Four short links: 4 November 2009

Electronics Hacking FAQs, Speech-To-Text Democracy, Open Source Column Database, Massive Online Analysis

1. ChipHacker -- collaborative FAQ site for electronics hacking. Based on the same StackExchange software as RedMonk's FOSS FAQ for open source software.
2. Democracy Live -- BBC launch searchable coverage of parliamentary discussion, using speech-to-text. One aspect we're particularly proud of is that we've managed to deliver good results for speech-to-text in Welsh, which, we're told, is unique. I think of this as the start of a They Work For You for video coverage. I'd love to be able to scale this to local government coverage, which is disappearing as local newspapers turn into delivery mechanisms for real estate advertisements.
3. InfiniDB: Open Source Column Database -- hooks into MySQL, uses MySQL for SQL parsing, security, etc. The commercial enterprise version has multi-server support (parallel scale-out). (via Brian Aker)
4. Massive Online Analysis -- MOA is a framework for data stream mining. Includes tools for evaluation and a collection of machine learning algorithms. Related to the WEKA project, also written in Java, while scaling to more demanding problems. . (via joshua on Delicious)

Four short links: 27 October 2009

Digital Art Programming, DIY Construction Set, Open Source Pedant, Design Principles

1. Field -- a development environment for "experimental code" and digital art. We think that, for many uses, Field is a better Processing than Processing. Includes Python and Java bridges, goal is to connect to as many different programming systems as possible. OS X only at the moment.
2. Contraptor -- a DIY open source construction set for experimental personal fabrication, desktop manufacturing, prototyping and bootstrapping. (via Hacker News)
3. After The Deadline -- open source contextual spelling and grammar checker. (via Hacker News)
4. Design Principles to Choose the Right Ideas -- Often people ask me how we know which ideas to choose from all the hundreds of ideas we’ve generated during brainstorm sessions. Apart from our gut feelings and experience there’s a method that could help us decide: define design principles. Interesting for the different sets of design principles used by Google and Microsoft teams. (via egoodman on Delicious)

Four short links: 26 October 2009

Data Exploration, Evidence-Based Coding, API to the English Language, Dual Licensing

1. Toiling in the Data Mines -- Tom Armitage describes the process that Berg calls "material exploration". Programmers very rarely talk about what their work feels like to do, and that's a shame. Material explorations are something I've really only done since I've joined BERG, and both times have felt very similar - in that they were very, very different to writing production code for an understood product. They demand code to be used as a sculpting tool, rather than as an engineering material, and I wanted to explain the knock-on effects of that: not just in terms of what I do, and the kind of code that's appropriate for that, but also in terms of how I feel as I work on these explorations. Even if the section on the code itself feels foreign, I hope that the explanation of what it feels like is understandable.
2. Bits of Evidence -- Slides for a talk, "What we actually know about software development and why we believe it is true". (via Simon Willison)
3. Wordnik API -- definitions, frequencies, examples APIs. See the announcement from the Web 2.0 Summit.
4. The Peculiar Institution of Dual Licensing -- Brian Aker eloquently describes why he feels that dual licensing is anti-open source. Brian obviously has considerable experience informing this opinion--his years as Director of Technology for MySQL.

Four short links: 23 October 2009

Beautiful Information, Teen Game Designer, Creative Science Writing, Open Source Schools

1. Information is Beautiful -- gorgeous descriptions of the design of infographics. For once, a design discussion that might be useful to mere mortals like me.
2. Australian Teen Crafts "Sneaky" Games -- video interview with a 16 year-old winner of the IFTF, Sun, and BoingBoing Digital Open. Great to see game design, a topic we've followed on Radar, getting uptake by the people about to enter the workforce. "I love index cards," says Harry, "And I was thinking -- hmm, how can I incorporate them into a project?" So he designed and printed these game cards, and "spread the seeds of sneakiness and espionage" into the unsuspecting pockets, math books, binders and bags and jackets of his schoolmates. (via BoingBoing)
3. Science Writing Shortlist -- the Manhire Prize is New Zealand's most prestigious award for creative science writing. The shortlisted entries are available via this link, and make for enlightening reading. Interestingly, there are two prizes awarded: one for fiction and another for non-fiction; New Zealand has a tradition of encouraging interaction between the arts and sciences.
4. Fedena -- an open source school management system, built in India, using Ruby on Rails. (via Brenda Wallace)

