http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org open source software innovation support centre Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:54:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In my last post I mentioned how satisfying it is to watch the results of making introductions between people or groups. Recently I was involved in a link up between students and GNOME accessibility and though I'd explain how events panned out, as well my hopes. Project:Possibility organise team coding competitions ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/03/14/gnome-and-projectpossibility-collaboration-in-opensource-accessibility/ Whilst this blog allows OSS Watch members and guest posters to express personal opinion we don't usually use this blog for personal items. However, I'm making an exception today to remind myself, and hopefully some others, that whilst life can sometimes be horrible it is more often than not wonderful .  On Sunday at ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/03/10/life-is-wonderful/ This post is by Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz, Director for European institution studies at Unisys Belgium (Brussels). His team is in charge of the www.OSOR.eu (Open Source Observatory and Repository), the Free/Libre/Open Source information platform and forge launched by the European Commission for public sector projects. Combining freedoms and copyleft in the ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/03/05/guest-post-2010-threats-to-copyleft/ One of the most satisfying aspects of working for OSS Watch has been observing the outcomes from introducing people and then encouraging them to collaborate on new ideas. Outcomes such as personal development and new or improved projects. The recent Dev8D event was a real highpoint in several strands of ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/03/03/dev8d-where-collaboration-happens-and-skills-are-learnt/ There are many interesting open source projects that can be beneficial to academic research. As OSS Watch's recent article on e-Research by Gabriel Hanganu shows there are social and organisational problems in adopting open source for e-Research, but there are many open source software projects there to be joined. Some ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/03/03/opportunities-for-scientific-research-in-open-source-projects/ It is often said that open source software will reduce costs. Those with little or no experience of implementing computer systems assume these savings come from the fact the free and open source software does not carry a license fee. However, this is not usually the case. Anyone who has rolled out ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/03/01/can-open-source-reduce-costs/ In the closing chapter of this complex story, the intricacies of which have previously been explained in this blog, the parties in Jacobsen v. Katzer have filed a settlement agreement with the California district court. The ruling, which favours Jacobsen, is also seen as a significant victory for the FOSS ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/02/24/jacobsen-v-katzer-case-settled/ After an extensive gestation period, OSS Watch are pleased to have jointly published 3 documents on the important subject of Governance Models for open source projects. That is excellent value for your money. The documents on our web site undergo a rigorous quality assurance process that ensure they are technically correct ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/02/18/governance-models-everything-you-wanted-to-know-but-where-afraid-to-ask/ Last week OSS Watch organised its first training day in Oxford. We got together with about 15 people to gain hands-on experience with Apache Wookie (Incubating). Wookie provides an implementation of the W3C widget specifications, so a lot of emphasise was put on building these kinds of widgets. We succeeded ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/02/15/building-w3c-widgets-on-the-wookie-training-day/ The layoff of Willie Walker by Oracle is causing consternation in the the open source accessibility world, and for good reasons. As lead of GNOME accessibility and head developer of the Orca screen reader for the blind, Willie is a key member of GNOME accessibility. GNOME itself is a key ... http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2010/02/11/gnome-accessibility-the-future/