andylockran’s blog

Using the Long Tail

Posted by Andy under BECTA, Control, Digital Freedom, Hypothesising, Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Personal, Personal, Political, SBLUG Planet, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

Clay Shirky provides a fascinating insight into how a collaborative approach utilises more skills, and empowers more people than the old institutional model. Rather than coming from an Open Source background, he uses the example of Flickr to convey his point (and then takes a stab at Ballmer). It’s an interesting presentation, and shows how you can make the most of the information/data available in a field.

However, there’s an angle to his talk which isn’t covered in this short presentation; which I imagine is due to time constraints. That’s the opportunity for cross-discipline collaboration, and what that means for us.

One of the more interesting points made by Clay, is that he poses the current ‘$1 million question’ - Are Bloggers Journalists? - and then turns it on its head.

Journalists, and journalism came about to fulfil a societal need. How to communicate with the majority of the population. Gutenburgs’s printing press was a percursor to European journalism, and for the last 400 years or so, journalism has been an integral part of mass communication.

However, we now have a little something called the internet - which, as Gutenburg’s printing press did all those years ago, revolutionise access to information. The infrastructure required to become a ‘messenger to the people’ is in place for people to with it as they wish - create facebook pages, youtube videos, or wordpress blogs. Once the infrastructure becomes freely accessible, the applications of it become massively varied.

In Clay’s talk, he mentions a ratio. 80% of people do 20% of the work, and vice versa, using a lovely graph of the long tail:

An Example of the Long Tail Graph

Though a graph illustrating a different set of data, the concept can be re-applied to Open Source Project contribution. The Green area applies to the ‘core’ developers, who may even be employed by the project. The Orange applied to the people directly involved with the project, and perhaps some power users, and the Red section applied to everyone else.

The wonderful thing about the Red section, is that you get lots and lots of people contributing very little. However, it’s these people who can really add value to a project.  With so many projects now existing across different distributions, each system becomes pretty unique.  Where bugfixes and irrationailities can be spotted and reported on by end-users running their unique system - the value added is huge.

There’s also a question of expertise.  The guys in the Red Section are the programming experts, who are commiting code.  Those in the Orange Section are the users/implementers of the code - so will typically have a clear understanding of the direction of the project and the needs that the project needs to fulfil. Whereas in the Red Section are people who use the package, but often alongside other packages of greater interest/relevance to their line of work.  It’s this cross-discipline collaboration that is unprecedencted.

Getting average non-geeky end users to use Open Projects is a massive challenge, but one that is going to bring massive benefits to Open Source Software.  Some people talk of the digital tipping point from a technical standpoint - “Woo, when we get this critical mass we’ll overtake Microsoft within the next 5 years.”  To be honest that doesn’t bother me. Judge MS as you wish, but that’s not why I’m here.  I’m here because the potential contribution that end users can make to Global Knowledge, through Open Projects.

It’s going to be possible for a biological scientist and and engineer to be reviewing the same problem for different purposes.  It’s unlikely that these two disciplines would ever communicate were it not be for this open project, and it’s also possible that only with the combined knowledge and expertise of these two disciplines, the problem can be solved.

This is what excites me most about free software, and to think we’re only just at the beginning.

Open Source @ Construction Company

Posted by Andy under Birmingham, Control, Digital Freedom, Freedom, Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Projects, SBLUG Planet, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

Over the past few weeks I’ve been helping my Uncle out by setting up a few computers for him. He wanted a laptop to take out ‘on-site’ - and a Desktop for a new employee.

Unfortunately, the ASUS eee901 is not yet available, and the 7″ series is slightly too small for his perceived ‘on-site’ usage, so he ended up getting a Toshiba Laptop and HP Desktop - both running Windows Vista (against my advice).

So, three weeks on, he’s not happy with Vista at all. Having already spent a fair bit of cash on the two machines, he was little disappointed that some ‘core software’ (his term) was still not installed. The new “Live Mail” application was also far too complicated compared to his Outlook Express - the change in UI wasn’t welcome.