Four short links: 7 October 2009

Ongoing Palm Fail, YouTube Numbers, Plugin Patent Pain, Bivalve-Oriented Architecture

1. Followup to jwz's Palm App Store Fiasco -- redux: still nothing concrete from Palm, but they're saying they'll create a second-rate app store into which open source apps will go (along with apps that Palm hasn't reviewed).
2. Schmidt on YouTube -- the interesting bit for me was Every minute, more than 10 hours of video is uploaded to the site.
3. Company that won $585M from Microsoft sues Apple, Google - The infamous '906 patent granted to Eolas and the University of California was one of the first patents to get the young online tech scene going in 1998. The patent addresses third-party browser plug-ins to run various forms of media as an "embedded program object"—essentially a program that runs within another program. Eolas promptly sued Microsoft for its implementation of ActiveX in Internet Explorer, which set in motion a years-long legal battle between the two companies. and won $585M, now they're suing many large Internet companies. (via Hacker News)
4. IBM Uses Mussels as Sensor Network -- Concerned with the environmental and revenue impacts of leaks during oil drilling, StatOil sought an innovative and automated way to detect leaks. They wanted to replace a manual process that included deep sea drivers. StatOil’s innovation, they attached RFID tags to the shells of blue mussels. When the blue mussels sense an oil leak, they close which prompts the RFID tags to emit closure events. In response to the events, the drilling line is automatically stopped. And, in case you are wondering, this is of no harm to the blue mussels. (via monkchips on Twitter)

Questions (and Answers!) About the Federal Register

When the White House retweets Cory Doctorow, you know something unusual has happened. As many of you saw, the Office of the Federal Register announced that source code for the Federal Register is now available in bulk—for free—and has been converted to XML. Ed Felten's shop at Princeton created a site called fedthread.org to see what you can do with the data and Public.Resource.Org helped the Government Printing Office in testing early stages of the XML work.

All-in-all, a nice piece of public-private cooperation and an important step towards open source America's operating system, and I figured that was the end of that. So, imagine my surprise when I got a call from the White House saying they were making Raymond Mosley, Director of the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and Michael L. Wash, the Chief Information Officer of the Government Printing Office (GPO) available just in case there were any technical questions from the net.

I gathered questions from a variety of sources, including on-line discussion groups and twitter, and have been doing email back and forth with both Ray and Mike. Hope this is useful (it certainly has been fun to do)!

(continue reading)

Four short links: 5 October 2009

Bozo Cloud Talk, Annotation Fail(ish), Python MySQL Slash, and Infinite Books

1. Brown Cloud Marketing -- advertorial "interviewing" GM of a company offering "DNS in the cloud". This might be a worthwhile service, but the way he markets it (by saying open source is "freeware" and the market leader is "legacy") reveals a rich vein of bozo. Freeware legacy DNS is the internet's dirty little secret (actually, it's the reason we have a functioning DNS), Nominum software was written 100 percent from the ground up, and by having software with source code that is not open for everybody to look at, it is inherently more secure. (security through obscurity is equating clothing with being naked yet blind). The Internet kindly did the poor man's homework: screenshot of a cross-site scripting vulnerability in their customer portal, a Nominum security advisory from 2008, and the Nominum web server is running Linux, Apache, and PHP (all legacy freeware yet apparently not the Internet's dirty little secret). (via Bert Hubert and Securosis)
2. Public Annotations on Healthcare Bill -- using technology from SharedBook, Congressman Culberson hoped to get citizens marking up the healthcare bill. They're using the software but many are just commenting on page 1--turning the hosted annotation platform into a forum with an odd user interface. It's a UI challenge: designing a way to let focused people comment on specific things, while also permitting impatient unfocused people to comment on the general topic. It's like asking for a SmartCar that seats 80. See also OpenCongress and their annotation system which also has hundreds of comments on the first few lines of the bill (including 39 on the one line "111th Congress"--apparently more contentious than you'd think!).
3. MyConnPy -- pure-Python MySQL client library, useful because it requires no C compilation to install (and thus can work on systems without C compilers installed, e.g. mobile). (via Simon Willison)
4. The Infinite Book -- design concept for an ebook reader (not a product you can buy yet). Sexy. (via Gizmodo)

