Bilal Ameen . Info
Bilal fra Bilal Ameen . Info vil gerne have en Mac, jeg syntes faktisk han har fortjent en…
Tag: Technology
I just signed up for the first BarCampCopenhagen.
Might prove interesting for a co-creationist – hey is that a new word – like myself…I’m considering bringing some rabbits…YES! I mean it…A physical rabbit!
The very first BarCampCopenhagen will take place on November 17 at 17 o’clock.
The basis of BarCamp is sharing – which means that you have to bring a demo or do a talk about something you are interested in. Maybe show off your newest idea? Anything is possible as long as you contribute.
* Maybe people, who are going to do a talk could put a quick note at this page, writing what they’re going to talk about? Even if it’s not completely settled.
NB: BarCamp Copenhagen is going to be held in English, because we have foreign guests *s*
BarCampCopenhagen is initiated by Toothless Tiger aka. Henriette Weber Andersen and Thomas Kristiansen.
I løbet af Birds of a Feather sessionen om Åbne standarder på Linuxforum 2006 tog jeg nogle få noter.
Generelt var der en god debat, og man må jo gang på gang understrege at der er STOR forskel på åbne standarder og åben og fri software (open source software).
Jeg fangede følgende kommentarer mod slutningen af debatten:
- DKUUG har en mailing liste og en arbejdsgruppe indenfor standarder, den hedder std@dkuug.dk…Som der blev skrevet: “Også mig…”, så meld dig til denne liste
- Vi har faktisk en åben implementering af dokumentstandarderne, det er den STØRSTE styrke
- eAftale, som er Microsofts storkunde aftale med det offentlige er pt. til genforhandlig. Der er også forhandlinger om eneleverandør aftaler, eAftale skulle være 3 årig. Der er et notat i et ministerium der antyder at der kan spares 100 millioner ved at terminere eAftale.
Vi diskuterede også forhindringer for udbredelsen af OpenOffice og Open Document
- Svært at få support og uddannelse
- Svært at opdatere og installere
- Dårligt integreret
Jeg kom til at tænke på Simon Phipps og Suaraz-Potts opfordring fra Linuxforum til at se at komme i gang med at lave små konsulent firmaer der tilbyder at løse den slags problemer, vi er vist ikke kommet så langt endnu.
Hvordan kommer vi videre:
Det er NU der skal rykkes!
- Lav en rapport som ikke er afhængig af snævre industri interesser, men fremhøver de langsigtede fordele ved at vælge den åbne og fri vej, det handler IKKE om teknologi det her
- OpenOffice skal godkendes af IT chefen i det offentlige, det kræver benarbejde
- Vi skal “tæppebombe” IT-afdelingerne med “rigtige” standarder Begynd f.eks. at sende dokumenter til dem i Open Document formaterne, og hvis de ikke kan læse dem så henvis dem til B103, at de bare kan åbne det i Google apps eller hente og installere OpenOffice, det har de fleste da råd til. :DOC er IKKE en rigtig standard!
- De nye tilgælgelighedskrav er en “Trojansk”, der kan bruges til at påpege at de offentlige myndigheder kan få store gevinster ved at anvende åbne standarder og open source
Debatten fortsætter på min wiki side (WiKim: Linuxforum_BoF_2006:Åbne standarder), kig forbi, du skal være så hjerteligt velkommen. Wikien kræver ikke registrering, og indholdet er udgivet under en fri dokumentations licens (FDL), men hvis du skriver noget, så registrer venligst, det gør det lettere at følge med i hvem der skriver hvad, og at afgøre at der ikke er tale om “spam”.
The 28th of October 2006 was the day of the Linuxforum 2006 Birds of a Feather sessions, and as it might have been noticed by regular readers, yours truly hosted the session on “open standards”, inspired by the recent legislation that asks the government to start using, and implementing, open standards in their IT solutions.
