The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence is making something increasingly visible that we often tend to overlook: the digital ecosystem has a very tangible physical foundation. AI models, cloud services and public digital applications run inside buildings filled with processors, storage systems, power supplies, networks, cooling loops and backup power systems. Data centers consume electricity […]
Why their value for the IT market lies in reuse, open standards and avoiding vendor lock-in In the IT sector, we know well that a successful prototype is not necessarily a sustainable information system. It may work perfectly in a controlled environment, yet fail when it has to integrate with existing infrastructure, be maintained for […]
The shift from assistant to operator For a long time, public discussion treated artificial intelligence as an assistant. You ask, it answers. You upload a document, it summarizes it. You request a draft, it proposes one. That framing is already outdated. The real security issue begins when AI stops waiting for instructions and starts operating […]
Apertus AI is one of the most transparent and technically mature efforts to build a fully open-source large language model. Developed in Switzerland and released together with its source code, training documentation and model weights, it offers an unprecedented level of reproducibility and independence from closed ecosystems. This makes it ideal for researchers, public-sector institutions […]
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, […]
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 […]
Image: Jack Wallen Let me just put this out there for your consideration. All platforms are insecure. They can all be exploited in one way or another. At some point in time, it will be announced that no operating system is invulnerable and every single one of them has their kryptonite. Every. Single. One. Windows. […]
Here I am, almost 20 years into my own crazy open source story, and it shows no sign of abating. And my problem is that I like to know how things work and to fix things. I started fixing TVs, ours and the neighbors’, when I was nine or 10. In those days every TV […]
Adopted by the San Francisco Elections Commission (6-0) on November 18, 2015. [Supporting Open Source Voting Systems — Encouraging the Mayor and Board of Supervisors to Initiate a Project to Develop and Certify an Open Source Voting System] Resolution to support the development and certification of an open source voting system running on commercial off-the-shelf […]