Andy Updegrove - Slashdot User

Submission + - What is Open Source Pharma (and why should you care)? (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by Andy Updegrove on Saturday September 05, 2015 @10:39AM

Andy Updegrove writes: Humanity today is almost completely dependent on huge pharmaceutical companies to create the drugs we need. But these companies focus exclusively on drugs that can be sold at high prices to large populations — in other words, to patients in developed nations. This means that those who live in the emerging world that suffer from the remaining "neglected diseases," like Malaria and drug resistant TB, have no one to depend on for relief except huge charities, like the Gates Foundation. They also have no way to afford many of the patented drugs that do exist. But there is another way, modeled on open source software development, which relies on crowd sourced knowledge, highly distributed, volunteer efforts, and advanced open source tools. That methodology is called Open Source Pharma, and it has the potential to dramatically drive down drug development while saving millions of lives every year.

Submission + - Dept. of Justice Blesses IEEE Rules on Injunctions and Reasonability (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by Andy Updegrove on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:25PM

Andy Updegrove writes: During the mobile platform patent wars of recent years Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Motorola and the rest of the major vendors sought injunctions against each other to prevent their competitor from selling their products at all. The suits were often based on claims that a vendor had to pay a reasonable royalty on a “standards essential patent.” The resulting litigation clogged up the courts, and the regulators were not amused. Now, after almost two years of vigorous debate, the standards development organization behind WiFi and thousands of other ICT standards (IEEE-SA) has received the blessing of the U.S. Dept. of Justice to forbid members that have pledged to license such patents from seeking an injunction until all other remedies have been exhausted. Whether other standards organizations will follow suit remains to be seen.

Submission + - Linux Foundation Announces Major Network Functions Virtualization Project (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by Andy Updegrove on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @07:09AM

Andy Updegrove writes: The Linux Foundation this morning announced the latest addition to its family of major hosted open source initiatives: the Open Platform for NFV Project (OPNFV), Its mission is to develop and maintain a carrier-grade, integrated, open source reference platform for the telecom industry. Importantly, the thirty-eight founding members include not only cloud and service infrastructure vendors, but telecom service providers, developers and end users as well. The announcement of OPNFV highlights three of the most significant trends in IT: virtualization (the NFV part of the name refers to network function virtualization), moving software and services to the Cloud, and collaboratively developing complex open source platforms in order to accelerate deployment of new business models while enabling interoperability across a wide range of products and services. The project is also significant for reflecting a growing recognition that open source projects need to incorporate open standards planning into their work programs from the beginning, rather than as an afterthought.

Submission + - U.K. Cabinet Office Adopts ODF as Exclusive Standard for Sharable Documents (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by Andy Updegrove on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @02:10PM

Andy Updegrove writes: The U.K. Cabinet Office accomplished today what the Commonwealth of Massachusetts set out (unsuccessfully) to achieve ten years ago: it formally required compliance with the Open Document Format (ODF) by software to be purchased in the future across all government bodies. Compliance with any of the existing versions of OOXML, the competing document format championed by Microsoft, is neither required nor relevant. The announcement was made today by The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude. Henceforth, ODF compliance will be required for documents intended to be shared or subject to collaboration. PDF/A or HTML compliance will be required for viewable government documents. The decision follows a long process that invited, and received, very extensive public input – over 500 comments in all.

Submission + - Microsoft Circles the Wagons to Defeat ODF in the UK (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by Andy Updegrove on Thursday February 20, 2014 @10:23PM

Andy Updegrove writes: Three weeks ago, we heard that Francis Maude, a senior UK government minister, was predicting the conversion to open source office suites by UK government agencies. Lost in the translation in many stories was the fact that this was based not on an adopted policy, but on a proposal still open for public comment — and subject to change. It should be no surprise that Microsoft is trying to get the UK to add OOXML, its own format standard, to the UK policy. Why? According to a messaging sent to its UK partners, because it believes that a failure to include OOXML "will cause problems for citizens and businesses who use office suites which don’t support ODF, including many people who do not use a recent version of Microsoft Office or, for example, Pages on iOS and even Google Docs." Of course, that's because Microsoft pushed OOXML as an alternative to ODF a decade ago. If you don't want the same objection to be valid a decade from now, consider making your views known at the Cabinet Office Standards Hub. The deadline is February 26.

Submission + - Office to Become Fully Open XML Compliant (at last) (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by

Andy Updegrove

on Tuesday August 14, 2012 @12:53PM

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."

Comment Yes, it does stand as a precedent (Score 4, Informative) 36

by Andy Updegrove on Friday February 19, 2010 @02:16PM (#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

Submission + - A Big Victory for F/OSS: Jacobsen v. Katzer is Set (consortiuminfo.org) 2

Submitted by Andy Updegrove on Friday February 19, 2010 @11:42AM

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.