- Check by my wiki page for updates (in Danish for now)
- My presentation (20K ODF in Danish)
The forum was held at Symbion, which is a “research incubator”, I arrived late, and I followed the signs…Hmm that door leads to a stairwell, I entered, and immediately the door shut, I knew I was in trouble – I’ve experienced the same situation before – Shudder! There was NO way to exit the stairwell without a valid keycard, which I naturally didn’t hold. OK, in the words of Douglas Adams, Don’t Panic…There actually was a door to the outside, but it had a clear sign that said…Don’t open, it will trigger the alarm…
Hmm…I was as usually packing, using my cell phone to access the yellow pages actually yielded a number, I called it and the man on the line was quite surprised, first and foremost he was a bit annoyed about the fact that the building was open to host the Linuxforum, secondly he wondered how I got hold of his number, well it was listed with information! Well he gave me the main number to Symbion, he suggested that they had a number to call in case of an emergency…No way, I got a machine and a friendly goodbye! Damn…Well there were two numbers to some security services posted in the stairwell, I called both but they were also closed for the weekend. Now I started pounding on the door, but no one could hear me…Finally I heard a door slam…Hey! Wait a second…Phew someone was working that afternoon…With one swipe I was let out of my temporary prison, but I could have stayed there for a long, long time.
It’s a stupid set-up, and dangerous, I’ve experienced worse once, where I got trapped in another stairwell, and in that particular stairwell I didn’t find any doors to the outside, luckily I had my cellphone and the number of one of the employees.
The label on the button that opened the door read “Udtryk” this is funny, “udtryk” is Danish the litteral translation is “outpush”, and the meaning is that you press the button to get out, but “udtryk” also means “expression”, I’ll spare you the highly irregular and colourful expressions that I wanted to spill while trapped in the stairwell.
Oh well, now on topic!
My call for BoF was:
The spread of open standards
With Kim Bach, kim.bach(at)gmail.comI’m interested in how we can help implement the legislation B103: On the use of open standards in the public central administration.
Steps like the implementation of Open Document Format is a small step in the right direction, but don’t we need to establish a central CIO (Chief Information Officer) function in the public, inspired after Massachusetts. The “Bedst og Billigst” (best and cheapest) software policy of the government isn’t too clear, and it often results in “non-movement”, since that always will be cheapest.
How can we spread the knowledge of open and free alternatives to commercial products within, for instance, content management.
I’ve never done anything like this before, so I didn’t really understand the BoF format, but it’s really workshops, and quite informal, or at least that was the way my session ended, and I was very happy to see that some 20 people had joined the session, and more arrived later and they actually stayed!
Most of the sessions yesterday were hardcore technical sessions, and most of them were really packed.
I had prepared a few slides (follow link) and I’ve blogged on the subject several times, and I’m maintaining a page on my wiki.
I started out by presenting my slides, but really I only had 2-3, and immediately we had a real discussion going on, but it wasn’t till the end that we begun getting suggestions that we could write down. I’ll put it down to my lack of experience, and that I should have done more to keep focus, but it was really more of a brainstorm, and it was very rewarding indeed, at least to me, with most of the audience getting involved in the discussion.
We had a long and very fruitful discussion, mostly focused on the window of opportunity that we have right now, with Linux and open source software reaching such a high degree of maturity, and the major commercial player being almost tied down by huge technical challenges creating the next generation of their bread-and-butter software.
When it came to open standards, we spend a lot of time talking about Open Document Format, and ODF is very important indeed, because it can be considered a “Trojan”, simply start sending documents to the public authorities and tell them that they simple need to get hold of an open and free implementation of an Open Document Format viewer, for instance OpenOffice. With B103 in our hands, we can just say that what we sent was a document in the ONLY format that is an official ISO standard, and that the authority should start complying with B103.
Another important point that was made was that the volume agreements that the Danish public sector has with Microsoft, called eAftale is about to expire, so now’s the time to start pushing the alternatives to the politicians.
I’m quite happy with my own performance, and I’ll try to use this experience to build a shorter presentation, and I think that I got good response.
After “my” session, there was a session on the next steps for the open source movement in Denmark.