So, I installed Mozilla Thunderbird onto both computers, and OpenOffice.org. I do have to admit to setting the default file-format to Windows 97/XP/2003 formats though (.doc, .xls and .ppt). I’d like to not do this, but for simplicities sake when dealing with clients - it was the easier option.

Aside from running the proprietary accounts software “Foundation Evolution” - I’ve got the company running on a very open-’saucy’ setup. The best thing about it has been the change in attitude towards the software since originally buying the PCs. After initially thinking that my enthusiasm for the ASUS eee was due to the Linux OS on it - it seems likely that when the 9″ series come out, that will be an addition to the “Construction Computing Team”.

The best new was though that I received a call this morning asking me how to install OpenOffice.org on all of the computers and get rid of MS Office & install Thunderbird on all the machines. With the old setup, there would have been a training overhead in having to run different versions of the same software on all four PCs - however, with the Open Source Setup, all the computers, despite being purchased at different times, can run the same software - giving the users the opportunity to use the computers to help run the business, rather than having to work out how to use that particular version of the program.

Smile

Free Software - Who benefits?

Posted by Andy under Birmingham, Digital Freedom, Freedom, Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Projects, SBLUG Planet, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

I’ve been thinking alot recently about the power of free software and how it could be put to better use to innovate in companies.  At the moment, most of it is used to replace old proprietary blobs around offices, and has very much the same components as the old system - only cheaper.

However, with free software there are many more benefits that just being cheaper than paying for a legacy software license for things like file storage and printer servers.  There are many cases when I look at small/medium sized companies and see how their entire business model could benefit from adopting an Open Source system as the backbone to what their business does.

In the past, IT has been a tool which allows businesses to go about their business - only recently has it actually become the business of businesses.  It’s a shame though, because as more and more businesses sell services based on free software - in essence it becomes standard customised solutions at a slight discount to the client, and without licensing overheads for the vendor.

What I’d like to see is the promotion of open source and open standards, and the ability for as much software to work in tandem with other stuff.  There’s a heck of a lot of quality free software out there that companies should be able to utilise.  Rather than simply provide free software on a plate, efforts should be made to educate the users on what exactly they are getting.  How extensible the packages are and how to utilise them to their greatest benefit.

I don’t know how other people feel, but setting up a new company legally incurs some costs - and when you add MS licenses to the mix, for just a single PC, it can double the cost.  I’ve recently set up a business who’d just bought a couple of new PCs.  They both came with Vista (laptop and Desktop).  I’ve been runnning purely Open Source Software on those two PCs for the company (aside from Vista) - and they’re very happy with all the software, it does exactly what they need.  The next step is for me to speed them up, by switching them over to ubuntu.  I can see this happening within the next six months.  However, I’ll also leave 1 Windows XP machine intact, so they can use it for remote-desktop connection for running some legacy software.

Neat!

Time to learn GPG

Posted by Andy under BBC, Conspiracy Theory, Control, Digital Freedom, Freedom, Personal, Political, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

I think it’s about time that people became aware of the advantages of the GnuPrivacyGuard.

Why?

According the to BBC the government are considering keeping a database of every phone call made and every email sent. Now, it’s already possible to do this with your current email communications - and very few people bother to encrypt their mail to make sure that only the recipient can read it.

Email passes over a network in plain text - thereby anything sent in a email is easy to ’sniff’ out and read. With gpg - you encrypt the mail with a password - then the only person that can read the mail is the person that knows that password.. the recipient of the email.

It’s a clever system, so here’s a link to Red Hat Magazine’s article on GPG.

For a Windows-based solution, try WinGPG.

If we can’t change the system, then we at least need to protect ourselves from it.

Stop Tracking Me!

Posted by Andy under Conspiracy Theory, Control, Digital Freedom, Freedom, Hypothesising, Political, SBLUG Planet, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

I’ve just read an article on The Register which detailed a system that Shopping Centres are now using to track people’s movements around a shopping centre using their Mobile Phone.  When a phone registers with a network, it gets a TMSI address (a bit like a dynamic IP address) - and this PATH software is able to locate a handset to within a couple of metres - good enough to track which shop punters are going into.

