier</a> at konsekvensene av å benytte vetoretten er minimale</li>
-<li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/Deninternasjonalejuristkommisjon.pdf">Juristene påpeker</a> at direktivet er i strid med EMK</li>
-<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/12/06/kultur/debatt/kronikk/dld/personvern/14594699/">Datatilsynet sier</a> direktivet får store konsekvenser for personvernet og at direktivet er irreversibelt</li>
-<li><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/?s=dld">Teknologene sier</a> at sikker lagring ikke er mulig, at det er svært enkelt å omgå og mulig å manipulere data og produsere falske beviser</li>
-<li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/NJ_247460_1_P.pdf">Pressen sier</a> nei av hensyn til kildevernet</li>
-<li>Det er store <a href="http://tetzschner.blogspot.com/2010/03/den-tyske-forfatningsdomstol.html">interne</a> <a href="http://stoppdld.no/2010/03/02/datalagring-stoppet-av-tysk-forfatningsdomstol/">stridigheter</a> i EU. Blant annet har den tyske forfatningsdomstolen funnet at måten <acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> er innført på er i strid med tysk grunnlov</li>
-<li>Alle de store <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/08/lokasjonsdata-og-datalagringsdirektivet/">operatørene og tilbyderne sier nei</a>, av tekniske og personvernmessige årsaker</li>
+
+<li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
+organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
+open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
+(consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
+
+<li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
+document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
+permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
+nominal fee.</li>
+
+<li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
+(parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
+free basis.</li>
+
+<li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
+
</ul>
+</blockquote>
-<p>Jeg liker å tro at jeg er en hyggelig fyr. Jeg har et rent
-rulleblad, og med unntak av to fartsbøter har jeg aldri vært en byrde
-for samfunnet. Det akter jeg å fortsette med. Det er mange som meg,
-lovlydige, pliktoppfyllende borgere som aldri vil utgjøre en trussel
-mot noe som helst. Vi synes derfor det er trist og sårende at all vår
-atferd skal overvåkes døgnkontinuerlig.</p>
+<p>Another one originates from my friends over at
+<a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
+support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
+definition</a> in 2004. It even made it into the Danish parlament as
+<a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
+definition of a open standard</a>. Another from a different part of
+the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
-<p><strong>Understøttet av faglige vurderinger kan du trygt si nei til
-<acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>.</strong></p>
+<blockquote>
-<p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/kontakt/">Ta kontakt med meg</a>
-hvis du har spørsmål om <acronym
-title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>, uansett hva det måtte
-gjelde.</p>
+<p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
-<p class="info">Denne teksten er å anse som <a
-href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/"><em>Public
-Domain</em></a>. Spre den videre til alle som kan ha nytte av
-den!</p>
-</blockquote></p>
+<ol>
-<p>Siste <a href="http://www.nettavisen.no/it/article3043918.ece">melding
-fra Nettavisen</a> er at regjeringen planlegger å fremme sitt forslag
-til implementering av datalagringsdirektivet i morgen, i ly av
-fredprisutdelingen for å få minst mulig pressedekning om saken. Vi
-får snart se om det stemmer.</p>
+<li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
+tilgængelig.</li>
- </div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
- </div>
- <div class="date">
- 10th December 2010
- </div>
- <div class="body">
- <p>With this weeks lawless
-<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
-attacks</a> on Wikileak and
-<a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
-speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
-not be trusted to handle money transactions.
