Whenever I ever suggest to people, public or private sector, the notion of utilising free and open-source software I always receive the same response: “It’s not the industry standard”.

I do not see a single reason why people should adhere to a standard piece of software. I’m sure if you renamed the title bar of OpenOffice.org Writer to Microsoft Word, 99% of people would not notice the difference! So why do they elect to stick with the most popular piece of software?

For example, most schools will use Microsoft Office instead of OpenOffice.org, despite the expense to the tax payer. If you ask why they choose to use MS Office, they will say it’s important because businesses use Microsoft Office and that it is the industry standard.

So why do businesses, which are normally capitalist establishments, lower their profits by paying for software? Probably because their employees are only trained for Microsoft Office. Who trains them? Businesses and schools, who train using MS Office.

I’m sure 75% of people could do whatever they want to do using OpenOffice.org just through their MS Office training (we might have issues with macros etc.). They’re just scared.

It’s a vicious cycle: people get trained for Microsoft Office, business demands Microsoft Office so more people get trained through Microsoft Office.

Can the cycle be broken? Probably not but if it did, it would require bold moves. Governments would have to encourage the education system to use FOSS as well as governmental departments, forcing businesses to change. This will never happen due to vested interests and (not to be horrible) technical ignorance amongst governments (the internet’s a series of tubes according to Sen. Ted Stevens).

Tags: opensource, software, linux, openoffice.org, education

Iterasi is a new type of bookmark site, currently in private beta, one which allows you to bookmark dynamically updated pages (eg those rendered through Ajax or which update very frequently or those which grab data from a database such as The Trainlain) where the URL doesn’t usually change and you usually can’t get back to the previous state. It was announced at DEMO today.

Iterasi allows you to save static images of webpages. Basically, it allows you to bookmark content which dynamically updates. This is useful if you’re having to grab data from a database and you can’t get back to that data just by typing in a certain URL. Examples I can think where this would happen would be searching libraries, fare/ticket sites or perhaps even certain governmental websites which obviously have not mastered how a site search works! The phrase ’static image’ is misleading as, providing they are the same, you can still interact with links etc. on that page.

Sites like Clipmarks are bookmarking 2.0 but iterasi is actually bookmarking 2.0 and its associated dynamic technologies.

This is a video of iterasi in action.

From this video, you can see iterasi boasts all of the standard features of a Web 2.0 bookmarking site (tagging, sharing, ability to describe bookmark etc).

The automatic bookmarking feature is clever, especially if you wish to take screen captures of constantly updating webpages (eg traffic information or Google News!) allowing it to become your own personal wayback machine.

Oh, and bookmarking isn’t called bookmarking but rather notarize (I’m not a big fans of zeds to be honest… most Brits aren’t!). I imagine that despite their reasoning, this is done to simply make it sound like an evolved form of bookmarking.

I’m not a big fan of the name which isn’t easy to remember and isn’t descriptive. I also dislike the design because grey is a bit depressing, a light blue (although cliché) would be nice. I think that the gradients which are utilised are probably unnecessary too. I’m told that after the beta, iterasi may provide several styles.

Support for iterasi will firstly be for IE and Firefox users on Windows, then expanding to OS X and finally (towards late 2008) Linux.

You might want to read Mashable’s post about this exciting new site.

Tags: web 2.0, bookmarking, iterasi

I have just been received information about an exciting conference occurring in Brussels on 19th March called Plugg. I, sadly, cannot attend.

I do think this conference is exciting though. I often feel that Europe is overlooked in technology and when it isn’t it’s ripped off! The UK has its fair share of conferences but I think one with a pan-Europea context like Plugg is truly exciting.

The price to attend is €400 (about £300) if you register before 15th Feb, €500 if you register after. This seemed somewhat pricey but it will surely be a good opportunity for start-ups to hook up with VC firms. Speakers include TechCrunch UK’s Mike Butcher and SeedCamp’s CEO.

The UK, and Europe, hasn’t seen anywhere as near as many successful start-ups as the US (though we quite a few) and I think events like this could level the playing field!

Tags: plugg, europe, web 2.0

Whenever I order anything from Amazon, the package will normally contain 1 or 2 flyers. These go straight into the bin (shame on me for not recycling), but I’m sure many other customers will immediately bin them too.

The package itself is recycled cardboard, which is recyclable, and I really can’t object to this. I doubt the flyers are, though!

Ironically, one of today’s flyers was from HSBC advertising green banking!

Oh, irony I love you so.

I buy something, I should not be served ads too… surely?!

Tags: amazon, environment

Going on hiatus, not a permanent one though. Need to catch up with RL stuff (I have an extremely busy week next week) and to re-establish my online presence. Hopefully I’ll be back in a month by which time I should’ve made the time to recode this template!