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Hey all, I’m looking for speaking opportunities in the Northeast of the US, specifically near Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Pittsburgh. Will talk about Open Source, Open Data, and OpenStreetMap. Thursday or Friday nights preferred. Tuesday nights not preferred. Also running mapping parties in Boston 2/14-15 and New York City 2/21-22. Follow the…

The Board of Directors of the OSI typically conducts two face to face meetings each year. Our first meeting in 2009 will take place this week, just before FOSDEM, one of the largest open source conference for developers. We want to use this opportunity to be more visible in Europe, and to meet open source…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) advocacy in Africa receives a big boost from the Open Society Institute for West Africa (OSIWA) ACCRA, GHANA – February 1, 2009

I am traveling again, and I am reading again. Today I am in Dubai, and on the way I read two great books: The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson and Remix by Larry Lessig. Just don’t ask me to choose which one I liked best! For the reader, I would recommend The Invention of…

Unfortunately, some people don’t realize that “Open Source” has a definition. They think it’s a loosey-goosey term meaning “stuff that people like”, more or less. So they apply it to anything which can be opened, like a door, or a box, or in this case, a car (english). Sorry, no. Unless they’re actually publishing the…

Last week I was quoted by the BBC saying that taken as a whole, the world wastes $1 trillion (with a ‘T’) dollars on information and communications technology. And judging by the various blog postings that have been generated in reaction to that, I estimate that fewer than 20% have any quibbles at all with…

I’ve recently taken on a new job, after 17 years of consultancy. I grew restive at my own weak points, and wanted to outsource sales and management, neither of which I am very good at. I’m now working for Cloudmade, which is a for-profit company seeking to advance the use of OpenStreetMap data. Open Data…

We are always trying to shine some light to our kids, and teach them about right and wrong. A few things are pretty hard to explain. Copyright for one is a pretty complicated thing. My daughter has frequently asked me about movies and music. Her friends tell her that they can download any music or…

Tom Callaway is the Fedora Engineering Manager, at Red Hat, and he’s one of the key people keeping watch over the many and sundry licensing issues that crop up when thousands of software packages come together to make a Linux distribution. Love them or hate them, Tom was and is one of the key architects…

As a rule, I really enjoy reading the Economist. I find its articles to be well researched and its editorial positions to be well-reasoned. I also have a soft spot for it, as the Economist was the first “mainstream” business magazine to treat the topic of open source software with any degree of seriousness. (WIRED…