Even though the makers say that each individual TMSI is refreshed at each phone reset - with more and more people leaving their phones on for sustained periods - it’s not particularly outrageous to say that if I worked out my own TMSI, then the data is no longer anonymous.

Anyway - that’s a little beside the point.  When I walk into a shopping centre, there are plenty of CCTV cameras.  I believe the mandate for putting them there is for my protection, rather than tracking my consumer habits.  Imagine some ‘hoody’ walking into a shopping centre, stealing something - then getting his phone confiscated by Police to work out the TMSI to see where the ‘hoody’ has been for the last few hours.  It’s technically possible with this new system.

With the advance of technology, there are loads of completely un-sexy but massively important questions that need to be answered.  At the moment the government and authorities are simply seeing £’s.  There’s technology being put together and used that infringes far more on our civil liberties than someone owning a copy of a terrorism handbook.

So, let’s get un-sexy and start discussing what we want from technology.  Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.

BBC Click! Online - Build a PC using Free Software

Posted by Andy under BBC, Debian, Digital Freedom, Facebook, Freedom, Gentoo, Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Political, Projects, SBLUG Planet, Software, Sun, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

BBC Click! Online - Watch the Show

Ok, so they ‘bend’ RMS’s definition of ‘free’ software in some places - but it’s still a fantastic 25 minute program for John Doe.

Enjoy!

Noise, Chaos, Freedom, Knowledge and Progress

Posted by Andy under Chaos, Control, Digital Freedom, Facebook, Freedom, Hypothesising, Language, Linux, Software, Stupid, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

Take a look at this, then read the blog.

Chaos

In a recent conversation, I was discussing how the internet has given anyone the ability to broadcast their ideas/message. On the whole, I saw it as a good thing. The ‘blogosphere’ is full of interesting articles and opinions on things that interest me. I directly work in the software industry, therefore the majority of posts are relevant. Those related to software itself; development and ethics - but also the ability for non-tech minded people to produce and utilise software/internet to get their message across.

Whilst for academic level writings there is an argument that information should be ‘peer-reviewed’ before being published - with the internet there is very rarely self-critical analysis before something gets published. I know I rarely read through a post more that once after it has been typed. So what effect does that have on information?

Many, if not all of the lecturers that I knew at University were adamant that searching for information on the internet was a bad idea. Groups on facebook like “I’m going to Wikipedia my degree” probably didn’t help with their perception of the value of the internet. We were forced into using Library and Archive information that could be accredited to ‘respectable’ institutions.

Whilst this may make it easier for the lecturers to qualify the references when looking through the bibliography, it massively undermines the value of the internet. There’s so much noise out there that I think it can provide an inspiration. We’re all from massively different backgrounds with so many differences and similarities that there’s a mine of experience to tap. It’s often the case that academics sometimes have to look outside their ‘circle’ of expertise in order to answer certain questions. Fermat’s last theorem was only solved through incorporating what was seen as a completely unrelated method into the solution. This is where the magic on the internet can really have tangible effects.

As educated lay people, many of us read into obscure subjects at a very shallow level. For example, whilst never being capable of solving Fermat’s last theorem myself, it was interesting to read Simon Singh’s book on the topic. I hold a degree in Psychology and Business; yet work in the realms of Free/Libre Open Source Software. They’re hardly what one would call a ’standard’ set of experiences. Yet there’s so many more dimensions to my personal experiences. The power of them relies in linking them.

Thinkers and do-ers.

It’s about time now that I realised that I’m not going to solve World Hunger, or attain World Peace and disarmament and make the world a better place. I’m not likely to come up with an idea that’ll make the happen. I’m also not going to create a search algorithm to match that of Google - or achieve something major on the internet in a sector that hasn’t even been conceived yet. However, I have the power to link people - to make people talk and bring ideas together. I have the ability to make friends with people and get them talking. I have the ability to critically evaluate other people’s ideas and make them better.