Four short links: 29 September 2009

Bletchley Park No Longer Blech, Contest Mania, Palm Process Fails For Free Software, Open Source Web Analytics

1. Bletchley Park May Have a Future -- the UK birthplace of modern computing, where Alan Turing worked during WW II breaking German codes, is dilapidated and in need of major repair. They appear to have a supporter in the UK National Lottery, who have given them a grant to begin work and prepare for further grants. It should be secured for the future as a place of significant historical merit in the development of computing. (See also The Geek Atlas)
2. Google Opens Voting on Ideas to Change the World -- there are a lot of contests at the moment: Project 10^100, Apps for Democracy, Apps for America, a plethora of X Prizes, the Netflix prize, and more. I wonder whether contests are like communities: you need a manager to cultivate and boost interest, or else your contest withers on the vine.
3. My ongoing Kafka-esque nightmare of dealing with Palm and their App Catalog submission process (jwz) -- This is my story about attempting to simply distribute this free software that I have written, and how Palm has so far completely prevented me from doing so. Epic Palm fail. (via Hacker News)
4. Piwik -- Piwik aims to be an open source alternative to Google Analytics. GPL-licensed.

Four short links: 24 September 2009

Historic Cartography, MySQL Futures, Timewarping GDB, Open Source Werewolves

1. Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography -- This resource provides a comprehensive view of the history of cartography, with examples of maps created throughout the ages and background information about the contexts within which those maps, visualizations and map making technologies were created. Explore each time period, click on the images and stories found throughout each time line, and read more about the history of creating thematic maps as a means of visualizing data. (via Titine on Delicious)
2. Interview with Larry Ellison (Infoworld) -- Asked about MySQL, "No, we're not going to spin it off," even if asked to by the EU, Ellison said. Lots of detail and interesting tidbits in this interview. (via timoreilly on Twitter)
3. GDB and Reverse Debugging -- GDB version 7.0 (due September 2009) will be the first public release of gdb to support reverse debugging (the ability to make the program being debugged step and continue in reverse). (via Hacker News)
4. A New Self-Definition for FOSS -- There was this clamour in the past to get companies to open source their products. This has stopped, because all the software that got open source sucked. It’s just not very interesting to have a closed source program get open sourced. It doesn’t help anyone, because the way closed source software is created in a very different way than open source software. The result is a software base that just does not engage people in a way to make it a valid piece of software for further development. I don't agree entirely with this quoted piece, but there's a lot to what he says. Open source is not a silver bullet--hell, most people don't even know what the werewolf is. Open sourcing doesn't magically make developers appear, open sourcing doesn't magically make a market appear. Your closed source problems still exist after you open source because it's. not. about. you. It's about the users and their comfort, abilities, and freedoms. (via Simon Willison)

Four short links: 18 September 2009

More Twitter Clients, GLAM Tech, Retro Homebrew Audio Hardware, Emerging Open Source

1. Echofon -- novel take on Twitter apps: sync your unread list between phone, browser, and (ultimately, they promise) desktop Twitter app. (via auchmill on Twitter)
2. GLAM Tech (MP3) -- Radio New Zealand new technology slot about the use of technology in the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM) sector. For links, see the programme page.
3. Man With Miniature Radio -- 1950s DIY proto-iPod amusement.
4. Open Source in Emerging Markets -- the emerging markets — which include India, China, and Brazil — have more FOSS adoption and a higher concentration of effort in open source. Three quarters (74%) of developers in emerging markets use open source software for at least part of their work, compared to 65% of developers worldwide. In this context, "use" means personal use or corporate use, and could include both developer tools and desktop or server applications. (via glynmoody on Twitter)

