A while back I listed 10 of the most promising real world Open Source projects on this blog, and today I want to add one more contender to that list: Apertus, an Open Source cinema camera project.
Led by Oscar Spierenburg and a team of international developers, the project aims to produce “an affordable community driven free software and open hardware cinematic HD camera for a professional production environment”. Let’s take a quick tour of the hardware and software components that constitute Apertus, before moving on to address some concerns about the overall viability of the project. Click here to continue reading
I want to share the following idea for a new WordPress plugin or Open Source widget in the hope that someone might either: implement it; bring an existing implementation of the idea to light; critique it as not worthy of implementation; and/or build on it, make it better. Here goes nothing… Click here to continue reading
Two websites were brought to my attention recently, the first is Open Source Ideas and the second (very similar in name) Open Ideas. It prompted me to google the terms “Open Source Ideas” and I discovered a long list of sites that attempt to apply the principles of open source software to thought processes or the generation of ideas. In browsing through some of these projects I began to question the validity of the claim “to open source ideas”: What constitutes an idea? Is an idea inherently closed at source? When do ideas cease to be free? When we say “I have an idea”, what do we really mean? Here below are a few musings on the theme.
Idea – from the Greek idein (to know, to see) – is to bring to the fore of the conscious mind a synthesis of past knowledge with a desire to shape or give shape to an aspect of the world as yet unexplored by the ideator.
The use of the verb have in the utterance “I have an idea”, is at the same time possessive and ‘unpossessable’; bound on the one hand to the confines of individual thought and thought-mechanics, but free on the other in its transfer to an audience at the point of public scrutiny – an act of (in/dis)semination, a disclosure of the amalgam of past knowledge from which it draws and an exposure of the new configuration, a transformative act which cements the idea as proposition(s). Click here to continue reading
I review hundreds of new and existing open source software (OSS) for inclusion in the OSLiving archive, and so inevitably I get to experience a wide range of websites. More often than not, the website experience leaves alot to be desired. Aside from the very large-scale projects for which money (and therefore custom design and usability testing) is no object, the majority of Open Source project websites are either community-built or left to the program developers themselves. While instances of good practice can be found in both large and small-scale projects, problems tend to arise more frequently in the latter group. All too often the website is the last “chore” in a taxing software development process. This is problematic since the success of your software depends very much on how you present and contextualise it.
In this article, I highlight some of the recurrent issues and offer some common sense suggestions for an improved OSS experience. My purpose is to help remove as many barriers as possible between your open source application and your potential audience. This is particularly important in thinking about attracting first-time and novice OSS users. The good news is that it really doesn’t take much to improve accessibility other than simple planning, realistic goals and some solid resources. The following notes are part of a forthcoming project for the main OSLiving site, a guide to getting started with open source. Accessibility, usability and ‘findability’ (see above diagram) are the 3 core criteria that Paul Veugen uses in his micro usability tests. I’m going to borrow these terms (somewhat out of context) to inform our discussion here. Click here to continue reading
There has been a proliferation in Open Source Software (OSS) adoption over the past decade, with particular momentum in the last 3 years. Much of the challenge in convincing companies and individuals to adopt OSS lies in demystifying deep-seated stereotypes that have typically framed OSS as an affront to closed source alternatives. It goes something like this…
How could a project run by a geek in his (gender-stereotyping is rife in the OSS world) spare time, updated on an ad-hoc basis, free for all to use and manipulate (even repackage and resell!), housed on a pre-Web 2.0 site, how could this possibly be anything other than a hobby at best?
Ok, I exaggerate, but regardless, these fears and concerns do exist and do contribute to an OSS sub culture; an online currency of jokes and jibes coupled with more serious aspirations to the ideals of OSS. Part of this culture has filtered through to an increasingly wide range of tech-oriented comic strips. It has even been known to capture the imagination of old favourites as you’ll see below.
What the following list represents is a range of humorous, satirical and sometimes foreboding takes on a burgeoning industry. The list is far from comprehensive, so please do share your favourite comics in the comment section below and we’ll be happy to update this post accordingly. Enjoy!
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