A number of suggestions on next steps were listed. We need to do A LOT more lobbying, and we need some reference cases, e.g. this school switched to Linux…
We’ll set-up a press centre…using the SSLUG wiki as a starting point, it seems that the Open Source movement in Denmark is in need of new blood, and I’m voluentering my services, I really need to join these SIGs.
The day ended with quality beer and more geekery, I’m REALLY REALLY impressed by Ubuntu 6.10 and I have the perfect machine to test it on, an iBook G3 500MHz that I just acquired.
I’m right@home@Linuxfourm. IT’S MY CULTURE! AND LET’S GO WITH THE LOBBYISM.
Her er et tip til alle Firefox brugere som ikke gider lukke sine faneblade fra en af mine kreative venner.
Jeg har brugt Firefox et par uger, det har været en sjov oplevelse, det kedelige var at jeg ikke kunne få mine faneblade tilbage, når jeg havde slukket for min computer. Men i mellemtiden hørte jeg at der var kommet en ny version af Firefox, og den har jeg lige hentet ned til min computer. Jeg har ikke haft lyst til at lukke mine faneblade, men så ved et uheld gik min strøm mens jeg sad og arbejdede med min midt i min arbejdstid, så jeg var helt ude af den, men heldigvis havde jeg husket at gemme dokumenterne, men hvad skete der med min Internet browser. Så startede jeg min computer årh heldigvis spurgte Firefox mig om jeg vil gendanne den gamle session eller starte en ny session, så kom smilet tilbage i mit ansigte.
Tak til Bilal fra http://www.bilalameen.info.
For andre eksempler på kreativ problemløsning kig her: Barometerhistorien.
Birds of a feather flock together;
and so will pigs and swine.
Rats and mice will have their choice;
and so will I have mine.
Så er der ikke ret længe til jeg “står” for Linuxforum 2006 BoF sessionen om åbne standarder, og du kan være med til at skabe, altså co-create, den.
Mit oplæg er primært dette:
‘Format Wars’: Computerworld – Politikere fristede af OpenDocument
Og især at vi får samarbejdet om denne liste:
- Der må ikke anvendes indlejrede dokumenter og/eller grafik, alt skal være henvisninger
- Det skal sikres at henvisninger ikke bliver brudt gennem en PURL (persistent URL) system
- Alt skal kunne nås gennem URLer og kunne vises i en standard browser uden behov for ekstra programmer (der skal altid findes en XHTML version af et dokument)
- Programmering (læs Excel udvikling) skal “godkendes†af en central IT funktion, så man undgår “ad-hocerietâ€
- Der skal laves et centralt erfarings udvekslings fællesskab, så løsninger kan deles, dette for at undgå at den centrale godkendelse af “programmering†bliver for stiv
- Så lidt layout som muligt
- Dokumenter skal være struktureret ensartet, stærk brug af “outline†og “levelsâ€
Men også forslag til standard software, og lister over anbefalede åbne standarder, jeg nominerer:
Software
- MediaWiki
- Drupal
- WordPress
- OpenOffice.org
- Gimp
- Mozilla Firefox
- Mozilla Thunderbird
- Mozilla Sunbird
- Apple iCal server
Standarder (ikke nødvendigvis åbne)
- Open Document Format (ODF)
- XHTML
- JPG
- PNG
- SVG
- Portable Document Format (PDF)
- OIO AWS (Address Web Service)
De-facto standarder der er “stemt hjem”:
- Microsoft Office <= 2004
Kommende (ikke nødvendigvis åbne) standarder der er interessante:
- Microsoft Office Open XML
15 minutes to go…5 years since Mohammad Atta shouted Allah Akhbar and slammed into the WTC, focused on Jannah and the waiting virgins, and the Church doesn’t have Wi-Fi.
A selection of today’s headlines:
- The Internet is evil because the terrorists are using it to co-create terrorism manuals.
- The problems of the Middle East are bigger than ever, but who cares about the people of Lebanon.
- Danish forces are engaged in Afghanistan and Irak, we’re good at killing people
- Anders Fogh thinks that Denmark is weak when it comes to foreign policy…We need to do more! OMG!!! Denmark is the 51st State!