-A blog post from
-<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
-Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
-mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
-involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>. I got
-some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
-some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
-for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
+<li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
+begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
-<p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
-crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
-networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
-control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
-and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
-source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
-for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
-line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
-<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
-Debian</a> soon.</p>
+<li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
+"standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
-<p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
-There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
-bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
-currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
-are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
-want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
-you can even get
-<a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
-bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
-<a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
-on the current exchange rates.</p>
+</ol>
-<p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
-machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
-donations to the address
-<b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>. Thank you!</p>
+</blockquote>
- </div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p__flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html">Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten</a>
- </div>
- <div class="date">
- 11th December 2010
- </div>
- <div class="body">
- <p>Via <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/10/links-for-2010-12-10/">en
-blogpost fra Simon Phipps i går</a>, fant jeg en referanse til
-<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/9/exposed-tsas-x-rated-scanner-fraud/">en
-artikkel i Washington Times</a> som igjen refererer til en artikkel i
-det fagfellevurderte tidsskriftet Journal of Transportation Security
-med tittelen
-"<a href="http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/fulltext.html">An
-evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image
-characteristics</a>" som enkelt konstaterer at
-<a href="http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/?a=2389&c=124">pornoscannerne</a>
-som kler av reisende på flyplasser ikke er i stand til å avsløre det
-produsenten og amerikanske myndigheter sier de skal avsløre. Kort
-sagt, de bedrer ikke sikkerheten. Reisende må altså la ansatte på
-flyplasser <a href="http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/">se dem
-nakne eller la seg beføle i skrittet</a> uten grunn. Jeg vil
-fortsette å nekte å bruke disse pornoskannerne, unngå flyplasser der
-de er tatt i bruk, og reise med andre transportmidler enn fly hvis jeg
-kan.</p>
+<p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
+definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
- </div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
- </div>
- <div class="date">
- 11th December 2010
- </div>
- <div class="body">
- <p>As I continue to explore
-<a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
-what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
-and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.</p>
+<blockquote>
-<p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
-verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
-is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
-published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
-possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
-that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
-all transactions. There I can see that my address
-<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
-have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
-<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
-address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
-<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
-of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
-every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
-fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
-address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
-generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told
-there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
-organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
-themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
+<p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
-<p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
-regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
-without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
-laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
-If the Skolelinux foundation
-(<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
-Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
-normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
-Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or
-not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
-should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
-income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
-BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
+<ol>
-<p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
-accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
-the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
-easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
-access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
-a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
-so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
-would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
-and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
-if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
-to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they
-will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
-probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
-believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
-currencies.</p>
+<li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
+manner equally available to all parties;</li>
-<p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
-CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
-competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
-to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50
-BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
-join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
-by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
-and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
-BitCoins. Check out
-<a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
-if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
-machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
-own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
-yet.</p>
+<li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
+formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
+Standard themselves;</li>
-<p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
-href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
-criticism</a> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
-it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
-equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
+<li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
+any party or in any business model;</li>
+
+<li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
+in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
+parties;</li>
+
+<li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
+vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
+parties.</li>
+
+</ol>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
+its
+<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
+Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
+ democratic:
+
+ <ul>
+
+ <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
+ participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
+ imposed by the organization under which it is developed
+ and managed.</li>
+
+ <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
+ method, can be changed through input from all
+ participants.</li>
+
+ <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
+ the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
+
+ <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
+ and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
+
+ <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
+ public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
+ comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
+
+ </ul>
+
+</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
+ and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
+ implementations to the interface described in the standard without
+ undue or restrictive constraints. Interfaces include APIs,
+ protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
+
+<li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
+ a technical or economic barriers</li>
+
+<li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
+ interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
+ program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
+ programs and mutually to use the information which has been
+ exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
+ file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
+ conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
+ computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
+ intended to function.</li>
+
+<li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
+ standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
+ must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
+
+<li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
+ fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
+ perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
+ sell products based on the standard. The only exceptions are
+ terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
+ outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
+ patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
+ only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
+
+ <ul>
+
+ <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
+ licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
+ (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
+
+ <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
+ or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
+ essential to practice that standard (also known as a
+ "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
+
+ <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
+ licensor</li>
+
+ </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
+ implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
+ or restricted licensing terms</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
+there are so many of them. As you can see, the same holds true for
+open standard definitions. Most of the definitions have a lot in
+common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
+standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
+possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
+competition to downplay the significance of open standards. I hope we
+can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
+Standards.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 22nd December 2010
+ 25th December 2010
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
-href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
-batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
-years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
-computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
-five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
-group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
-and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
-university.</p>
+ <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
+Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
-<p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
-perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
-install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
-a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
-something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
-on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
-vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
-have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
+<blockquote>
-<p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
-I perform on a new model.</p>
+<p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
+as follows:</p>
-<ul>
+<ol>
-<li>Is PXE installation working? I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
-and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
-RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
+<li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
+in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
+freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
-<li>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
-installation, X.org is working.</li>
+<li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
+organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
+open decision-making procedure available to all interested
+parties.</li>
-<li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
-package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
-reported by the program.</li>
+<li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
+document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
+distribute, and use it freely.</li>
-<li>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
-logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
-are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
-the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
-normally test this by playing
-<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
-video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
+<li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
+irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
+
+<li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
+
+</ol>
+
+<p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
+measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
+products based on the standard.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
+and open standard according to this definition. Here is a short
+writeup of what I have been able to gather so far. I brought up the
+topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
+<a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
+July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
+According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
+the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
+
+<p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
+Ogg Theora specification. It can be argued that the
+<a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
+given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
+making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
+obvious that this is a real risk. One issue with the Xiph
+foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
+control the foundation) are not easily available on the web. I've
+been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
+seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
+where is is spent in the foundation. It is thus not obvious for an
+external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
+it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
+specification. But it seem unlikely.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
+claim it to be, this point is fulfilled. If Xiph foundation is
+controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
+documentation indicating this.</p>
+
+<p>According to
+<a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
+prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
+government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
+the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
+Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
+report is correct.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
+container format</a> and both the
+<a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
+<a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
+the web. This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
+
+<blockquote>
-<li>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
-memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
+Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
+specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
+capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
+the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
+specification compliance.
