Triplesourced

I like to work with BBC World News on in the background over here in Budapest. Working on your own is fine but you get used to noises of a busy(ish) editorial office so its nice to have some buzz and chatter on in the background - which is exactly what the BBC excels at.

The downside is that the Beeb - although not as bad as CNN for this - tends to loop the same reports over and over again.

The latest one that keeps grabbing my attention is a report on UN technical staff being trained to cope with the dangers of working in war zones and disaster areas. You can see the report here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8000947.stm

However, aside from the paratroopers and automatic weapons, what really caught my attention about the report is that I actually covered the story for ZDNet.co.uk last year. TV normally gets the pick of these kind of stories so its nice to know we got their first on this one!

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39426601,00.htm

Second time is lucky too it seems. Hungarian ex-Microsoft Billionaire Charles Simonyi has landed safely after his second space-tourist mission.

I am living in Budapest for a while and so taking an interest in anything Hungarian in the news these days. Most of it is economic doom and gloom - the country recently lost its Prime Minister - but Simonyi's space flight, and the fact he is rolling in cash, is a welcome positive story.

Charles Simonyi is one of the lead creators of Microsoft Office. Wikipedia has all the skinny. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Simonyi

Temporarily based in Hungary as I am - been here in Budapest for a couple of months - anything Hungarian in the news gets my attention.

Right now its mostly how the Hungarian economy is in meltdown - the PM quit on Saturday - but every now and again there is a bit of good news. A lot of that happens when I find another famous person who turns out to be Hungarian.

There are loads of them from obvious ones such as George Soros to Tony Curtis and Jerry Seinfeld.

But the most newsworthy at the moment is Charles Simonyi who has just blasted into space for the second time on a Russian Soyuz space mission - with a bit of help from the US. While a lot of Hungarians might be justifiable proud of Simonyi - swathes of the open source community might not be as well disposed to the creator of Microsoft Office. Wikipedia has all the skinny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Simonyi

Interestingly from an open source perspective - I saw free software campaigner and GNU Founder Richard Stallman speak in Budapest recently. Stallman was on fine form as usual criticising everything from EU adoption of open source to the links between green and free software - but he missed the chance to berate the Hungarians for Simonyi's Office development. But then again Simonyi did all his work in the US so guess Hungarians can just take the credit for the good stuff ;-)

You can read the Stallman interview here: http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/interview/richard-stallman--free-software-costs-the-environment-less-404

Only just noticed that ZDNet.co.uk has updated the way it displays video.

This a good thing as it means that I can now embed some of the video I shot while I worked on the site - from 2003 to 2008 - on some of my other blogs.

There is loads of great content on ZD (not just my own obviously) so it's good to delve into the archives and look around.

This a video I shot in Kenya back in 2007 as part of a trip in cooperation with IT charity Computer Aid to see how the technology the charity collects from UK businesses is used by hospitals and schools in the developing world.

This video looks at how Computer Aid works with a fantastic organisation called AMREF which operates a flying doctors service in Africa.

Flying doctors bring computer aid to Africa|ZDNet UK videos

PS: It seems that while the Embed code from the ZDNet player works in my Ning network (www.greenwashIT.co.uk) it doesn't actually work/has been disabled in ZD's own blogs - hence why you are seeing a link rather than the video unit. I could be doing something wrong though.

Yep - in typical fashion, even the government's tacit admission that it was behind the curve on open source was released late.

The press release/statement/apology - Government levels the playing field for open source - wasn't sent out from the Ministry of Truth until at least 7.00pm - when most reporters are tucked up in the nearest hostelry.

And what about that headline - "levels the playing field' - that seems to imply that until now the government has been quite happy with uneven playing field when it comes to procuring anything but proprietary technology but I might be being unfair.

Interestingly though the release also states that "major players in the IT industry now support the use of Open Standards". For major players basically read Microsoft as I am not sure what other major players have recently stumbled over this open source thing: IBM, HP, Dell - have all been supporting Linux (to some degree or other) for years.

Anyway, better late than passed-over-in-favour-of-a -reduced-price-which-quickly-becomes-lock-in, I guess.

The timing is also interesting. Is it down to open source finally reaching critical mass as the government claims ? Or could it be something to do with the fact that the Treasury has given all our money to bankers and can no longer afford to throw cash at whichever proprietary solutions EDS thinks is best for us?

Minister for Digital Engagement (what sort of job title is that??? Does that mean he can marry two computers that are very much in love), Tom Watson clearly thinks that open source can save the government some cash:

"Open Source software is a not a cure-all remedy and is not the only solution to IT questions. However, by levelling the playing field and allowing Open Source to be as competitive as possible we can ensure that taxpayers get maximum value for money from Government IT, something that is more important than ever during the worldwide financial climate"

However he won't actually goes as far as to say its a superior development model or anything that positive at all. The whole statement reads more like "It could save us a few quid and everyone is doing it so shucks I guess we should too"

Anyways the governments approach is based around three ideas - (three - count'em - not one, not two but three! - Fear, surprise and ruthless efficiency)

There are three aspects to the new policy:

Open Source software: the policy includes 10 actions that will actively help make sure the best possible, best value for money software solutions are put forward for tenders, be they Open Source or propriety products.

Open Standards: the policy contains an explicit reference to Open Standards, ensuring systems are inter-operable and avoiding getting locked into a particular product where possible.

Re-use: the Government will look to re-use what it has already bought, with successful solutions being made available across Government.

So there you go - that's that open source thing taken care off. Tune in next week when the government decides that this Interwebby thing might actually be useful.