Computerization in Nilekani's Imagining India

Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation promises to occupy a central position in discussions about India as well as the world economy this year. The book was released last year in India, came out in the United States just this past March, and has racked up some prominent reviews recently. Particularly relevant to this blog are the book's observations on computers' role in the economy and society.

Author Nandan Nilekani can speak with quite a bit of authority on computers, having founded and led Infosys, an early success story in modern Indian commerce and a major player in the historic rise of outsourcing.

Imagining India is a huge book with many big agendas; it covers education, infrastructure, environmental challenges, government intervention, and the role of historical narrative, among other things. Biggest among its agenda--and the one that I wager will generate the most debate--is Nilekani's own version of a modern combination of neoliberalism and neoprogressivism that seems to be gaining ground. The general idea is that governments should take a leading role to promote social progress by creating an infrastructure that allows individuals to form their own destinies (good education, good health care, good physical infrastructure, a light-touch form of regulation that ensures quality, and occasional direct welfare payments) rather than preserving oases of protection and easily abused subsidies for particular interest groups, notably unions, small businesses, and disadvantaged castes.

But all that lies beyond the scope of the Radar blog and of my own powers of analysis. I'll just comment on the following points from the book, because they concern the role of computers and because they resonate with trends I see in the U.S. and elsewhere.

• Technophobia shouldn't be assumed
• Internet access goes along with transparency and egalitarianism
• Software leads innovation in other areas

A lot of technologists glibly anticipate that computers and Internet access will be rejected by some group of people who are implicitly labeled ignorant or clueless: racial minorities, poor people, the elderly ("how can you get my grandmother to use this?"), etc. In every case, the key to adoption turns out to be access and sometimes the availability of useful applications. When presented with the opportunity, these populations always prove eager to take advantage.

Nilekani cites one instance after another of rural village dwellers, farmers, taxpayers, and others who quickly grasp what computers and Internet access can do for them. Whether it's the chance to learn English, check crop prices, or pay a utility bill, Indians at all levels come to depend on the computer once it's introduced. (The hard thing, as you might guess, is persuading agencies and local officials to install systems that undercut their power as gatekeepers.) And we've all heard of the Hole in the Wall Project, where Indian kids in slums come to enjoy and figure out how to use computers with little or no adult help.

Nilekani may be citing anecdotes selectively, but his observations echo other reports I've heard about disadvantaged or lagging communities. The problem is not the people, but other factors such as availability, cost, and usefulness.

Internet access goes along with transparency and egalitarianism

One reason the Indian population loves computers, according to Nilekani, is that it attacks favoritism and outright corruption. This advantage matches up with the promise of open government in the United States and other developed countries.

In some cases, Indians are burdened by extremely crude forms of corruption that crumble the instant computers are installed. One example in the book is the registration of changes in land records, which farmers are required to report to the government every year. Agency staff could easily steal land by deliberately filing wrong reports, or extract bribes by delaying the filing until the desperate farmer caves in. But a computerized system takes the staff person out of the process.

Bringing sunlight into government activities in most developed countries has somewhat subtler effects and becomes a more long-term project, but the essence is the same and depends on computerization to work. In the US, we have a lot more control over the stimulus package, thanks to Recovery.gov, than we have over expenditures in Iraq or the bail-out to the finance industry. Indians are similarly learning how to watch over their governments and raise their voices digitally, according to Nilekani.

The sunny role that people around the world are granting to the technologies of going online is not intrinsic to these technologies, because they also lie at the center of modern surveillance, warfare, and regimentation. The benign role is hard won, and represents a collective choice by the public that has adopted the technologies. As Nilekani puts it:

The idea of technology as something ominous and scary that is used by "Big Brother" to control our lives and eliminate jobs has given way to the idea that it empowers, liberates and gives us access to all the services that are due to us, as citizens and consumers.

