Posts Tagged ‘open source’

Open source “Greenphone”

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006

The world’s first open source cellphone Qtopia GreenphoneTM has been released. The phone runs on Qtopia, a specially crafted lightweight operating system based on Linux. Apart from offering a complete mobile software developers kit (SDK) to developers that wish to create their own applications on this mobile platforms, the phone itself has many specifications that make it comparable to a modern smartphone. Maker of the phone is Trolltech, a Norwegian company well known for it’s QT toolkit which forms the basis for the widely used KDE desktop running on all kinds of open source systems, notably Linux.

I think this is a very important step to provide the mobile world as well with open source alternatives. In an earlier post I have already written about the need for open platforms on mobile devices.

BTW, I think the phone looks damn good too!!

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edit: I believe this is a particularly important development, because the institutional constraints of highly commercialized and closed mobile systems on individual and cultural appropriation of technology (“domestication” in terms of the late Roger Silverstone) mean a much stronger hold on the ways identity can and will be experienced, expressed and reflexively understood. Any research into identity and the mobile will have to take this commercial context of the “media ecology” into account.
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HOSC2006: session on ‘social inclusion’

Monday, June 26th, 2006

Friday June 17 I chaired a session which I had organized about the theme of ‘social inclusion’ during the second Holland Open Software Conference. Speakers I had invited were Yuwei Lin (researcher Manchester Univ.), Soenke Zehle (teacher at Saarland Univ.), Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (UNU-Merit – Maastricht Univ.), and Arjan de Jager (IICD). Below an impression from the session:

Rishab thinks the term social inclusion does not cover the point, i.e. F/OSS main opportunity lies in the fact that it is software that can be used to learn from. Rishab stated it is not only access that matters but also skills and participation. Europe and the USA lead in F/OSS world, but there is hardly a country in the world without any F/OSS development. The main obstacle for tapping into this emerging talent and energy is that there is little interaction between developers worldwide (e.g Chinese and European) except through some middlemen. And then there is a net-flow of talented developers to the USA, since most chances are found there (hey, even Linus Torvalds works there now..)

Arjan agrees with Rishab in renouncing the term “social inclusion”. He gives an overview of some of the obstacles to F/OSS use in developing countries: lack of awareness, lack of bandwidth, need for certificates and certified personnel, little attention given to open standards, decision support models especially for developing countries are lacking. Arjan raises the question whether certifications should be leveled according to GDP, since the standard price is a huge barrier for people in poorer countries?

Yuwei confronts the audience with the male bias in F/OSS developers culture. She hardly meets women in the F/OSS world. And if so, they are confined to ‘less technical’ work of documentation. Perhaps F?OSS culture is too much of a “we against the others”, which is an attitude of exclusiveness. Yuwei passionately pleas for more women key note speakers at F/OSS conferences!

Soenke gives an overview of the institutional origins of information technology policies – or “info-development” – which is a combination of political rights issues and social/material rights issues. The latter led to “access for all” ideas. Soenke also raises the issue of corporate accountability and human rights issues in open source companies. These organizations shouldn’t forget the ideological origins of the free software movement.

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Piece on mobile 2.0

Monday, February 13th, 2006

With web 2.0 approaching, at least if we must believe the hype, the mobile world is lagging behind. I read this piece on mobile 2.0 in which the author, a mobile phone marketeer/consultant, sees the advent of a new era in mobile communications in which anything is possible. No clues on what mobile 2.0 will look like, only that the user is central. In a reply to this article, I wonder if ever this can be done in the same fashion as web 2.0, without moving to more open source platforms on the mobile:

What I see as a hindrance in the mobile world, as opposed to the web, is the lack of open standards and tools to build your own applications. Web 2.0 is based on user intelligence instead of technologies, i.e. by giving users smart tools that enable them to apply human semantics to information provided, you get a more intelligent web. This can only be done in a massive (thus useful) way with open standards and protocols thar are inclusive and inviting to everyone. Now, as I see it, this ‘open-source’ story is an aspect seriously lacking from mobile platforms. What do you think about that?

What _is_ happening right now is an increase in people moblogging their lives and sharing experiences with friends. This is likely the beginning of a convergence of digital media. There are some interesting applications already being made that are free (as in beer) or even open/free (as in speech):

NetoMat
Tinypictures
MobiLog
ShoZu

Yet the mobile phone as a platform remains closed, apart from having Java on board perhaps. Or are there alternatives?

Berlin pic
(Pic taken in Berlin last year with my girlfriend’s phone, why don’t I have a camera-phone yet..? Should I start moblogging too…?)

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