-<li>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
-I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
+</blockquote>
-<li>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
-picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
+<p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
+<a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
+this is the term:<p>
-<li>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
-any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
-few.</li>
+<blockquote>
-<li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
-memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
-notice this.</li>
+<p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
+others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
+or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
+distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
+provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
+included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
+document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
+the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
+Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
+Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
+in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
+translate it into languages other than English.</p>
-<li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working? I'm testing if the
-special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
-resume.</li>
+<p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
+revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
+</blockquote>
-<li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
-adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
-switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
-laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
-not.</li>
+<p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
+this term seem to be fulfilled. There might be a problem with the
+missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
+thus reuse it in other specifications. Not quite sure if that is a
+requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
-<li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
-acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
-to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
-existence.</li>
+<p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
-</ul>
+<p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
+Theora format.
+<a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
+and
+<a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
+Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
+patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
+them. Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
+this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
+without paying any royalties. For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
+Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
+than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
-<p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
-for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report
-the test results later. For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
-fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
-and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p. As you
-can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
-observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
-RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.</p>
+<p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
- </div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/165_norske_overv_kningskamera_registert_s__langt_i_OpenStreetmap_org.html">165 norske overvåkningskamera registert så langt i OpenStreetmap.org</a>
- </div>
- <div class="date">
- 24th December 2010
- </div>
- <div class="body">
- <p>Jeg flikket litt på OpenStreetmap.org i går, og oppdaget ved en
-tilfeldighet at det er en rekke noder som representerer
-overvåkningskamera som ikke blir med på kartet med overvåkningskamera
-i Norge som
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html">jeg
-laget</a> for snart to år siden. Fra før tok jeg med noder merket med
-man_made=surveillance, mens det er en rekke noder som kun er merket
-med highway=speed_camera. Endret på koden som henter ut kameralisten
-fra OSM, og vips er antall kamera økt til 165.</p>
+<p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.no/pere/surveillance-norway/">Kartet</a>
-er fortsatt ikke komplett, så hvis du ser noen kamera som mangler,
-legg inn ved å følge instruksene fra
-<a href="http://personvern.no/wiki/index.php/Kameraovervåkning">prosjektsiden</a>.