The reason that the computer industry was the first to take off in 1990s India is that it required practically no infrastructure. Of course, it required a computer, which might require six to twelve months for an import license in those days. It also required electricity, which could be obtained in major cities and supplemented by private generators. (In areas of unauthorized urban growth, the slumlords strung the wires.) So in a regulatory environment that scrutinized and imposed conditions on every allocation of equipment, it was much easier for entrepreneurs to set up a computer firm than any business that had more physical manifestations.

As is well known, the relative independence of computing from physical infrastructure also made Indian companies lucrative in a world increasingly linked by the Internet. Nilekani says that this physical flexibility was also valuable internally, helping IT-savvy businesses cut across the logistical and political barriers that have always geographically segmented the Indian market.

Nilekani seems to believe that there's nothing about the computer industry that's uniquely suited to Indian talents and business acumen. Now that the computer industry set an example, the same advantages have been applied to many other industries. In the 1980s, economists doubted that India could succeed in any industry, and a few years ago they wondered whether India could succeed in any industry except computer services. The evidence is now strong that the country will become a leader in many areas.

Indian industry is just one example where computerization has shown light on a path that social change can take. A worldwide example is provided by the open source movement, which Nilekani mentions only in the most fleeting manner in his conclusion--unfortunately enough, because free software can be a compelling wild card in story of international development, especially as part of a trend I dubbed tech-splicing in another article.

The first open license was a software license (the GNU General Public License). When it was released, the phenomena of allowing unlimited changes and sharing these changes looked like a peculiar aspect of software. But many years later, these ideas seeped out into fields of innovation with a more physical basis, and research by Eric von Hippel showed they always had legs.

Software was also the inspiration for gene splicing and other aspects of synthetic biology, even to the extent that biologists share their innovations in repositories that look like software libraries (check out the BioBricks Foundation).

Finally, the popularity of scripting and other software hacking initiated--or revived, or perhaps just legitimized--a tradition of solving a problem through invention instead of settling for a standardized, commercial solution. The DIY movement found in many areas of the world--including the Indian practice of assembling local motor vehicles called jugaad--makes it more and more likely that products of many types will come out of small, even amateur workshops.

Products of creativity and pure thought embody a freedom that allows them to metamorphose and spread quickly. The added formality and clarity that software brings to these activities doubles the power of that freedom. So my guess is that software will often lead the way in social innovations by a decade or more.

Four short links: 11 August 2009

1. The Slowing Growth of Wikipedia and More Details of Changing Editor Resistance -- researchers at PARC analysed Wikipedia and found the number of new articles and number of new editors have flattened off, and more edits from first-time contributors are being reverted. This is a writeup in their blog, with the numbers and charts. It's interesting that coverage in New Scientist talked about "quality", but none of the metrics PARC studied are actually quality. Wikipedia launched a strategic review which aims to tackle this and many other issues. (via ACM TechNews)
2. The Information Architecture of Social Experience Design: Five Principles, Five Anti-Patterns and 96 Patterns (in Three Buckets) -- teaser for upcoming O'Reilly book with some really good stuff. Balzac once wrote, “The secret of great wealth with no obvious source is some forgotten crime, forgotten because it was done neatly,” and many successful social sites today founded themselves on an original sin, perhaps a spammy viral invitation model or unapproved abuse of new users' address books. Some companies never lived down the taint and other seems to have passed some unspoken statute of limitations. (via BoingBoing)
3. Skulpt -- entirely in-browser implementation of Python. (via Andy Baio)
4. Why Can't Local Government and Open Source Be Friends? -- the Birmingham example is one of many. Government procurement and tendering processes are often fishing expeditions, which biases responses in favour of commercial software companies making mad margins such that they can respond to RFPs that are really RFIs, etc. It's an issue everywhere in the world because it happens at local, not just central, level.

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