Submission + - Here We Go Again: Video Standards War 2010 (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by Andy Updegrove on Monday January 11, 2010 @09:39AM

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.

Submission + - All Quiet on the CodePlex Front: 100 Days No Board (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by Andy Updegrove on Thursday December 31, 2009 @11:41AM

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?

Comment Correction on "save to" capability (Score 4, Informative) 377

by Andy Updegrove on Wednesday May 21, 2008 @02:55PM (#23495990) Attached to: Microsoft Office 2007 to Support ODF - But Not OOXML

Kevin J. O'Brien, reporting in the International Herald Tribune, reports that the ODF update will in fact permit users to "adjust Office 2007 settings to automatically save documents in the rival format." A knowledgeable source tells me that this report is likely to be accurate.

Andy

Submission + - Format Standards Committee "Grinds to a Halt&# (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by

Andy Updegrove

on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @02:26PM

Andy Updegrove writes: "As you may recall, Microsoft's OOXML did not get enough votes to be approved the first time around in ISO/IEC — notwithstanding the fact that many countries joined the Document Format and Languages committee in the months before voting closed, almost all of whom voted to approve OOXML. Unfortunately, many of these countries also traded up to "P" level membership at the last minute to get more influence. Now, the collateral damage is setting in. At least 50% of P members must vote (up, down or abstain) on every standard at each ballot — and none of the new members are bothering to vote, despite repeated pleas from the committee chair. Not a single ballot has passed since the OOXML vote closed, and In his words, the committee has "ground to a halt." Sad to say, there's no end in sight for this (formerly) very busy and influential standards committee."

Submission + - If this was a month ago, the OOXML would be over (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by

Andy Updegrove

on Monday September 03, 2007 @02:58PM

Andy Updegrove writes: "Public announcements of how P members of ISO have voted on OOXML are now rolling in one at a time, and the trend thus far is meaningfully weighted towards "No with comments."

By my count, there are now four announced Yes votes, with comments, two abstentions, and seven public No with comments votes for OOXML in ISO/IEC JT1. Korea has reportedly voted no as well, and I expect at least Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom to announce "No with comments" today or tomorrow. There will be more no votes on the roster when the final results are announced in a day or two. But even if the 11 votes I know of now were the only votes, the vote would now have failed — but for the 11 countries that upgraded their status from Observer to Participating member status in the last few weeks. Without those extra 11 P countries, it would only require 10 votes to block OOXML from immediate approval. If most or all of those additional P members vote "yes" as expected, it will confirm suspicions that Microsoft has promoted extra votes in favor of OOXML not only within National Bodies, but within ISO itself."

Submission + - What Happens Next on the US Vote on OOXML (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by

Andy Updegrove

on Monday July 23, 2007 @08:43AM

Andy Updegrove writes: "As you may know, V1, the INCITS Technical Committee that had charge of the US vote on Microsoft's OOXML, failed to reach consensus on either approving or disapproving the specification. As expected, Microsoft has turned to the full INCITS Executive Board in an effort to salvage the situation. Between now and Labor Day, a complicated series of fall-back ballots and meetings has been scheduled to see whether the Executive Board can agree to approve or disapprove OOXML, in either case "with comments." A vote to approve would mean that addressing the comments would not be required for the US vote to stand, while a vote to disapprove would hold the possibility of US approval if the comments are satisfactorily addressed. The process, and the prospects for approval, are described here, based on an extensive interview with a V1 and Executive Board member. The bottom line is that a vote to approve (either in the US or in many other nations around the world) does not appear likely, due to the sheer number of technical issues that have been raised with OOXML, and the expedited schedule upon which Microsoft has insisted throughout the process."

Submission + - Microsoft Announces OOXML-UOF Project with China

Submitted by

Andy Updegrove

on Monday May 21, 2007 @11:05AM

Andy Updegrove writes: "Today, Microsoft announced it's own interoperability project to bridge the gap between China's domestically developed Uniform Office Format (UOF) and Microsoft's OOXML. In the continuing tit for tat battle between the two formats, this announcement tracks the intent of an already-existing "harmonization" committee, hosted by OASIS, that is exploring interoperability options between ODF and UOF. Like the OOXML-ODF translator project announced by Microsoft last year, the new effort will be an open source project hosted by SourceForge. The announcement is, in one sense, no surprise. Microsoft has been waging a nation-by-nation battle for the hearts and minds of ISO/IEC JTC1 National Bodies, in an effort to win adoption of OOXML (now Ecma 376) as a global standard with equal status to ODF (now ISO 26300). In order to do so, it needs to offset the argument that one document format standard is not only enough, but preferable. With UOF representing a third entrant in the format race, easy translation of documents would obviously be key to lessen the burden on customers of products based upon one format or the other. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/articl e.php?story=20070521074914744"

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