-Hvis du vet om noen flere måter å merke overvåkningskamera i OSM, ta
-kontakt slik at jeg kan få med også disse.</p>
+<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
- </div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
- </div>
- <div class="date">
- 25th December 2010
- </div>
- <div class="body">
- <p>Half a year ago I
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
-a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
-a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
-the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
+<p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
+depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation. Given the
+background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
+safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
+would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
+this.</p>
-<p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
-Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
-different Office implementations handle different ODF features. Sad
-to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
-LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
-for OfficeShots users yet). I am glad to see that the ODF community
-got such a great test tool available.</p>
+<p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
+see if they are free and open standards.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
</div>
<p>You go on to say that: "The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position."</p>
-<p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).</p>
-
-<p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.</p>
-
-<p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.</p>
-
-<p>You continue: "6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."</p>
-
-<p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.</p>
-
-<p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.</p>
-
-<p>You further state that: "7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."</p>
-
-<p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.</p>
-
-<p>You continue: "8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."</p>
-
-<p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.</p>
-
-<p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.</p>
-
-<p>You then say that: "9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."</p>
-
-<p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.</p>
-
-<p>You continue by observing that: "10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."</p>
-
-<p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.</p>
-
-<p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.</p>
-
-<p>You go on to say that: "11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."</p>
-
-<p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.</p>
-
-<p>You then state that: "12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."</p>
-
-<p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.</p>
-
-<p>You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"</p>
-
-<p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.</p>
-
-<p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.</p>
-
-<p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.</p>
-
-<p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.</p>
-
-<p>Cordially,<br>
-DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
-Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
-</blockquote>
-
- </div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</a>
- </div>
- <div class="date">
- 25th December 2010
- </div>
- <div class="body">
- <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
-Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
-as follows:</p>
-
-<ol>
-
-<li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
-in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
-freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
-
-<li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
-organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
-open decision-making procedure available to all interested
-parties.</li>
-
-<li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
-document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
-distribute, and use it freely.</li>
-
-<li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
-irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
+<p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).</p>
-<li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
+<p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.</p>
-</ol>
+<p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.</p>
-<p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
-measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
-products based on the standard.</p>
-</blockquote>
+<p>You continue: "6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."</p>
-<p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
-and open standard according to this definition. Here is a short
-writeup of what I have been able to gather so far. I brought up the
-topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
-<a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
-July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
-According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
-the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
+<p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.</p>
-<p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
+<p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.</p>
-<p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
-Ogg Theora specification. It can be argued that the
-<a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
-given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
-making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
-obvious that this is a real risk. One issue with the Xiph
-foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
-control the foundation) are not easily available on the web. I've
-been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
-seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
-where is is spent in the foundation. It is thus not obvious for an
-external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
-it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
-specification. But it seem unlikely.</p>
+<p>You further state that: "7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."</p>
-<p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
+<p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.</p>
-<p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
-claim it to be, this point is fulfilled. If Xiph foundation is
-controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
-documentation indicating this.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.</p>
-<p>According to
-<a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
-prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
-government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
-the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
-Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
-report is correct.</p>
+<p>You continue: "8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."</p>
-<p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
+<p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.</p>
-<p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
-container format</a> and both the
-<a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
-<a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
-the web. This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
+<p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.</p>
-<blockquote>
+<p>You then say that: "9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."</p>
-Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
-specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
-capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
-the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
-specification compliance.
+<p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.</p>
-</blockquote>
+<p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.</p>
-<p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
-<a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
-this is the term:<p>
+<p>You continue by observing that: "10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."</p>
-<blockquote>
+<p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.</p>
-<p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
-others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
-or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
-distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
-provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
-included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
-document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
-the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
-Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
-Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
-in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
-translate it into languages other than English.</p>
+<p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.</p>
-<p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
-revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
-</blockquote>
+<p>You go on to say that: "11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."</p>
-<p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
-this term seem to be fulfilled. There might be a problem with the
-missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
-thus reuse it in other specifications. Not quite sure if that is a
-requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
+<p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.</p>
-<p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
+<p>You then state that: "12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."</p>
-<p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
-Theora format.
