And so say all of us

Posted on by March 20, 2013

This is my favourite sentence from this article about Red Hat:

[Jim Whitehurst’s] goal is the death (more or less) of proprietary software

Who could disagree with that? Business Insider’s article covers Red Hat’s tremendous success, not least in terms of its turnover. There’s been a hairy myth that open source is all about free software and penury, hair shirt-ware if you like, but this isn’t true and does nothing for its image. Jim Whitehurst has no qualms about increasing turnover from $1bn a year to $5bn, and has this to say:

The next step is to make open source the default choice in this next generation of computing…He says his dream of a fully open-source enterprise world is not as crazy as it sounds. It’s already happening for Web startups. Plus, “the Amazons and Googles and Facebooks and Twitters are all running open source” he adds.

Richard O’Dwyer

Posted on by March 4, 2014

Two years ago, Richard O’Dwyer was studying for a multimedia degree at Sheffield Hallam University. In his spare time he ran a website that acted as a search engine for users to find links to watch TV and films online.

He respected the rules — deleting content when he received requests to remove it. But despite this, he’s now been accused of copyright violation and could face 10 years in a US prison, after the British Home Secretary, Theresa May, signed an extradition order in March.

Richard is not a US citizen, he’s lived in the UK all his life, his site was not hosted there, and most of his users were not from the US. America is trying to prosecute a UK citizen for an alleged crime which took place on UK soil.

Given the thin case against him, it is an outrage that he is being extradited to the US to face charges. That’s why I’ve just launched a petition on Change.org to stop his extradition — and why I hope you will sign it today. Click here to sign the petition.

When I met Richard, he struck me as a clean-cut, geeky kid. Still a student, he reminds me of many great entrepreneurs and the kind of person I can imagine launching the next Wikipedia or YouTube.

Copyright matters but from the beginning of the internet, we have seen a struggle between the interests of the “content industry” and the general public.

Richard is the human face of that battle, and if he’s extradited and convicted, he will bear the very real human cost.

The internet as a whole must not tolerate censorship as a response to mere allegations of copyright infringement. As citizens we must stand up for our rights online.

Together, the public won the battle against SOPA and PIPA. We proved that when we work together we can protect freedom on the internet. Together, I know we can win this battle too.

Join me and sign my petition to stop the extradition of UK citizen Richard O’Dwyer.

Thanks,

– Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Founder

Be afraid, be very afraid

Posted on by March 4, 2014

We were pleased, wearied but not surprised by this article by Sade Laja in today’s Guardian professional. The article, titled Open source still feared within Whitehall, says IT architect, concerns a talk given by Home Office lead architect Tariq Rashid to the Open Gov Summit.

It’s pleasing to see the issues discussed openly, but wearying to see that open source still isn’t considered as an option within government. The sluggishness of Whitehall when it comes to taking an open-minded attitude to pretty much anything doesn’t come as a surprise, but it can’t help but be a disappointment that open source is still considered to be unreliable, insecure and a bit, well, new. Heaven forfend Whitehall should tussle with something that offers flexibility and – whisper it – innovation. Clearly far better to be locked into contracts limiting and dictating what departments can achieve but with a familiar name on them.

It’s reassuring that clear-thinkers are out there though. This comment was particularly cheering:

“Our objective is not to have a target for the use of open source in government, our objective is not to have a year on year increase, our objective is to best exploit the opportunities that are out there,” he said.

And from someone within Whitehall! This was also good to read:

Rashid went on to say that although the government wasn’t “super mature” about working with open source, there were pockets of excellence in government.

As part of this process of development, he said, over the last year Whitehall has started to point the finger less at the market and more at itself.

It’s a short little article. Read it and smile a wry smile.