So then, you may not hear of “Andy Loughran” as some genius that has just released a new software package, or solved massive social issues. But I’ll carry on doing my little bit and hoping that lady luck finds me in the right place sometime in the future.

OLPC - Is advocacy a profitable business model?

Posted by Andy under Africa, BBC, BECTA, Conspiracy Theory, Debian, Digital Freedom, Freedom, Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Personal, Political, Projects, Python, SBLUG Planet, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

Having just read Rory Cellan-Jones article on the BBC News Website about the OLPC choosing to use the Windows XP operating system, I felt it sensible to put forward the reasons why I think it may/may not be a bad thing, and who’s going to benefit from the deal.

Education versus Training

Unfortunately, I think the UK IT Education System passed under this bridge so far up river, that it would require getting out of the river, and a hard trek upstream to ever get back to fixing the problem.  Since 1997 (the year I started secondary school, and the year the Labour government came into power), there has been a worrying trend toward using the education system as a training system.  I enjoyed my first couple of years IT lessons - we played with things like Logo - and used some very simple database software (key-plus?) to understand the power of databases.  We also used MS Excel to enter data into spreadsheets, and learn some basic formulae - as well as being told how to write the same formulae on the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software I had at home.

The difference that occurred in Year 9 (when RM ‘upgraded’ the IT suite at school) - was that we were now using MS Office.  Sure, we’d had Word and Excel on the PCs before, and I guess the financial costs of upgrading to Office rather than having the two separately are minimal, especially once you take into account the “educational discount” that schools are entitled to from Microsoft.

This meant that everything we did was MS based.  The simple database has gone, we were using MS Access.  In essence, IT lessons involved being trained in how to use basic productivity tools for our future office careers; which, in my opinion, is not something that the Education System should pay for.  I’d prefer to see people have an understanding of the difference between the ‘web’ and ‘email’;  the difference between what a Spreadsheet can accomplish in comparison with a Database; and hopefully a way for people to be taught on looking after their data, online and offline.
Advocacy as a Business Model

I recently watched a lecture given by Nicolas Negroponte in 1984.  In it he discussed his ideas for the future of Computer Interfaces.  It was an interesting talk, as he spoke about experiments he was doing in some African Countries on UI design.  However, he also noted that he’d done a dry-run of these experiments in New York previous to heading out to the African Continent.

In the school in New York, there was a child of around 14.  He didn’t know how to read and was seen as needing Special Needs treatment.  However, he was simply left to fend for himself in the IT rooms.  One of the days, a local council worker came to visit the school, and happened to notice this child in the library, so asked him what he was doing.  He showed him what he’d created on the screen using the ‘LOGO’ program.  The council visitor was suitably impressed, and asked him if he could do a little variation on his work.  Rather than simply say ‘no - I don’t know how,’ the child reached for the manual, worked out how to do it - and did it - clearly pleasing the visitor.

The visitor then went to the Principle’s Office (his reason for attending the school in the first place) and happened to mention the child.  The principle was certain that the visitor was the victim of some kind of ’set-up,’ therefore took the visitor down himself to see the child demo his abilities.  Lo and behold the child was able to do a further variation on his work by looking through the manual.

When asked why the child could read the manual, yet could not read the books provided to him in class, his answer was akin to the following: “What the teachers give me in class is boring, and I don’t get anything out of it.  However, when I’m on the computer and working, I can see the results of my efforts straight away and get rewarded for them.”

OLPC - Sugar UI

The Sugar UI for the OLPC project, for me, was a symbol of the ‘LOGO’ program for this child.  Someone that the teachers has written off as a massive underachiever had been able to produce ingenuity and learning independently - given the resources to do it.  Encouragement wasn’t necessary, as the learning process is something organic to the human mind.

The Sugar UI isn’t about being Free and Open Source (thus cheap) - it’s about so much more than that.  However, it’s also not the be-all and end-all of the OLPC project.  There are thousands of Open Source applications that can run on top of Windows XP that the OLPC users will be able to access.  It will also open up their opportunities for developing for FLOSS software on Windows Desktops - and thus be able to access the Windows Market in developed countries.

