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AnnouncementsNon-Commercial announcements Financial Support for United States PostgreSQL User GroupsThe United States PostgreSQL Association has announced that funds are available for US based PostgreSQL User Groups. "Specifically the United States PostgreSQL Association is providing a lump sum pool of 1000.00 USD per month to PostgreSQL User Groups in the United States. This is a trial and will be available from September 2010 through December 2010 after which point it will be reviewed for further applicability."
Commercial announcements Qualcomm Innovation Center joins the Linux Foundation as a Platinum memberAt LinuxCon on August 10, The Linux Foundation announced that Qualcomm Innovation Center Inc. (QuIC) has joined the organization as a Platinum member. "QuIC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, is focused on developing software for mobile open source platforms, optimizing open source software for mobile technologies, and enabling developers to build applications easily for the millions of devices powered by Qualcomm's chipsets. [...] The use of Linux in mobile and electronic devices has been soaring. Linux is now the underpinning operating system (OS) for Android, MeeGo, and WebOS, among others, and today accounts for one of the highest growth rates of any OS in the device market, according to recent research conducted by ABI Research ('Linux for Mobile Devices', July 2010). "
Articles of interest Linux Foundation Launches Open Compliance Program (Linux.com)Over at Linux.com, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier reports on the newly formed Open Compliance Program. "More than 30 companies have joined with The Linux Foundation today to launch the Open Compliance Program (OCP), an initiative to help companies ensure that their products comply with the requirements of FOSS licenses. The program comprises a set of open source tools to enable compliance efforts, a self-assessment checklist, training and consulting services, and a directory of compliance officers at participating companies." Also of note is GPL enforcer Bradley M. Kuhn's reaction entitled "May They Make Me Superfluous": "If this Linux Foundation (LF) program is successful, I may get something I've wished for since the first enforcement I ever worked on back in late 1998: I'd like to never do GPL enforcement again. I admit I talk a lot about GPL enforcement. It's indeed been a major center of my work for twelve years, but I can't say I've ever really liked doing it."
Copyright assignment - Once bitten, twice shy (The H)The H has put up a lengthy look at copyright assignment policies. There may not be much new here for LWN readers, but it's a reasonable summary of the anti-assignment position. "But it isn't just the paperwork that causes friction. The code may be released under a copyleft licence, but once the copyright has been re-assigned, you have surrendered your rights, and the new owner is able to apply all the toxic conditions and ramifications that apply to any closed source licence in a simultaneous release of your code. The developer has the option of forking the code, but this is not what you are aiming for when you contribute to a free software project."
Eben Moglen's LibrePlanet 2010 Keynote (Groklaw)Groklaw has a transcript of Eben Moglen's keynote at LibrePlanet. "Freedom will from here out be endangered. Freedom will be attacked, freedom will be undermined, freedom will be evaded in various ways -- some of them clever some of them stupid -- but from here on out, the relationship between technological sophistication, agility, reliability, adaptability and low cost, means that freedom has acquired an extraordinary set of unintentional allies. They may not care about freedom at all, but they no longer have a choice but to further freedom's interests." Video is also available.
How the Hold Up Problem Explains the Flash Wars (GigaOM)GigaOM looks at one aspect of software freedom while never using that term; instead, the article is, on its face, about economics and Flash. "The hold up problem is particularly severe in the IT sector. Building an Internet company on a foundation consisting of proprietary software owned by others is akin to building a house without owning the land under it. When software is sold in binary form, the buyer is subject to hold up by the vendor; if the software needs to be changed in the future, such changes can only be done with the cooperation of the original vendor at the price that the original vendor demands. By relying on open source, a company can invest in developing its product without fear of being held up down the road. Therefore, open source is an economically powerful solution to the hold up problem."
New Books Autotools--New from No Starch PressNo Starch Press has released "Autotools - Creating Portable Software Just Got Easier" by John Calcote.
Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes--New from SitePointSitePoint has released "Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes" by Raena Jackson Armitage, Alan Cole, Brandon R. Jones, and Jeffrey Way.
Resources FSFE Newsletter August 2010The Free Software Foundation Europe newsletter for August 2010 is out. "The focus of this edition is Free Software in the public sector: on a national level within the United Kingdom, in the Italian region of Bozen, and in the Austrian city of Linz. We introduce a new definition and of mnemonic Open Standards, and invite you to participate in upcoming local Free Software events."
Contests and Awards Open Source for America Celebrates its First Anniversary with AwardsOpen Source for America has announced an awards program to recognize those that have been most influential in advancing its goals of educating decision makers in the U.S. Federal government about the advantages of using free and open source software. "[I]f you know someone who's contributions should be recognized, why don't you nominate them for one of the awards? It will only take a few moments of your time. You can find the awards categories and rules here."
Calls for Presentations MeeGo Conference 2010 Call for Session ProposalsThe first MeeGo Conference will take place in Dublin, Ireland, November 15-17, 2010. The call for session proposals closes August 23, 2010. "Do you want to speak at the first MeeGo Conference in Dublin, Ireland on November 15 - 17? Now is your chance! The call for session proposals has started, and anyone who wants to speak at the conference must submit a proposal. Proposals from community members, Intel, Nokia, the Linux Foundation and others will all be given equal consideration."
Upcoming Events DjangoCon US 2010DjangoCon US 2010 takes place September 7-9, 2010 in Portland, Oregon. The conference will be followed by a three day sprint.
Events: August 19, 2010 to October 18, 2010The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol |
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