- Documents with lab results from the police investigation regarding the terrorism case from Odense has been found laying around in the open!
- RFID tags, great Big Brother is watching!
- Oh it’s so sad for the poor New Yorkers that lost their business! Well others lost their lifes! As far as I could tell when I was in New York in 2004, the New Yorkers aren’t exactly suffering.
Who do you believe? Our media? Their media? Your media!
It’s time to take back what’s rightfully ours, our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression.
Forgive me I have to pray, pray for humanity, the jury is still out, but are we going to make it? Only if we wake up!
WAKE UP!!!
And my keyboard switched to Arabic!
Amen!
SLAM!!!!!!
And because the Church doesn’t have WiFi, I can’t access the Sacred Texts Library, to meditate on Surat 2.112, I’ll have to write it down in my own words:
“He who worships his Lord and is a doer of good shall fear nothing!”
Alahu Akhbar…SLAM!!!!
Hey my cell-phone and Google to the rescue…Surat 2.112 al quran…Yielded this page:
It started out with quotes from Al-Quran most of them hinting a violent side of Islam, with quotes like this:
Surat 9, Al Taouba, “Repentance; The Immunity-Dispensation,” verse 29:
[9.29] Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
This means that Islam must conquer Jews and Christians, and if after being conquered they do not convert to Islam, then they must pay a tribute (head tax). You would either have to convert, or pay an “infidel tax.”
I was quite sceptical, what was the point? But I actually found the correct Surat 2.112 (my all time favorite quote from Al-Quran):
[2.112] Yes! whoever submits himself entirely to Allah and he is the doer of good (to others) he has his reward from his Lord, and there is no fear for him nor shall he grieve. â€Ø¨ÙŽÙ„َىٰ مَنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهÙÛ¥ Ù„Ùلَّه٠وَهÙÙˆÙŽ Ù…ÙØْسÙÙ†ÙŒÛ ÙÙŽÙ„ÙŽÙ‡ÙÛ¥Ù“ أَجْرÙÙ‡ÙÛ¥ عÙندَ رَبّÙÙ‡ÙÛ¦ وَلَا خَوْÙÙŒ عَلَيْهÙمْ وَلَا Ù‡Ùمْ ÙŠÙŽØْزَنÙونَ ‎
balay’ man ‘Ê”aslama wajhahuw lil:ahi wahuwa muḥsinunm falahuwÊ” ‘Ê”ajruhuw Ê•inda rab:ihiy wala’ xawfun Ê•alayhim wala’ hum yaḥzanuwna (I hope this was correct, I’m not proficient in Arabic).
Surat 2.112 is as far from fundamentalism as you can possible get.
Then the text suddenly become much more interesting, and turns into a rather full historical account of the “Birth of Islam”. Very interesting indeed sitting in a Danish Church reading this historical account of the “Birth of Islam” on the 5th anniversary of 911 on a cell-phone using Google, including sentences rendered perfectly in Arabic script. This was not possible to do 5 years ago, there’s still hope for humanity.
BTW the bible quote of the day was from the Letter to the Galatians. Paulus basically says “remember: the ‘books’ aren’t written by men!”…Hmm…I don’t agree – the ‘books’ are inspired, spiritual and ‘eternal’, but they are indeed written by men.
I lit all the candles in the “globe” in the Church and prayed some more for humanity. Too bad that the “bowl” with Bible quotes for contemplation were nowhere to be seen! But I welcome that this tradition has reached Denmark, I saw it in Lund 2 years ago, and actually I prayed for it to be adopted in Denmark. My prayers were heard it seems.
Computerworld – Politikere fristede af OpenDocument
Rambøll er barslet med en rapport der forsøger at estimere omkostningerne ved at indføre Office Open XML og Open Document Format i centraladministrationen.
Link til rapporten: Estimering af omkostningerne ved indføre Office Open XML og Open Document Format i centraladministrationen
Citat fra Computerworlds artikel.
Flere partier ser positivt på mulighederne for at hente millioner i besparelser ved at fravælge Microsofts kontorpakke i det offentlige. Det sker dagen før regeringen præsenterer et forslag til finansloven for 2007.
