Category Archives: Open Source Software

Anarchy Moment #0058 — Open Source Software or Giving Your Information To Corporations – Video

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Anarchy Moment #0058 -- Open Source Software or Giving Your Information To Corporations
http://CynLibSoc.com Bitcoin: 1JH1h6etHsRMfVNT4YuBh9YLkFFRcMqUsi http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stating-the-obvious?refid=stpr You can choose to keep givin...

By: The Cynical Libertarian Society

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Anarchy Moment #0058 -- Open Source Software or Giving Your Information To Corporations - Video

Linux Lands on NSA Watch List

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Using Linux and Tor can land you on the NSA's watch list, but according to the EFF, that shouldn't necessarily be a deterrent.

http://www.eweek.com/security/linux-lands-on-nsa-watch-list.html

Linux Lands on NSA Watch List

Visiting a popular Linux Website could make an individual a target of government scrutiny.

New disclosures and investigations into the activities of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) have revealed fresh insights about the targets of cyber-surveillance activities. Among the new revelations are details about some of the target locations for the NSA XKeyscore system, which monitors and collects Internet data.

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Vertica’s open approach to Big Data management | #HPdiscover

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An analytical database management software company, Vertica was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2011. Since then, Vertica has helped in the development of such software as HAVEn, useful for analyzing Big Data leveraging the Hadoop open source software.

Recently, Dave Vellante and Jeff Frick of theCUBE spoke with Chris Selland, Head Business Developer at HP Vertica, during the HP Discover Las Vegas 2014 event.

Vellante first asked Selland about the state of Big Data and its status in the marketplace. Selland responded by talking about how everyone is realizing just how important Big Data can be to their company. This has caused many companies to shift focus on how they handle their data.

The biggest problem that customers have when dealing with the massive amounts of data they generate on a daily basis is that they arent sure how to deal with all of the technology used to manage and assess the data. The desire is there, but the infrastructure within many companies cannot support the new data types.

All of this social data, machine data, Internet of things data; traditional EDWs were not built to handle any of this, Selland said. They cant scale, they dont perform, and theyre way too expensive. So, they want to get in on new technology, but they havent really figured out how yet.

When asked how Vertica approached data storage, especially in light of its use of Hadoop, Selland explained that the terminology the company has been using is store, explore, and serve. Based on this philosophy, the team at Vertica feel there is no good reason to throw away data.

According to Selland, though, Storing it and just sort of putting it in one place, particularly if you dont have it in a form that can be analyzed, isnt enough. Then you have to be able to explore it, look at it, see what Ive got, and figure out what I might be able to do with it.

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Vertica’s open approach to Big Data management | #HPdiscover

Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem using Excel (VRP Spreadsheet Solver Tutorial) – Video

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Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem using Excel (VRP Spreadsheet Solver Tutorial)
The Microsoft Excel workbook "VRP Spreadsheet Solver" is a free and open source software for representing, solving, and visualising the results of Vehicle Routing Problems. It unifies Excel,...

By: Gne Erdoan

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Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem using Excel (VRP Spreadsheet Solver Tutorial) - Video

The IRS wages war on open source nonprofits

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The IRS has denied one open source software company's request to become a nonprofit.

I'm going to take the most controversial stance I have ever taken:

The IRS is a big bully.

(OK. Maybe that wasn't exactly controversial.)

We're all familiar with the ongoing controversy of the IRS targeting of non-profit organizations that are (potentially) affiliated with a political movement -- most notably conservative ones. But one thing that has, until now, simply not gotten enough attention is the IRS targeting of Open Source non-profit organizations.

That's right. The IRS has, in essence, waged war against not-for-profit groups that make Free and Open Source software.

This week, it was announced that the IRS has officially deniedYorba's -- an organization that focuses on Free Software such as Shotwell and Geary -- request to be a 501(c)(3) non-profit. (You can read the full text of from the IRS here.) This could possibly be a one-time, specific case, one that may not even have any relevance to other organizations.

But the wording that the IRS chose to use in denying their status is deeply troubling.

"You have a substantial nonexempt purpose because you develop software published under open source compatible licenses that authorize use by any person for any purpose, including nonexempt purposes such as commercial, recreational, or personal purposes, including campaign intervention and lobbying."

What this means: The IRS says that Yorba produces Open Source software that could be used by anyone. It is possible that a commercial company (aka "Not a non-profit") might use that software, in some way, without Yorba's knowledge. Therefore, Yorba cannot possibly be a non-profit.

