[okfn-discuss] okfn-discuss Digest, Vol 25, Issue 11

Tue Oct 16 12:38:32 UTC 2007

Regarding Open Formats, the following might be of interest to the
discussion (if not already mentioned):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_file_format - the libre knowledge
definition mentions this - http://communities.libre.org/

and perhaps as an aside:
http://www.designwritingresearch.org/free_fonts.html

K

http://wikieducator.org/Say_Libre

----

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. [Fwd: Open Knowledge Foundation - Provisional Room	Booking at
>       LSE] (Rufus Pollock)
>    2. Re: on Open Formats (Rufus Pollock)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:52:17 +0100
> From: Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
> Subject: [okfn-discuss] [Fwd: Open Knowledge Foundation - Provisional
> 	Room	Booking at LSE]
> To: okfn-discuss <okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org>
> Message-ID: <4713B6E1.9060300 at okfn.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> As per discussion at irc meeting last week I've now got a provisional 
> room booking for OKCON 2008 at LSE on Saturday 15th March 2008 (see 
> below). I'm in the process of talking with some people at LSE about 
> 'co-hosting' the event which would be great. Will keep people updated of 
> progress.
>
> ~rufus
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Open Knowledge Foundation - Provisional Room Booking at LSE
> Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:51:42 +0100
>
> Open Knowledge Foundation - Provisional Room Booking at LSE
>
> The London School of Economics can provide the following for your event
>
> Day       Saturday
> Date      15-03-2008
>
> Your room booking starts:         09:00
> Your room booking ends:          17:00
>
> You have access to the room to set up and hold your event during these 
> times only
>
> Room:
> D602 and D109
>
> Building:
> Clement House
>
> Room Details
> D602 is a flat floored lecture theatre for up to 120, located on the 
> sixth floor of Clement House on Aldwych. There is a built in PC and data 
> projection system in the room, to which you can attach your own laptop. 
> You have not requested any lunch but suggested Coffee breaks for your 
> expected 80 delegates - this can be delivered to the room by Sands 
> Catering Service (details below). We can provide a breakout room for 25 
> people in the same building.
>
> To make an appointment to view the room please contact me
> For an online picture of D602 please follow this link 
> http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/roomInformation/images/photos/D602.jpg
> For maps of the LSE and surrounding area go to 
> www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/Default.htm
>
> Booking Status:
> Provisional
>
> Costs
>
> Room Hire (No VAT)	
> D602		?660.00
> D109		?180.00
>
> Services (VAT Payable)
> Data projection system 	?50.00 per room per day
>
> Catering (VAT payable)
> Tea, Coffee and Biscuits delivered to the room by Sands Catering 
> Service	?2.00 per head (in disposable cups)
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:07:50 +0100
> From: Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
> Subject: Re: [okfn-discuss] on Open Formats
> To: Jo Walsh <jo at frot.org>
> Cc: warmerdam at pobox.com, Jeroen Ticheler <Jeroen.Ticheler at fao.org>,
> 	geo-discuss at lists.okfn.org, Sandro Santilli <strk at keybit.net>,
> 	okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> Message-ID: <4713BA86.7070907 at okfn.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Jo Walsh wrote:
>   
>> dear all,
>>
>> There has been a bit of discussion in the open source geo community
>> about the precedent and need for open file formats; partly prompted 
>> by the Samba project's involvement in the European Commision's
>> antitrust case against Microsoft, on the lack of "interoperability
>> information". http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070917053717322
>>
>> The question of "open file formats" can be hard to take a public
>> position on because it can be so implicitly "anti-", provocative of
>> large companies. Perhaps an Open Format Definition could be a good
>> place to start, providing a way to think about the problem
>> constructively. As Lorenzo wrote,
>>     
>
> I think this sounds a great idea. One of the lacunaes in the Open 
> Knowledge/Data Definition has always been the fact that item 4. Absence 
> of Technological Restriction refers explicitly to 'open data format' but 
> leaves this undefined.
>
> We originally had a dedicated project on the 'open formats/standards' 
> issue entitled the 'Information Accessibility Initiative':
>
> http://okfn.org/iai/
>
> This has been rather dormant of late but the wiki 
> (http://okfn.org/iai/wiki) still contains a lot of useful information.
>
> I'd also point to Georg Greve's recent post:
>
> <http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/an_emerging_understanding_of_open_standards>
>
>   
>>> We have the idea there are many formats out there that are largely 
>>> adopted as standards, but they are not, that let theirowners 
>>> act as monopolist. We would like a mature debate ... We should >
>>> invite companies, institution, universities to collaborate
>>>       
>
> Absolutely, as is written on the IAI home page:
>
> "The IAI's aim is to promote awareness and use of open formats to ensure 
> that access to information is not needlessly hampered by technological 
> barriers."
>
>   
>> This excerpt IRC dialogue conveys a lot:
>>
>>     strk:    can I make GDAL read DWG ?
>>     FrankW:	I would be thrilled, especially if you could
>> 		do it without the ODA libraries.
>>     FrankW:	You would be a hero!
>>     strk:   why can't I ? What's stopping this innovation
>> 	    which would make me an hero bringing on ?
>>     FrankW:	Presumably you aren't willing to spend 10-20
>> 		man years on the effort without funding.
>>     strk:   do you see a problem here ?
>>     strk:   how man-years would it be if the DWG specs were
>>    	    available ?
>>     FrankW:	Obviously much less.
>>     strk:   so, what's this tax on innovation ?
>>
>> As Frank put it "open file formats are critical to interoperability 
>> and the open source ecosystem", and collectively we can attempt to
>> take "pro-competition and pro-interoperability actions"
>>     
>
> I entirely agree that open formats/standards are an essential necessary 
> condition for interoperability and the health of the open source 
> eco-system however there importance is wider than that as they are also 
> crucial for a healthy and competitive /proprietary/ software/knowledge 
> ecosystem.
>
>   
>> I see the draft Open Service Definition work at
>> http://opendefinition.org/osd/ and i would be interested in setting up
>> something like it for Open Formats. I would also like to find out who
>> else is feeling the pain on this, with commonsense to contribute.
>>     
>
> I think this is a great idea and would happily be a contributor. Perhaps 
> it could be set up at:
>
> http://opendefinition.org/ofd/
>
> or (more verbosely) at:
>
> http://opendefinition.org/open_format_definition/
>
> ~rufus
>
>
>
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>
> End of okfn-discuss Digest, Vol 25, Issue 11
> ********************************************
>   

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