-<a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
-and
-<a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
-Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
-patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
-them. Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
-this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
-without paying any royalties. For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
-Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
-than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
+<p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.</p>
-<p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
+<p>You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"</p>
-<p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
+<p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.</p>
-<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
+<p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.</p>
-<p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
-depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation. Given the
-background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
-safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
-would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
-this.</p>
+<p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.</p>
-<p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
-see if they are free and open standards.</p>
+<p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.</p>
+
+<p>Cordially,<br>
+DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
+Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
+</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 27th December 2010
+ 25th December 2010
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
-"<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
-Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
-the term has been decided by Digistan. The term "Open Standard" has
-become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
-about standards. One end up discussing which definition is the best
-one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
-de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
-
-<p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
-standards, here are a few that I know about. This list is not
-complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
-complete survey. More definitions are available on the
-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
-page</a>.</p>
-
-<p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
-Interoperability Framework version 1.0. Really sad to notice that BSA
-and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
-framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
-their own people. Anyway, the definition is still available and it
-include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
-specification on equal terms.</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
-and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
-open standard:</p>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
-organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
-open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
-(consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
-
-<li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
-document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
-permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
-nominal fee.</li>
-
-<li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
-(parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
-free basis.</li>
-
-<li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
-
-</ul>
-</blockquote>
-
-<p>Another one originates from my friends over at
-<a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
-support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
-definition</a> in 2004. It even made it into the Danish parlament as
-<a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
-definition of a open standard</a>. Another from a different part of
-the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
-
-<ol>
-
-<li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
-tilgængelig.</li>
-
-<li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
-begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
-
-<li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
-"standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
+ <p>Half a year ago I
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
+a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
+a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
+the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
-</ol>
+<p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
+Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
+different Office implementations handle different ODF features. Sad
+to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
+LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
+for OfficeShots users yet). I am glad to see that the ODF community
+got such a great test tool available.</p>
-</blockquote>
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/165_norske_overv_kningskamera_registert_s__langt_i_OpenStreetmap_org.html">165 norske overvåkningskamera registert så langt i OpenStreetmap.org</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 24th December 2010
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>Jeg flikket litt på OpenStreetmap.org i går, og oppdaget ved en
+tilfeldighet at det er en rekke noder som representerer
+overvåkningskamera som ikke blir med på kartet med overvåkningskamera
+i Norge som
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html">jeg
+laget</a> for snart to år siden. Fra før tok jeg med noder merket med
+man_made=surveillance, mens det er en rekke noder som kun er merket
+med highway=speed_camera. Endret på koden som henter ut kameralisten
+fra OSM, og vips er antall kamera økt til 165.</p>
-<p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
-definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.no/pere/surveillance-norway/">Kartet</a>
+er fortsatt ikke komplett, så hvis du ser noen kamera som mangler,
+legg inn ved å følge instruksene fra
+<a href="http://personvern.no/wiki/index.php/Kameraovervåkning">prosjektsiden</a>.
+Hvis du vet om noen flere måter å merke overvåkningskamera i OSM, ta
+kontakt slik at jeg kan få med også disse.</p>
-<blockquote>
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 22nd December 2010
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
+href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
+batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
+years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
+computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
+five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
+group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
+and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
+university.</p>
-<p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
+<p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
+perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
+install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
+a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
+something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
+on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
+vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
+have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
-<ol>
+<p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
+I perform on a new model.</p>
-<li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
-manner equally available to all parties;</li>
+<ul>
-<li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
-formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
-Standard themselves;</li>
+<li>Is PXE installation working? I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
+and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
+RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
-<li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
-any party or in any business model;</li>
+<li>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
+installation, X.org is working.</li>
-<li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
-in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
-parties;</li>
+<li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
+package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
+reported by the program.</li>
-<li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
-vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
-parties.</li>
+<li>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
+logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
+are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
+the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
+normally test this by playing
+<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
+video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
-</ol>
+<li>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
+memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
-</blockquote>
+<li>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
+I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
-<p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
-its
-<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
-Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
+<li>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
+picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
-<blockquote>
-<p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
+<li>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
+any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
+few.</li>
-<ul>
+<li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
+memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
+notice this.</li>
-<li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
- democratic:
+<li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working? I'm testing if the
+special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
+resume.</li>
- <ul>
+<li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
+adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
+switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
+laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
+not.</li>