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The IRS wages war on open source nonprofits

IRS policy that targeted political groups also aimed at open source projects

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Aurich Lawson

The IRS denied a proposal to grant 501(c)(3) status to Yorba, a nonprofit organization that develops open source software for the Linux desktop. In a blog post yesterday, Yorba spokesperson Jim Nelson disclosed the full text of the IRS rejection letter. He fears that IRS policy has evolved to broadly preclude nonprofit open source software developers from obtaining 501(c)(3) tax exemptions.

In the United States, the 501(c)(3) classification is typically granted to a certain class of nonprofit organizations that are engaged in activity that can be considered charitable, religious, scientific, literary, or educational. Many prominent open source software organizations hold 501(c)(3) status, including the Apache Foundation, the GNOME Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, the Free Software Foundation, and the Wikimedia Foundation.

The IRS was at the center of a major controversy last year following the release of internal memosrevealing that the agency systematically applied a disproportionately aggressive standard of review to organizations that matched certain keywords. Targeted organizations faced greater difficulty obtaining 501(c)(3) status. Interest in the scandal has largely centered on the question of whether prominent political groups were unfairly treated, but the same internal IRS memos that defined the policy also oddly singled out open source software.

IRS personnel responsible for reviewing 501(c)(3) applications were instructed to elevate cases involving open source software to their supervisors, resulting in extensive delays in the review process and frequent rejections. In the wake of the controversy, a New York Times report highlighted how nonprofit organizations that develop open source software may, in fact, receive harsher treatment than many of the other targeted categories.

Luis Villa, a lawyer and well-known open source community member who currently serves as deputy general counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, told the Timesabout two nonprofit open source software organizations that were denied tax-exempt status because their use of a targeted keyword triggered a harsh response from the agency.

As soon as you say the words open source, like other organizations that use Tea Party or Occupy, it gets you red-flagged, he told the Times. None of the groups have been able to find the magic words to get over the hurdle.

In theory, it might make sense for the IRS to closely review applications from organizations that develop open source software in order to make sure that they arent actually for-profit companies that sell commercial support or monetize their software with other services. If that werethe standard of review, there would be no cause for concern. Unfortunately, it looks like the IRS is applying a much more dubious standard.

The Yorba Foundation was originally founded by former Google employees who wanted to give back to the open source software community. The organization makes open source software applications for the Linux desktop, including a photo management application called Shotwell and a mail client called Geary.

Yorba develops its applications completely in the open, with community participation. The software is distributed under the terms of the relatively permissive LGPL. Yorba doesnt sell any services or monetize its software; it relies largely on donations in order to fund its operations.

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IRS policy that targeted political groups also aimed at open source projects

Apache open source enhancements for Dutch government

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Sosnoski Software delivers Apache open source enhancements for Dutch government

Auckland consulting company Sosnoski Software Associates Limited is please to announce the completion of enhancements to ApacheTM CXFTM open source software as commissioned by the government of the Netherlands. These enhancements have fixed several errors in the Apache CXF implementation of Web Services Reliable Messaging (WSRM), brought it into compliance with the latest WSRM 1.2 version, and also corrected long-standing problems in how the Apache CXF implementation combines WS-Security with WSRM. The changes provide greatly enhanced interoperability for exchanging messages with other software packages.

Interoperability is the whole point of web services, so compliance with standards is crucial for every web services implementation stack, said Dennis Sosnoski, Director of Sosnoski Software Associates. Apache CXF is one of the most widely used stacks for Java software development, making it crucial that its support be top-notch. We're very pleased to have been able to contribute major improvements to CXF in this area.

Enterprise open source software is usually developed by in-house staff at companies with a direct stake in the software. It's great when other organizations can help fund independent work on features matching their needs and have the results benefit the whole community.

Dutch government shares e-development

Users of the Dutch government Digikoppeling electronic messaging standards had pointed out the importance of adapting Apache CXF software for WSRM 1.2. The government information systems use Digikoppeling to exchange messages; WSRM enables them to exchange messages in a reliable way.

This is why Logius, the digital government service, commissioned one of the developers of Apache CXF, Sosnoski Software Associates, to adapt the software. Logius is financed by communal funds.

It is therefore important that these funds are spent for the benefit of the community, said Tom Peelen, lead architect at Logius. By releasing the software under an open-source license it can be used freely by other parties.

Good for Dutch and European e-government and for businesses

The support of WSRM 1.2 is good news for European projects, such as the large-scale Peppol project in which the European Union member states develop computerized procurement systems based on Apache CXF and WSRM 1.2. Businesses in and outside Europe also benefit for their widespread use of Apache CXF and WSRM. I really encourage this type of co-creation project, said Dennis Sosnoski. It's great to show how high-value and widely useable software can be developed as an open-source solution with extremely low costs, compared to very expensive commercial alternatives.

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Apache open source enhancements for Dutch government