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Right Royal Society Scandal
,----[ Quote ]
| People are getting excited about the news
| that William Stukeley's Life of Newton is
| now available online, apple-falling tales
| inclusive. Just one problem: the super-
| duper groovy page-turning version only
| works with Microsoft technology - the same
| one that infects the British Library's
| holdings too.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2010/01/right-royal-society-scandal.html
Warhol Foundation Accused of Creating Artificial Scarcity Of Artwork To Boost Value
http://www.againstmonopoly.org/index.php?perm=593056000000002330
Hypocrites:
Microhoozon calls for un-Google ebook guardian
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo!, and other
| opponents of Google's Book Search
| settlement have proposed an alternative to
| the controversial legal pact, calling on
| the US Congress to appoint a "public
| guardian" to oversee a national database of
| digital books.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/19/oba_proposes_public_alternative_to_google_book_search_pact/
Yahoo! us just a Microsoft drone:
Microsoft Yahoo Deal Approval Gets Deadline in Europe
,----[ Quote ]
| Remember that proposed Microsoft Yahoo
| search and advertising deal? It's still
| awaiting regulatory approval, but it might
| be a step closer to its destiny soon, no
| matter which way it goes.
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/01/19/micrsoft-yahoo-deal-approval-gets-deadline-in-europe
Recent:
Home copying of e-books and digital rights management
,----[ Quote ]
| A frequently asked question that seems
| appropriate this time of year (given the number
| of e-books that are likely to appear in
| people's Christmas stockings) concerns what one
| is legally allowed to do with documents on
| one's own e-book, particularly one that is
| protected by some form of digital rights
| management.
`----
http://www.francisdavey.co.uk/2009/12/home-copying-of-e-books-and-digital.html
The Lost Decades of the UK Web
,----[ Quote ]
| So, 20 years after Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented
| the technology, and well over a decade after
| the Web became a mass medium, and the British
| Library still isn't archiving every Web site?
|
| History - assuming we have one - will judge us
| harshly for this extraordinary UK failure to
| preserve the key decades of the quintessential
| technology of our age. It's like burning down a
| local digital version of the Library of
| Alexandria, all over again.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/lost-decades-of-uk-web.html
British Library's Bitter Digital Milestone
,----[ Quote ]
| That is: digitising content that is out of
| copyright, in the public domain, and then
| making us pay through the nose - us as in
| muggins public, which has kept the British
| Library going for two centuries thanks to
| our taxes, in case you'd forgotten - for
| the privilege of viewing it online.
|
| Thanks a bunch, BL, for locking up "an
| increasing proportion of the nation's
| intellectual output" behind a paywall,
| where few will ever see it: that's what
| spreading knowledge is all about, isn't it?
| Great work from a quondam great
| institution, more millstone than
| milestone...
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/11/british-librarys-bitter-digital.html
British Library Turns Traitor
,----[ Quote ]
| This once-great institution used to be about opening up the world's knowledge
| for the benefit and enjoyment of all: today, it's about closing it down so
| that only those who can afford to pay get to see it.
|
| What an utter disgrace.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/07/british-library-turns-traitor.html
British Library fears loss of history
,----[ Quote ]
| Lynne Brindley, director of the British Library, said that data and
| information on our time that has been entrusted to the web is being lost as
| some sites close or the technology they have stored the information on
| becomes obsolete.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/623/1050623/british-library-fears-loss-history
Government Plugs Microsoft With Online Training Course
,----[ Quote ]
| The government is promoting Microsoft's
| proprietary software as part of a plan to get
| more UK adults online, despite arguing for
| greater adoption of open source in the past
|
| [...]
|
| Some open source supporters may object to
| elements of the new scheme however as, although
| the Online Basics course is supposed to be an
| independent education project, the site contains
| a link to Microsoft's own learning network â
| Microsoft Digital Literacy â which includes
| guidance on how to use Microsoft products. In
| February 2009, the UK government said it
| intended to use open source to save Â600 million
| a year and published guidelines the that effect
| but, despite this, the UK lags badly at open
| source, using it less than countries like Mali,
| open source activists said at a meeting in
| September.
`----
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/government-plugs-microsoft-with-online-training-course-2995
Why can't local government and open source be friends?
,----[ Quote ]
| Nobody seems to have stood up in a meeting and said: "You know, there's lots
| of very good open source content management systems (CMS) out there - there's
| one called Wordpress which is free and eminently customisable." This is
| peculiar, as Wordpress was available (and as solid as any CMS) in 2005, runs
| on MySQL and PHP (which are both free products used by some of the largest
| companies in the world, such as airlines and Yahoo). And there are pots of
| programmers around with MySQL and PHP skills.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/07/local-government-open-source-birmingham-website-costs
Open Source for Britain?
,----[ Quote ]
| There's no doubt that the state of open source in government is even more
| parlous here than in the US, and so the need for such an organisation is even
| more pressing. But I wonder whether there's quite the critical mass here: are
| there enough companies basing their business around open source to fund such
| an organisation? And, even more critically, could they come up with a better
| name than Open Source for Britain?
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2376&blogid=14
UK Still Lags At Open Source
,----[ Quote ]
| The UK is still a laggard at open source, even though the recession has
| increased pressure for its adoption, according to speakers at a London
| conference.
|
| "I could go to Mali, and Mali would probably have a better adoption of open
| source than the UK," said Matt Asay, marketing vice president at Alfresco and
| open source blogger at CNet. "The UK tends to be a laggard compared to just
| about every other country on the planet."
|
| The UK government's decision to promote open source in public sector IT won
| kudos, but was behind countries like the Netherlands, which has had a strong
| public sector IT policy for two years now, according to Jan Wildeboer, open
| source evangelist at Red Hat.
`----
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/uk-still-lags-at-open-source-1147
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