- <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
- participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
- imposed by the organization under which it is developed
- and managed.</li>
+<li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
+acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
+to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
+existence.</li>
- <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
- method, can be changed through input from all
- participants.</li>
+</ul>
- <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
- the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
+<p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
+for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report
+the test results later. For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
+fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
+and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p. As you
+can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
+observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
+RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.</p>
- <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
- and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 11th December 2010
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>As I continue to explore
+<a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
+what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
+and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.</p>
- <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
- public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
- comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
+<p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
+verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
+is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
+published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
+possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
+that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
+all transactions. There I can see that my address
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
+have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
+address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
+of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
+every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
+fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
+address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
+generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told
+there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
+organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
+themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
- </ul>
+<p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
+regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
+without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
+laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
+If the Skolelinux foundation
+(<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
+Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
+normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
+Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
+not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
+should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
+income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
+BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
-</li>
+<p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
+accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
+the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
+easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
+access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
+a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
+so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
+would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
+and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
+if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
+to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they
+will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
+probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
+believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
+currencies.</p>
-</ul>
+<p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
+CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
+competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
+to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50
+BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
+join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
+by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
+and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
+BitCoins. Check out
+<a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
+if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
+machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
+own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
+yet.</p>
-<p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
-<ul>
+<p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
+href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
+criticism</a> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
+it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
+equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
-<li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
- and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
- implementations to the interface described in the standard without
- undue or restrictive constraints. Interfaces include APIs,
- protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p__flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html">Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 11th December 2010
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>Via <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/10/links-for-2010-12-10/">en
+blogpost fra Simon Phipps i går</a>, fant jeg en referanse til
+<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/9/exposed-tsas-x-rated-scanner-fraud/">en
+artikkel i Washington Times</a> som igjen refererer til en artikkel i
+det fagfellevurderte tidsskriftet Journal of Transportation Security
+med tittelen
+"<a href="http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/fulltext.html">An
+evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image
+characteristics</a>" som enkelt konstaterer at
+<a href="http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/?a=2389&c=124">pornoscannerne</a>
+som kler av reisende på flyplasser ikke er i stand til å avsløre det
+produsenten og amerikanske myndigheter sier de skal avsløre. Kort
+sagt, de bedrer ikke sikkerheten. Reisende må altså la ansatte på
+flyplasser <a href="http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/">se dem
+nakne eller la seg beføle i skrittet</a> uten grunn. Jeg vil
+fortsette å nekte å bruke disse pornoskannerne, unngå flyplasser der
+de er tatt i bruk, og reise med andre transportmidler enn fly hvis jeg
+kan.</p>
-<li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
- a technical or economic barriers</li>
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 10th December 2010
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>With this weeks lawless
+<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
+attacks</a> on Wikileak and
+<a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
+speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
+not be trusted to handle money transactions.
+A blog post from
+<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
+Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
+mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
+involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>. I got
+some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
+some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
+for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
-<li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
- interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
- program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
- programs and mutually to use the information which has been
- exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
- file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
- conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
- computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
- intended to function.</li>
+<p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
+crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
+networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
+control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
+and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
+source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
+for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
+line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
+Debian</a> soon.</p>
-<li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
- standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
- must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
+<p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
+There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
+bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
+currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
+are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
+want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
+you can even get
+<a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
+bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
+<a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
+on the current exchange rates.</p>
-<li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
- fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
- perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
- sell products based on the standard. The only exceptions are
- terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
- outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
- patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
- only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
+<p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
+machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
+donations to the address
+<b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>. Thank you!</p>
- <ul>
