OpenBiblio Principles

2011-02-10 by mjr

There’s a lot of exciting activity going on around libraries at the moment. One of them is the OpenBiblio Principles, which are:

  1. When publishing bibliographic data make an explicit and robust license statement.
  2. Use a recognized waiver or license that is appropriate for data.
  3. If you want your data to be effectively used and added to by others it should be open as defined by the Open Definition (http://opendefinition.org) – in particular non-commercial and other restrictive clauses should not be used.
  4. Where possible, explicitly place bibliographic data in the Public Domain via PDDL or CC0.

Happily, our co-op has decided to support these principles. I feel that the third one is particularly important: non-commercial clauses lock out many cooperatives and social enterprises from sharing and helping.

If you’ve got an idea for an app using open bibliographic data (you can enter the idea or a prototype app), you’ve just about got time to enter the OpenBiblio Challenge before it closes on 17 February and win some money. Good luck!

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SPI February 2011

2011-02-09 by mjr

The regular monthly board of SPI (Software in the Public Interest, the contributor-run non-profit which supports debian, drupal and many other projects not beginning with the letter d) is on IRC this evening at 20:30 UTC in #spi on irc.oftc.net. If you need an Internet Relay Chat client, check what’s available in your package manager, or you could do worse than adding Chatzilla to Iceweasel or Firefox.

The agenda has been posted and the reports really ought to be included by the time this blog post appears. Come along and see FOSS project support infrastructure do its thing, then maybe chat a bit afterwards.

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The co-operative difference

2011-01-21 by mjr

I’ve been a bit quiet on this blog and it’s mainly been because our co-op is busy, with the annual reports and tax returns to do as well as an increasing amount of client work. It seems that we’re not the only busy co-op:

“Last year, whilst the UK economy as a whole contracted by 4.9%, the co-operative economy grew by 15.8% to £33.5 billion. This is partly down to the success of The Co-operative Group, but also stems from the success of over 4,990 other co-operatives in the UK which have continued to thrive.”

— From Differences revealed in consumer views between PLCs and co-operatives | Co-operatives UK

Meanwhile, I’ve been testing out a couple of bits of software, including encrypted filesystems and new firmware for the FS-4400 Satellite PVR, which I could post about soon. We’ve developed some WordPress add-ons which I will package, release and announce. Finally, we’re attending a couple of events next week.

Busy times indeed!

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SPI January 2011

2011-01-12 by mjr

The meeting agenda is already posted for tonight’s (Wednesday’s) SPI board IRC meeting which will be at 2030 UTC in #spi on irc.oftc.net.

I’m sorry it’s pretty late notice, but you might like to come along and let the board know what you think they should be doing, or offer to help out with the new website.

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Initial Citylink Make Me Wish I Paid Treble

2010-12-13 by mjr

So, last week I bricked a device and I think I can fix it over a RS-232 cable from a borrowed Windows computer. However, I don’t have the right cable in my office and the Windows computers I can borrow no longer have old-style serial ports. So I had two choices:

  1. Order a USB-serial converter and the right cable from an online supplier and pay a premium for next-day delivery (so it doesn’t arrive when I’m on the trip);
  2. Make a half-hour detour on a trip two days later to visit a high street electronics store and pay fairly high prices (like three times the online price).

Of course, I ordered online. And that’s where the trouble started. My order was sent by Initial Citylink, who make Parcelfarce look good. Next day came and went with no delivery. About 2pm, the parcel’s web page changed to say “There was no one to receive the goods at the delivery point so a card was left” and that it would be delivered today, Monday. Of course, there had been someone here all day and no card was left. Phoning Citylink gets a recorded message saying they’re too busy to take calls. No offer to call me back. Just suggests trying the useless website.

Over the weekend, the page changed again. Now it says “Thank you for your rescheduling request. Your parcel(s) will be delivered on Tuesday 14th December between 07:30 and 17:30”. I didn’t request that, I don’t know who did and there’s no way to tell from the web page. There’s no way to undo that request and ask for it to be delivered on Monday instead. I wanted the device fixed by today if possible. Now I’m going to have to bodge something together from spares (for once I’m glad I have a cupboard of old kit here…). Still no answer from Citylink’s phones and the supplier doesn’t seem to know what’s going on either.

I’m not paying for next-day delivery from anyone who uses Citylink again.

Posted in Education, Training and Information | 10 Comments

ECJ on SAS v WPL: A Coming Storm?

2010-11-30 by mjr

While I share Alex’s “law [is] boring” view, this also attracted my attention because it’s (slightly) about statistics software. I feel the SAS v WPL case mentioned on his blog deserves a wider airing:

“The basic story is that the Judge in this case is deeply unsure of the boundary of copyright. […] has sent a number of questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The questions are hypothetical, but clearly designed to test the waters and figure out where this line falls.”

Now will this re-affirm what I’ve always been told, that copyright’s border is between ideas and expressions, and copyright only covers expressions? Or will it draw a different boundary?

It seems that those most likely to be affected are those who are at the edges of acceptability of licences like LGPL, or trying to provide workalikes of hostile proprietary companies, but please, read it for yourself.

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What Price Networking?

2010-11-29 by mjr

How much would you pay to participate in a social network and what would you expect for that?

On the web, I’m used to some social networks being available for free. Usefulness and size varies massively, but there’s quite a choice of them. There’s a price to access them (computer, internet access, time) but once you’ve paid that, there are free-to-use networks.

