Chuck Severance recently published a post entitled How to Achieve Vendor Lock-in with a Legit Open Source License – Affero GPL where he criticises the use of AGPL licenses, particularly its use – or at least, intended use – by Kuali. Chuck’s post is well worth reading – especially if you have an interest in the … Read more
For quite some time now at OSS Watch we’ve struggled with the model of “Community Source” promoted by some projects within the Higher Education sector. Originating with Sakai, and then continuing with Kuali, the term always seemed confusing, given that it simply meant a consortium-governed project that released code under an open-source license. As a … Read more
If you’re looking for an open source library for adding some whizz-bang stuff to your website, or an open source text editor or graphics programme, then you’ve got plenty of options to choose from. But when it comes to solutions for core business functions, then your choices are usually a bit more restricted. So when … Read more
Perhaps wary that the date might detract from the news, ISO – the International Organization for Standards – waited until today before announcing that Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) document description schema has finally been accepted as an ISO standard as of April 1, 2008. There has been a long and bitter battle over whether … Read more
At the recent IWMW, I went to a session on XCRI. Unfortunately I was too busy listening to take detailed notes and the presentation slides don’t appear to be in the web. XCRI is a new standard for exchanging post-compulsory course information. Universities, further education, adult learning centres, vocational agencies and continuing professional development providers … Read more
OpenID is an open, decentralised, free framework for user-centric digital identity. The goal is to release every part of this work under the most liberal licences possible, so there’s no money or licensing or registering required to play. It benefits the community as a whole if something like this exists, and we’re all a part … Read more