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b_nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html">Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 9th December 2010
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/">Martin Bekkelund</a> ved
+<a href="http://www.friprog.no/">friprog-senteret</a> har skrevet
+følgende
+<a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/09/en-stille-bonn/">korte
+oppsummering</a> rundt datalagringsdirektivet, som jeg videreformidler
+her.</p>
- <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
- licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
- (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
+<p><blockquote><strong>Det pågår i disse dager en intens diskusjon om
+innføring av Datalagringsdirektivet (<acronym
+title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>) i norsk rett. Kanskje
+har du gjort deg opp en mening, kanskje er du usikker. I begge
+tilfeller ber jeg deg lese videre.</strong></p>
- <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
- or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
- essential to practice that standard (also known as a
- "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
+<p>Samtlige fagmiljøer, både i Norge og EU, har konkludert med at
+<acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> ikke bør
+innføres på nåværende tidspunkt. Den tekniske kvaliteten på direktivet
+er dårlig, det griper uforholdsmessig inn i personvernet, det har
+store mangler og viktige spørsmål som hvem som skal ha tilgang og
+hvordan data skal lagres er fortsatt uavklart.</p>
- <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
- licensor</li>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="http://ikt-norge.no/norge-kan-slippe-datalagringsdirektivet/">EU-ekspertene sier</a> at konsekvensene av å benytte vetoretten er minimale</li>
+<li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/Deninternasjonalejuristkommisjon.pdf">Juristene påpeker</a> at direktivet er i strid med EMK</li>
+<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/12/06/kultur/debatt/kronikk/dld/personvern/14594699/">Datatilsynet sier</a> direktivet får store konsekvenser for personvernet og at direktivet er irreversibelt</li>
+<li><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/?s=dld">Teknologene sier</a> at sikker lagring ikke er mulig, at det er svært enkelt å omgå og mulig å manipulere data og produsere falske beviser</li>
+<li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/NJ_247460_1_P.pdf">Pressen sier</a> nei av hensyn til kildevernet</li>
+<li>Det er store <a href="http://tetzschner.blogspot.com/2010/03/den-tyske-forfatningsdomstol.html">interne</a> <a href="http://stoppdld.no/2010/03/02/datalagring-stoppet-av-tysk-forfatningsdomstol/">stridigheter</a> i EU. Blant annet har den tyske forfatningsdomstolen funnet at måten <acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> er innført på er i strid med tysk grunnlov</li>
+<li>Alle de store <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/08/lokasjonsdata-og-datalagringsdirektivet/">operatørene og tilbyderne sier nei</a>, av tekniske og personvernmessige årsaker</li>
+</ul>
- </ul>
-</li>
+<p>Jeg liker å tro at jeg er en hyggelig fyr. Jeg har et rent
+rulleblad, og med unntak av to fartsbøter har jeg aldri vært en byrde
+for samfunnet. Det akter jeg å fortsette med. Det er mange som meg,
+lovlydige, pliktoppfyllende borgere som aldri vil utgjøre en trussel
+mot noe som helst. Vi synes derfor det er trist og sårende at all vår
+atferd skal overvåkes døgnkontinuerlig.</p>
-<li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
- implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
- or restricted licensing terms</li>
+<p><strong>Understøttet av faglige vurderinger kan du trygt si nei til
+<acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>.</strong></p>
-</ul>
+<p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/kontakt/">Ta kontakt med meg</a>
+hvis du har spørsmål om <acronym
+title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>, uansett hva det måtte
+gjelde.</p>
-</blockquote>
+<p class="info">Denne teksten er å anse som <a
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/"><em>Public
+Domain</em></a>. Spre den videre til alle som kan ha nytte av
+den!</p>
+</blockquote></p>
-<p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
-there are so many of them. As you can see, the same holds true for
-open standard definitions. Most of the definitions have a lot in
-common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
-standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
-possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
-competition to downplay the significance of open standards. I hope we
-can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
-Standards.</p>
+<p>Siste <a href="http://www.nettavisen.no/it/article3043918.ece">melding
+fra Nettavisen</a> er at regjeringen planlegger å fremme sitt forslag
+til implementering av datalagringsdirektivet i morgen, i ly av
+fredprisutdelingen for å få minst mulig pressedekning om saken. Vi
+får snart se om det stemmer.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html">Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 30th December 2010
+ 9th December 2010
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>After trying to
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
-Ogg Theora</a> to
-<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
-definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
-to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
-this. As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
-the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
-JPEG, PNG, SVG and others. But to be able to complete this in a
-reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
-
-<p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
-<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
-wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
-to help out. The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
-place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
-NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
-of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
+ <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
+student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
+Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
+get their own 3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my
+work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
+offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
+the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look
+forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver
+picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
+last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
+operational.</p>
-<p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do. Do not be
-scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
+<p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
+and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look
+forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
+<a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>. I even got
+some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
+the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
+very cool 3D scanner.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap</a>.
</div>
<h2>Archive</h2>
<ul>
+<li>2013
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (3)</a></li>
+
+</ul></li>
+
<li>2012
<ul>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
-<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (1)</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (2)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (6)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (55)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (71)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (121)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (106)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (9)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (9)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (3)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (137)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (186)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (16)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (5)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (11)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (29)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (16)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (33)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (6)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (4)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (21)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (181)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (229)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (134)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (151)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (3)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (7)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (30)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (48)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (65)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (6)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (1)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (23)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (29)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (34)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (42)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (1)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (6)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (4)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (15)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (10)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (6)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (30)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (1)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (24)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p style="text-align: right">
- Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.4</a>
+ Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
</p>
</body>
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff