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+ - The Devil's in the Cloud, Part II: New Year's Day, 2023->

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "Everyone seems to agree today that the Cloud is the place to go, and that going Green is the way to get there. As Cloud services commoditize and competition intensifies, the cost of electricity will also factor heavily. Inevitably, this will lead to enormous data farms adjacent to lowest-cost, greenest energy sources, like hydroelectric dams, wind farms, and cheap power supplies. At the same time, all processing software, as well as all data and information, will move to the same sites, housed in lowest-cost industrial buildings. The result? Incredible vulnerability to physical attack, including attacks of a type we are not prepared to defend against. Here's how things could turn out, unless we start burying these sites deep underground. Warning: it's not pretty."
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+ - ANSI Approves Royalty Free Consortium IPR Policy->

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "On Tuesday, OASIS — the standards group that developed the OpenDocument Format — made an extremely rare announcement for an information technology consortium: that it has successfully completed the process of becoming accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). As a result, it is now able to submit its standards to ANSI for recognition as American National Standards (ANS), and also to directly submit its standards for adoption by ISO and IEC. Whether or not other consortia will follow OASIS’s lead remains to be seen. But in approving OASIS, ANSI has opened the door for more consortia to take the plunge — including those that want their standards to able to be implemented in open source software. Specifically, it has for many years been an open question whether an SSO with an IPR policy that requires (at least in some working groups) that essential patent claims be made available on a royalty free basis could meet ANSI’s accreditation rules that bear on IPR matters. To its credit, ANSI had taken the time and effort to seriously think through that question, as well as what types of controls or other guarantees might be advisable to ensure that the rights of IP owners are properly respected. With the accreditation of OASIS, it’s now clear that such a policy, properly constructed, can pass muster."
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Microsoft

+ - Portuguese Government Adopts ODF as Sole Editable Document Format->

Submitted by
Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "According to a press release issued today by the Portuguese Open Source Business Association, the government of Portugal has decided to approve a single editable document format. And that format is not Microsoft's OOXML.

In a move reminiscent of the action by the CIO of Massachusetts that ignited the fiercest standards war of the last decade, the Portuguese government has opted to mandate compliance with ODF, the OpenDocument Format, as well as PDF and a number of other formats and protocols in furtherance of a law passed by the Portuguese Parliament on June 21 of last year. The decision is the latest in a series of actions taken by a variety of European nations in support of all things open: open standards, open source, open data, and more, notwithstanding the success of proprietary interest groups in watering down similar actions at the EU level."
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The Internet

+ - Leading Standards Organizations Assert Principles of a "New Global Standards Par->

Submitted by
Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "The big news in the standards arena yesterday was a joint announcement by five of the standards setting organizations (SSOs) that have been most essential to the creation of the Internet and the Web: W3C, IETF, IEEE, Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and the Internet Society. Joint announcements by SSOs on topics other than jointly developed standards are rare, and the subject matter of this announcement was more so: each organization was endorsing a set of five principles that they assert support a “new global paradigm for standards” development. In so doing, they sought to define not only the parameters (always controversial) of truly "open standards," but also the characteristics (rather than the historical categorization) of the SSOs that should be entitled to equal treatment in government procurement and world trade.

In the new world order envisioned by the five organizations, they see a more collaborative network of SSOs true to a common set of principles that ensure that all stakeholders have equal ability to participate in the development and implement of the essential suites of standards necessary to enable crucial, cross-sectoral, standards-dependent projects, such as the SmartGrid. And the standards selected to achieve these goals should be judged by factors such as technical excellence, scalability, and most importantly of all, market adoption."
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Microsoft

+ - Office to Become Fully Open XML Compliant (at last)->

Submitted by
Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "Between 2005 and 2008, an unparalleled standards war was waged between Microsoft, on the one hand, and IBM, Google, Oracle and additional companies on the other. At the heart of the battle were two document formats, one called ODF, developed by OASIS, a standards development consortium, and Open XML, a specification developed by Microsoft. Both were submitted to, and adopted by, global standards groups ISO/IEC. But then Microsoft never fully adopted its own standard. Instead, it implemented what it called "Transitional Open XML," which was better adapted for use in connection with documents created using older versions of Office. Yesterday, Microsoft announced In a blog entry — http://tinyurl.com/c5ppkwz — that it will finally make it possible for Office users to open, edit and save documents in the format that ISO/IEC approved."
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+ - EC Takes One Step Forward, Two Steps Back in Openn->

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "Last Thursday the European Commission took a major step forward on the â½Â½Â½Â½ÂŽÂ"opennessâ½Â½Â½Â½Â½ scale. The occasion was the release of a new version of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) which definitively endorsed the use of open source friendly standards when providing â½Â½Â½Â½ÂŽÂ"public servicesâ½Â½Â½Â½Â½ within the EU.This result was rightly hailed by open source advocates like Open Forum Europe. But the EC took two steps backward in every other way as it revised its definition of "open standards,"presumably reflecting IT industry efforts to preserve the value of software patents. For whatever reason, it appears that the EC has abandoned the leadership position it previously maintained for setting the bar on standards suitable for government adoption. Those that believe that open standards, liberally defined, are vital to open government will now have to look for innovation and leadership elsewhere."
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Microsoft

+ - Oracle's ODF Plug-in Pricing: What's up with That?