Først vil jeg bemærke at det er en klassisk fejl at fokusere på økonomiske besparelser når der skal indføres åbne standarder, det er ikke kun derfor man skal indføre dem, selv om det da også er et godt argument – men “the beer isn’t free!” husk det nu!
Derudover er det underligt at det ikke fremgår hvem der er opdragsgiveren i selve rapporten, det er jo næppe noget Rambøll har lavet gratis (sådan plejer de ikke at arbejde). Men det fremgår af Computerworld at det er OSL (Foreningen af Open Source Leverandører) der står bag.
Som sådan fremstår rapporten desværre som bestillingsarbejde.
Personligt syntes jeg det er visionsløst kun at foretage en sammenligning mellem to stort set identiske teknologier, der fundamentalt er baseret på forældet teknologi, hvor man i alt for høj grad blander indhold og layout. Der burde skiftes til en centraliseret model, så vi kan slippe af med den latterlige anakronisme, desktop computeren, og begynde at anvende tynde klienter.
Der er rigeligt med open source software der kunne anvendes til formålet, f.eks. MediaWiki.
Den største udfordring er, i øvrigt, alle de egenudviklede Excel makroer, samt de indlejerede binære formater, der findes overalt.
Når det er sagt så håber jeg at politikerne, med denne rapport i hånden, kan se at de ihvertfald skal springe opgraderingen til Microsoft Office 2007 over.
Det skal ganske enkelt forbydes central administrationen at opgradere til Microsoft Office 2007, og der skal laves standarder for hvordan man undgår de kompatibilitets problemer der altid vil plage os.
Her er et par forslag til retningslinier, stjæl gerne ideerne kære politikere:
- Der må ikke anvendes indlejrede dokumenter og/eller grafik, alt skal være henvisninger
- Det skal sikres at henvisninger ikke bliver brudt gennem en PURL (persistent URL) system
- Alt skal kunne nås gennem URLer og kunne vises i en standard browser uden behov for ekstra programmer (der skal altid findes en XHTML version af et dokument)
- Programmering (læs Excel udvikling) skal “godkendes” af en central IT funktion, så man undgår “ad-hoceriet”
- Der skal laves et centralt erfarings udvekslings fællesskab, så løsninger kan deles, dette for at undgå at den centrale godkendelse af “programmering” bliver for stiv
- Så lidt layout som muligt
- Dokumenter skal være struktureret ensartet, stærk brug af “outline” og “levels”
Har I flere ideer?
Since Writely was acquired by Google earlier this year, it has been closed for new sign-ups.
Having finished moving to the Google infrastructure, Writely has just reeoped and is again accepting new sign-ups.
So what’s the fuzz about.
Writely is a web-based Word processor, that allows for online collaboration on documents, and it supports uploads in a number of file-formats. It did however fail accepting my first attempt at an upload, of what I consider a very simple document, somewhat disappointing, but I’ve written Writely support.
It’s somewhat annoying that Writely suggested that I send feedback along with the “offending” document using an e-mail address link, only to receive an e-mail, telling me that this method of providing feedback had been closed.
With Writely again open for sign-ups, and with the Google Mail, Google Talk, Google Spreadsheet and Google Calendar offerings in place, Google is getting ready to join the “office productivity tool wars”, all that I’m really missing is a decent address-book.
But you know what I really miss? A true NFS, a Networking File System.
The NFS should:
- Easily plug into any application (e.g. OS level support)
- Automatically detect if I’m connected to the network, performing continous background uploads if I’m online, otherwise it should save to my local disk
- Make it possible to work on the documents online using a standard browser
- Allow for both on- and offline collaboration “wikistyle”
- Be highly secure
- Last, but not least, be standards based
Right now everybody is reinventing the wheel, building their own custom filesystems, due to the lack of a true NFS.
Is there a true NFS on the market, that would meet my specification? I have no idea, but I doubt it very much. YouOS is a promising idea, but not ready for prime-time, and it’s not exactly standards based, attempting to provide an online version of a closed OS.