- <title>Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Fri, 7 Oct 2011 19:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
-publishing houses how to handle electronic books. Surprisingly, the
-libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
-(DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
-publishing houses. Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
-model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
-Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
-models.</p>
-
-<p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
-this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
-sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
-to a better model. The idea is simple:</p>
-
-<p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
-Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
-solution to hand out free e-books. As a start, the books distributed
-by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (abount
-36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
-(1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
-Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
-where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
-distributed.</p>
-
-<p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
-
-<ul>
+ <title>Holder de ord og NUUG lanserer testtjeneste med stortingsinformasjon</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>I
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_har_mine_representanter_stemt_i_Storinget_.html">januar
+i fjor</a> startet vi i NUUG arbeid med å gjøre informasjon om hvem
+som har stemt hva på <a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">Stortinget</a>
+enklere tilgjengelig. I løpet av få måneder fant vi sammen med
+organisasjonen <a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a>
+som arbeidet mot et lignende mål.</p>
+
+<p>Siden den gang har vi fått tak i maskinelt lesbart informasjon om
+hvem som stemte hva mellom 1990 og våren 2010, og tilgang til
+stortingets nye datatjeneste som har informasjon fra høsten 2011 til i
+dag. Det gjenstår litt arbeid med det første datasettet, men
+datasettet fra høsten 2011 er klart til bruk. Begge datasettene er
+tilgjengelig <a href="https://gitorious.org/nuug/folketingparser">via
+git</a>.</p>
+
+<p>På
+<a href="http://www.goopen.no/holder-de-ord-datadrevet-oppfolging-av-politiske-lofter/">Go Open</a> i morgen lanserer
+NUUG sammen med Holder de ord <a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/">en
+test-tjeneste</a> som viser hva som er og blir behandlet på Stortinget og
+hvem som har stemt hva siden oktober i fjor. Du får herved mulighet
+til å ta en sniktitt.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Here in Norway, the
+<a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
+Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
+a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
+standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
+government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made
+an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
+standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
+to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete
+on the same level.</p>
+
+<p>But recently, some standards with RAND
+(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
+And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
+directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
+standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
+implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
+user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
+willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In
+practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
+be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By
+definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
+So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
+And given that people will use the software without handing any money
+to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
+software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
+to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result
+in these situations is that free software are locked out from
+implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
+
+<p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
+standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
+how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free
+software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
+help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
+in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
+I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
+attention to these issues in the future.</p>
+
+<p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
+from Simon Phipps
+(<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
+Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
+
+<p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
+<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
+post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
+same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government. I
+can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
+<a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
+hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
+It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
+specifications with RAND terms.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Forskning: "GPL gir lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling av makt fra produsent til bruker"</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forskning___GPL_gir_lokal_frihet_og_kontroll_gjennom_omfordeling_av_makt_fra_produsent_til_bruker_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forskning___GPL_gir_lokal_frihet_og_kontroll_gjennom_omfordeling_av_makt_fra_produsent_til_bruker_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Da jeg googlet etter noe annet kom jeg tilfeldigvis over
+<a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=58309">en
+hovedfagsoppgave</a> ved Universitetet i Oslo som diskuterer verdien
+av GPLs fire friheter for brukerne av IT-systemer. Jeg ble fascinert
+over det som presenteres der. Her er sammendraget:</p>