Why did OLPC do the deal?

For those of you that have been following OLPC, you’ll know that the ‘Intel Classmate’ has played some underhand tactics in order to get their processor on the OLPC - and then pulled out once they’d hijacked the relationships that OLPC had with important African leaders.  There’s so much corruption in Africa, that XP was probably an (unofficial/off the record) requirement.  Sometimes you’ve got to get in bed with the bad guys to help the small guys.

Where does this leave OLPC in the future?

OLPC ‘Ltd.’ will always be the pioneers to the concept of OLPC.  The aim is a noble one, yet in what is essentially a commercial market - pure advocacy fell to the power of multi-national marketing.  However, it has opened up a new market in the developed countries too - of Ultra Mobile Personal Computers - many of which run Free / Open Source Software.  This can only be a good thing in the long run, with more and more people using FLOSS and seeing the benefits.  Coupled with the coming-of-age of Ubuntu, and the fantastic marketing effort that’s coming with that, Nicolas Negroponte can be confident that where his company may have compromised - his idea is still being pushed by those supporting him.

Inspiring, or soul-destroying?

Posted by Andy under BCS, Control, Digital Freedom, Funny, Hypothesising, Language, Marketing, Music, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

I recently was introduced to www.ted.com, a site which hosts a number of inspirational talks given at the TED conference each year.

TED has been happening for a few years now, and is touted as a chance for some of the greatest minds to get together and share something unique - their ideas.

I’m quite a fan of lay-science, and getting to know more about stuff that’s really advanced.  We all have very different backgrounds and skill-sets - and I think it’s the ability to appreciate these differences that makes things really special.  When I look at the wonderful invention of the StrandBeest by Theo Jansen, I can’t help but feel inspired.

It’s fantastic to see how people’s minds tick, and this site is likely to provide me with hours of distraction in the future.  The phrase ’standing on the shoulders of giants’ is something that can be overused.  However, in sharing these ideas, we’re given access to a wealth of information.  It’s precisely for these reasons that I advocate the use of Free/Libre Open Source Software.  Enjoy the site.

When should an application be a protocol?

Posted by Andy under Control, Digital Freedom, Freedom, Marketing, Political, Projects, SBLUG Planet, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu, twitter

I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m becoming more immersed technically in technology, rather than ‘functionally’ as I was previously, but it appears as though issues at the political level are clouding achievements at the technical level.

Zeth has posted before on a Social Networking protocol. That is to say that applications such as facebook, myspace and bebo share alot of similar datafields. Standardising these global fields and setting up a new social networking protocol would allow greater freedom of data-sharing, and enable more powerful “mash-ups” of data.

Tim Berners-Lee’s book, “Weaving the Web” (which I am currently reading) is opening my eyes to just how self-deprecating his work has been. Not only would his work have normally afforded him a very wealthy lifestyle should he have chosen to ‘close’ the development of the project and put restrictions on his work - but he actively encouraged other people to benefit from his work - even when the way in which they were taking his idea was contrary to his own.

Now, nearly twenty years after the ‘World Wide Web’ started to gain momentum into something recognisable as what we use today, we’ve not yet got to a point which has fulfilled Berners-Lee’s vision. He envisaged an open mine of information and collaboration. Wikified browsers were the original intention - where collaboration and editing was a key as browsing.

Another example of a good application that would work better as a protocol is twitter. I think the reason most people don’t get twitter is that in essence its just an RSS feed. Today, paulbradshaw suggested that there be a twitter feed created purely for football scores - not chatter, just results. An RSS feed would have the same functionality - but a different interface.

In the same way that programmers have now begun to separate the content from the design with the advent of Content Management Systems and ‘Blogs - so should things like twitter be more transparent about the platform on which it is built. RSS is expandable and usable - twitter has released an open API to allow integration and collaboration - yet it’s still hindered by having a Central Point of Control. The initial design of the Web implied there was no central point necessary. By manufacturing applications and functions so that a central point is necessary is to lose part of the magic and scalability of the Web.