Offline, a lot of networking opportunities cost money and not just access costs (travel, time). Especially business networks. OK, there are paid business networks online too, but some of the biggest ones have some long-term free access level, to try to entice people to upgrade. Offline, it seems like the reverse: there are some free networks and some that have short-term free access, but the norm seems to be pay-to-play. Often you get nothing except entry for the basic subscription, but at least our co-op usually prefers networks where we’re proper members with some say in how things are run.

Not that democracy always works. One networking organisations made a mistake in posting out ballot papers that means we can’t vote in its leadership election. This isn’t the first administrative problem we’ve suffered and their last decent event was at least a year ago, too. At what point should we quit? I think I’ll try to address this through the membership democracy first.

In this recession, some of our offline networks are reviewing their prices. In one case, a network which was free is going to become one of our more expensive annual subscriptions if we renew. If I look at it as a simple “does this bring in enough work to pay for itself?” decision then probably it won’t. How much value do you attach to being there and to being visible, though?

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FixTheWeb is Coming!

2010-10-19 by mjr

I travel across the Sedgemoor/North Somerset/Bristol council borders, so I’m a big fan of FixMyStreet which puts fault reporting for things like potholes, flytipping and broken lights behind a common interface. Credit to the MySociety charity project, once again.

So I’m quite happy that something similar is starting for website faults. If you know disabled people who are willing to report web accessibility issues for volunteers to pick up, please let them know they can currently:

  • email
    post(at)fixtheweb.net
  • tweet #fixtheweb #fail url problem

They will very shortly be able to use a browser toolbar too, which should make things even easier. The core team are intending to launch a website later in November, but there are the usual teething problems.

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UCEPROTECT and SORBS SPAM: Two DNSBLs to Avoid

2010-10-14 by mjr

I just had another conflict with a debatable anti-spam configuration. I think it was debatable rather than obviously wrong, so I’m not going to rant about the specific setup, but while discussing it with other postmasters, the following two Domain Name Service Blacklist (DNSBL) facts surprised me:

  1. UCEPROTECT3 can be evaded if you pay them EUR 75 every 2 years. UCEPROTECT is a German organisation but refuses to publish the details usually found on an Impressum so you could be funding spammers, for all you know. Their four suggestions to stop spam (no C-R, rate limits, block port 25, refuse to sell) seem so unlikely to stop spam it’s either naïve or insincere.
  2. SORBS asks ISPs to pay USD 50 to get delisted from the SORBS SPAM database. It’s to charity rather than SORBS, but it still seems like a protection racket. Spammers can get out of jail for a few dollars?

Those lists both seem quite trigger-happy to me, which isn’t surprising as these payment demands encourage listing first and asking questions later. It means I won’t be using these two lists anywhere soon.

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Report on TravelWatch SouthWest General Meeting 9 Oct 2010

2010-10-13 by mjr

I attended this meeting last Saturday, taking up the Cooperatives-SW invitation (we have been invited before, as reported on this blog). It was held, once again, at SCAT in Taunton.

First, we had introductions from everyone. The Go! Co-op rail plan for Yeovil-Oxford and beyond got a mention by the chair after I introduced myself – I didn’t realise it at the time, but C-SW member Co-Cars were next door at an exhibition in the Genesis centre and are preparing to launch in Taunton. Then there was a formal welcome from Christopher Irwin, TravelWatch SouthWest CIC Chair and a keynote presentation from First Great Western‘s operations director Kevin Gale.

Delays on the GW Main Line have returned in the last three months, with performance below targets. The blame was squarely laid at the door of not-for-profit infrastructure company Network Rail, but this area is still better than it used to be. The FGW 30 train fleet (refurbished Sprinters from London Midland and London Overground?) start arriving in about two weeks. There’s a new consistent company organisation. In the Q+A, I think we were told:

  • passenger information distribution will become a phone tree to cut the load on central control when there’s disruption;
  • central control with authorise station staff overtime when services are late;
  • the current 1960 signalling system will be renewed over the next 7 years;
  • The Reading area rebuild may be causing later failures;
  • FGW want more new rolling stock, not just the FGW 30;
  • network rail is basically good but has been cut back this yr;
  • they would like us to keep feeding back through travelwatchsouthwest and keep lobbying politicians.

Then there was a discussion asking: what should be the SW transport priorities in the era of 30% cuts? I suggested co-op-friendly right-to-try measures should be in those priorities. Interestingly, a reply was given by Duncan Hames MP (Chippenham, LD), followed by a talking point from transport portfolio holder Richard Gamble of Wiltshire Council.

After lunch came the “just a minute” speeches on: arctic oil, Devizes-Bath bus mistakes (change of operator, not serving Bath bus station), Local Enterprise Partnerships and bus cuts, a suggestion to require council transport officers to use public transport to get to meetings, the need for better integrated transport info for the Wessex area, senior citizen fares and CTAs (I don’t remember what this stands for…sorry), the big subsidy of High Speed 1, and the problem of Dorset’s main towns having poor westward rail links.

There was a quick summary of the report from the CIC board which can be downloaded from the TWSW website and a presentation on integrated smartcard ticketing system from Andrew Seedhouse of GO-SW. The West of England back-office system has been launched, but there is still more to do for the SW and to connect it to operators. The event ended with the second keynote address by TfL Commissioner Peter Hendy which I’m sorry to say I don’t really understand my notes about and have little recollection of the key points at the end of the day.

As before, I felt that the best bits of the event were the morning question-and-answer sessions and the “just a minute” points immediately after lunch. So, in that line: what do you think are the biggest issues and the priorities for mass transport in the South West?

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