In an interview with the WSJ’s CIO blog, Lawrence Lessig proposes that the existence of cryptographic tools that allow for “zero-knowledge” data-querying, combined with the potential liability from leaks, will drive companies to retain less data on their customers. It’s a very lessigian analysis, grounded in the idea that social outcomes are driven by norms, […]
With a heavy heart Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock, stalwart proponent of Free Open Source Software, Father, Son, and the ‘ian’ in Debian. Ian started the Debian project in August of 1993, releasing the first versions of Debian later that same year. Debian would go on to become the world’s Universal Operating System, […]
The Europeana Space project is exploring different ways of reusing digital cultural heritage by running pilots in six thematic areas (TV, Photography, Dance, Games, Open and Hybrid Publishing and Museums). From 22-24 January 2016, the Open and Hybrid Publishing Pilot is organising the Hack the Book Festival in Athens, Greece, inviting designers, artists, publishers, programmers, authors, poets, […]
Plans to transition schools to Ubuntu and Debian Linux Grenoble, France’s 16th largest city, is committed to the use of free software. This type of ICT solutions facilitaties the sharing of knowledge, empowers citizens and institutions and helps to cut costs, the city said in a statement. The city also sees free software as one […]
At 11AM (all times given in this article are UTC+1) later today, the 32nd Chaos Communication Congress (32C3) will kick off its four day stint of hacker-related talks. Past Chaos Communication Congress (CCC) events have been the host to quite a few famous people and groups in the technology world including the ‘fail0verflow’ team, a […]
Blockchain is an open source project supported by the Linux Foundation and twenty industry partners to develop an open source distributed ledger platform. The Linux Foundation has partnered with twenty companies on a major collaborative project called Blockchain, which aims to build an open source distributed ledger system and enable Bitcoin-like transactions for the business […]
Government emphasises open standards and urges use of liberating alternatives Sweden’s public administrations should use open IT standards and software “that frees the state administration from dependence on single technical solutions”, the government writes in its note on ICT, part of its 2016 budget plan. “For eGovernment solutions, IT standards will play an increasing role […]
Apache Spark When it comes to open source big data processing, Hadoop is no longer the only name in the game. Apache Spark is a general purpose distributed data processing tool that allows users to process gigantic datasets across many nodes, coordinating the processing so that users can concentrate on writing their queries in their language […]
There are two processes in the public sphere that we all depend on but that few of us really understand. And what’s worse is that both are in trouble. The first is the process of funding public projects. Public financing often involves a mix of taxation and the issuance of bonds or federal grantmaking to […]
Image: Jack Wallen For the longest time I’d been heralding Ubuntu and it’s Unity desktop as one of the best Linux distributions. I liked Unity…a lot. The design was beautiful, and workflow about as efficient as you would ever find. The Dash, the Launcher, the HUD…they all came together in a perfect storm of form […]