rants

A new fellow asked on the forum why we picked eZ Publish. I have answered there, but I think it’s better to repeat it also here for all the Planet readers.

FSFE chose eZ Publish because we needed a system that was not only flexible and easy to deploy but that was fully supported.  We ran tests with other CMS, but none convinced us fully until we were offered by eZ Systems not only the software eZ Publish but also one of their programmer to assist us in all customizations.  eZ Systems also added on top of that a support contract.  So, the software fit our needs, eZ Publish is Free Software released under the GNU GPL and we had a developer available for customization plus a support contract.  It was the best offer we received .

As a good side effect, since FSFE and eZ Systems started this collaboration, eZ released almost all of their software under the GNU GPL, and we are very happy about this.  Some of their software is still under non-free licenses and we are not so happy.  But the cooperation proved to be good for Free Software and we will keep helping them do the right thing and become a fully free business.

Let me add that paying for free software is not a sin, but until today FSFE didn’t pay a dime.  We will probably decide to invest into the development of the portal during 2007 to add the collaboration features we need for the Advocacy groups that are starting to form. But we haven’t taken any decision yet.

I have good news today: there are two Fellows that are activating Advocacy in Italy and Austria.  Madero has been working to adapt the Advocacy Project document in Italian and to the school he knows best.  Cristian is doing pretty much the same thing in Austria, although he didn’t use the name ‘advocacy’ (Disclaimer: I don’t read German very well).

I am going to help Madero setup the Italian advocacy group because he lives in the same city where I live. I would also like to help Cristian, but my German is not up to the task.  We can all discuss on the mailing list discussions at lists.fsfe.org or on the forum, whatever you prefer.

During the holidays people usually play cards and eat a lot.  I did that too, but I also wanted to play with GIMP and Blender.  I guess you saw the results of me playing with GIMP already.

I have just published the results of my experiments with Blender bones and animation.  Here you can find a fully digital 3D puppet of good old Plussy.  If you want to see its walk try downloading this ogg file.

Feel free to experiment further and add more features to the scene, like background or other objects. Blender is fun 🙂

Few days ago I posted about Second Life client being released as Free Software.  I have a dual opinion on SL.  On one hand I am amazed by a completely digital world, it’s fascinating for me to think that I’m living something that historians of the future will mark as a ‘first’.

On the other hand I’m not so amazed to actually jump in SL to ‘play’.  The more I read about it the less it is appealing to me…  But then again, probably I’m missing something.

Look at Bob Sutor’s series on SL: why is a important IBM guy spending time and money to buy land on SL to host virtual meetings of his staff? What am I missing?  Should I just try?  Is any Fellow already a SL citizen? Let me know, I’m very curious.

Some Fellows in Italy have been silently working to move the Advocacy project on next steps.  Madero, for example, has prepared and run a poll between his colleagues high-school students asking what kind of topics they would be interested in.

The results are not surprising me but they are worth spending some thoughts on (even without considering statistics, for a moment).  Students seem to be interested in peer-to-peer technology and ‘hacker’ stories, more than definitions of licenses or copyright.  It’s something all Free Software advocates should keep in mind: students go to school to learn, while extra-curricular activities should be classifiable as fun, not study.  Another important consideration: students want to know about practical things that affect their life, like p2p.  Only few are fascinated with programming or knowing computers. A good Free Sw advocate should be able to translate Free Sw concepts immediately into real life practical considerations, without using technical terms. 

Do you have a reference to a speech that can be taken as reference to talk to students?  An audio or video recording or a transcript would be very nice to start a debate.

Sam Hiser has started giving a look at Microsoft’s Office Open XML License.  His first reading classify this license as

a promise that, in practice, is not a promise.

PlexNex: Analyzing the Microsoft Office Open XML License

What do you think of it?   

Oh, no! Tell me this is not for real… what day is it today? April 1st? No, January 8th… Goodbye productivity, farewell real life: Second Life client is Free Software and I foresee a 2007 rich of sleepless nights 🙂

Embracing the Inevitable «

I am proud to announce the availability of the Second Life client source code for you to download, inspect, compile, modify, and use within the guidelines of the GNU GPL version 2.

Happy 2007, Fellows: this is my first post in this new year, so I use it to wish you all a wonderful time.

One Fellow asked me recently: how do you claim your fsfe.org blog on Technorati?  It’s fairly simple, once you know which buttons to click.  You need to create a weblog in your home folder on fsfe.org, first.  Then  go to your profile on Technorati and click on  Claim your blog. Enter the url of your blog (in my case it is http://fsfe.org/fellows/maffulli/rants) and use the Embedded claim.  Copy the html code provided by Technorati (it’s a script code) and go back to your weblog folder on fsfe.org.  Click on Edit to modify your weblog and paste the html code in the ‘Technorati Blog Claim‘ field.  Click on Send for publishing and get back to Technorati to complete the process.  You’re done.  Happy blogging.