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "In 2005, Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn set off the biggest standards war of the last decade when he decided that ODF did, and OOXML didn't, meet the Commonwealth's definition of an open standard. Implementing that decision proved to be much harder, but into the breach rode Sun Microsystems, which created the first and still most populart plug-in to provide reasonable interoperability between ODF-compliant software and Microsoft’s Office. Without it, ODF would doubtless never have made the advances that it has. So what will be the impact on ODF now that Oracle wants to charge the same fee for the plug-in that it does for a new, supported copy of Sun's former StarOffice productivity suite? The impacts will be both good and bad, but the best news is that while Massachusetts and Sun were essential to launching ODFon its way, neither the Commonwealth's procurement policies nor Oracle's plug-in pricing matter that much for ODF today."
Microsoft

+ - Alex Brown: "the entire OOXML project is now surel

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "Those who followed the ODF-OOXML Standards War will remember that Alex Brown, the Convener of the Geneva Ballot Resolution Meeting, helped broker the final approval of OOXML as a formal, global standard. He's defended his actions and OOXML ever since — until now. Yesterday, Alex wrote a blog entry stating that "without a change of direction the entire OOXML project is now surely heading for failure," and even recommending that antitrust regulators take note. If he's right, then the whole ODF-OOXML saga will prove to have been less a gripping drama than a rather pathetic farce.

[Alex's blog post is here: http://www.adjb.net/post/Microsoft-Fails-the-Standards-Test.aspx%5D"
Novell

+ - Elliott Associates and Novell: Here's What Happen->

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "Hostile tender offers are understandably rare in the technology industry, primarily due to the difficulty of retaining key talent. However, IBM's successful integration of Lotus Development in 1995 proved that it could be done. But can a hedge fund pull off such a result? Probably not, at least in the face of a determined White Knight. That's because the value of a Novell merged with a welcome partner will be higher than the break up value of a Novell bleeding talent like a sieve. The result? The White Knight will be able to outbid the corporate raider. Moreover, the value of a second trusted source for a well-supported commercial distribution of Linux will lead potential partners to consider stepping in that otherwise would be content to stand by the sidelines. Paradoxically, Microsoft has a powerful interest in the survival of a vibrant Suse Linux distribution as well. If it loses that bridge to its enterprise customers with heterogeneous environments, it will need to begin all over again — and with who? If a bidder other than Elliot ultimately takes home the prize, it will provide an interesting indication of how important Linux is to the major IT vendors today, as well as some serious insight into who cares about Linux the most."
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Comment: Yes, it does stand as a precedent (Score 4, Informative) 36

by Andy Updegrove (#31201876) Attached to: Jacobsen v Katzer Settled — Victory For F/OSS
Yes - the rulings made by the court do stand as precedents, notwithstanding the fact that the case settled. What the settlement means is that those rulings can no longer be appealed. If it had settled before going to court, then the settlement would have been irrelevant, but that's not the case here. - Andy
Software

+ - A Big Victory for F/OSS: Jacobsen v. Katzer is Set-> 2

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "A short while ago the parties to one of the most closely watched FOSS cases filed a settlement agreement with the U.S. Federal District Court for the Northern District of California ending one of the most important FOSS legal cases to date. That case is Jacobsen vs. Katzer, and the settlement marks a complete victory for Jacobsen, a member of the Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI) Project. Jacobsen's victory establishes several important rights for the first time in the U.S.: the right to prevent their copyright and authorship acknowledgments from being removed from their code, and the right to collect damages if the terms of the licenses they choose are violated. Until now, those rights had never been tested in court. Read on for the details of the case, the litigation, and the settlement."
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Movies

+ - Here We Go Again: Video Standards War 2010->

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "Think of the words "standards war," and if you're of a certain age you're likely to think of the battle between the Betamax and VHS video tape formats. Fast forward, and you'll recall we just finished another video standards war between most of the same companies, this time between HD DVD and Blu-ray. Well, here we go again, except this time its the movie studios that are duking it out, and DRM issues is a big part of it. On the one side are five of the six major studios, dozens of cable, hardware, software, distribution and device vendors, and on the other side there's just Disney — and maybe Apple as well, and that's enough to have the other side worried."
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Microsoft

+ - All Quiet on the CodePlex Front: 100 Days No Board->

Submitted by Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "As you may recall, Microsoft announced back on September 10 that it had launched a new, open source organization called the CodePlex Foundation. Since then, it has announced Project Acceptance and Operation Guidelines, its first "Gallery" (a project area), supporting Microsoft's ASP.NET, and two projects in that gallery. But it had also launched in a "less than open" state with an interim Board of Directors, and a promise to elect a permanent one in 100 days. Problem is, December 19 — the 100 day mark — passed quietly, with no announcement of a new Board or a status update on the other goals it had set for the launch period. So what's up with the CodePlex Foundation, and its pledge to promptly transition into a more independent organization?"
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+ - Further Reflections on the CodePlex Foundation: Th->

Submitted by
Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes "An analysis of the flawed structure of Microsoft's new CodePlex Foundation that I wrote resulted in quite a long discussion here. But let's assume that Microsoft actually surrendered control. Would there be a useful role for the CodePlex Foundation to play, and if so, what role would that be? The answer to the first question is yes, and if Microsoft were to accept my second set of recommendations, the community might even want to join in."
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Only great masters of style can succeed in being obtuse. -- Oscar Wilde Most UNIX programmers are great masters of style. -- The Unnamed Usenetter

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