Local people tailor their own software

According to the Economist, Open Source has another distinct advantage in places where English is not the mother tongue. Because users have access to the source, it is much easier to write their own version in the local language. Take a look at the article "Open source's local heroes" - including the great story about how a Hungarian group translated OpenOffice in three days with a pizza party.

"..Mozilla, an open-source web browser, now speaks 65 languages, with 34 more to follow. OpenOffice, the leading open-source office suite, is available in 31 languages, including Slovenian, Basque and Galician, and Indian languages such as Gujarati .." (ms office xp is available in 20 languages)

For example, translate.org.za/ aims to translate software into the eleven local South African languages - and can only do this with open source resources. If you're relying on commercial software to translate, you could be waiting a long time - whereas

Open Content?

If you're looking for materials that have less restrictive copyright arrangements, (eg copyleft, Creative commons, GnuPublicLicence instead), try starting at the Wikipedia intro to "open content". Or start at the dMoZ page on open content. (The Idea Banks look like fun.)

Democrat bill causing consternation for Bill

The Australian is reporting the aftermath of that ACT (Canberra State) Bill. Software companies are furious that this will encourage government agencies to 'consider' open source when buying software. Mikroseft has called the bill "anti-competitive" - now that's ironic! - claiming that people would only buy open source on ideological grounds, not merit or quality.

ACT Democrat Roslyn Dundas has claimed, "Open source software also needs less sophisticated hardware, so fewer equipment upgrades would be needed, saving yet more money.

"The funds that could be saved on licence fees could then be used to expand the excellent digital divide program, which teaches computer skills to people left behind by the IT revolution."

Mm, yes.

New mailing list - lit & tech !!

for anyone interested in adult language, literacy, numeracy, and technology .. there's a new mailing list in town - moderated by Robyn Jay, Syed Javed & i, hosted at victoria uni - this list wil be great for practitioners and researchers involved in using technology in adult language, literacy or numeracy

- come and join -

operating system of the year - mac os x - panther -

Well if you thought open source was only for people who understand code .. wake up to the new era.

Everyone knows that Apple Mac has the original, most intuitive and best visual interface, right?

Well, the December edition of Australian Personal Computing has rated apple mac's "mac os x - panther" - the operating system of the year! .. and mac has gone completely open source. They have based their system on UNIX, and released the source code into the world. (=> plenty of info about "darwin" their open source unix project )

With a warning to Windows and Linux users to hold their hats, apcmag.com.au announces that "Panther" is years ahead of its competition in terms of stability, security and usability. If only you could get a copy for a non-apple machine .. but no, apple has always insisted that the system will only go on their own machines (using motorola chips rather than intel/amd).

apcmag.com.au has always been a personal computing magazine that investigates Windows, apple mac, and Unix (Linux).

Knowledge Tree now Flowering

If you enjoyed the interviews with Marty Cielens and Martin Dougiamas on this site, you may enjoy more articles and stories about flexible learning - at the Knowledge Tree on the flexible learning site. This fourth edition has interviews with other online pioneers such as the amazing Nola Campbell from Waikato in New Zealand, and Janina Gawler, the new Chief Executive Officer of the Australian National Training Authority (anta).

Easy Guide to Open Source

From the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon, comes an easy-to-read guide to Open Source - for people in K-12. What it is, pro's & con's, examples in use, and how to make decisions.

Bundles of free software for Windows machines

GNU-Win in Switzerland has a great list of all the GNU Freeware you can get for Windows machines. You can order a CD from them .. (or download an "iso" if you have broadband and 30 hours to spare.)

FLL Postcard

Michael's postcard is the latest from the Flexible Learning Leaders 2003 (you can collect the whole series). [If you've made it to this site however, you already have access to everything in the card.]

Another government department crosses the line ..

Interestingly, according to the UK Register, MS has accused the Israeli Ministry of Commerce of being "tight-fisted", as the Ministry has switched its office suite over to OpenOffice.org. Not a good tactic when you lose a customer - a bit like a dog that bites you when you stop patting it?

Wikipedia tops Britannica

Thanks to Stephen Downes for this link - a comparison showing that the open source encyclopedia using "wiki" software is now more popular than encylops Britannica .. WikiPedia is run on contributions from volunteers.

.. incidentally the same site that gives these stats lists (alexa.com) a range of open source/open content encyclopedias in their category page.