Archive for category Open Source

Next 3 Years in the Browser Space

Posted by Michael Opperman in Browsers, Business Models, Digital, Economy, Mozilla Firefox, Open Source, Operating Systems, Search, Social Networking on October 16, 2009

In this talk at The Future of Web Apps London, Aza Raskin talks about the future of browsers. He discusses …

1. YOU-Centric browsing
2. How browsers will manage your identity
3. Browsers with native natural language processing
4. Built-in payments in browsers

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Open Source Dictionary

Posted by Michael Opperman in Open Source, Web 2.0 on February 27, 2007

Launching today is Word Source. The offering was inevitable. Users can add tags, upload photos and rate words. Will this resource influence the compilation and updating of analog dictionaries?

There are often objections to applications like this one, pointing to shortcomings and lack of governance. The other perspective is to view Word Source and Wikipedia as complements to carefully regulated offerings. Because if we’re honest, objective control is an illusion.

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Vista or: How I Learned to Start Worrying and Love the Mac

Posted by Michael Opperman in Apple, Google, Microsoft, Open Source, Operating Systems on February 26, 2007

Disclosure: I have been a PC user since Windows 3.1 when I created documents on a 386. I will continue to use a PC at home, but am switching to a MacBook Pro at work. I’m eagerly awaiting the machine.

Someone close to me recently went through the “Task List” (Microsoft’s term) for upgrading her operating system to Vista. Her computer is not a video game busting design machine, but it’s new enough to be respectable in a bar fight. The task list was three pages long (and included the purchase of hardware – e.g. new video card). I predict, given her frustration, that she purchases a Mac within the year.

But that’s not what I intended to write about – or not entirely. There are a few slow armies worth watching as frustration with Microsoft (both deserved and undeserved) mounts. Google just launched Google Aps, an incomplete but notable alternative to Microsoft Office and Mandriva Free 2007, an alternative to the whole operating system.

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Open Source Spying

Posted by Michael Opperman in CIM, Open Source on December 8, 2006

The New York Times Magazine ran a fascinating story on the government intelligence community. For years, living with Cold War era thinking (if not technology), the government acronyms (DIA, CIA, NSA, FBI) have recently been attempting to turn the boat. Some of the more forward thinking have recommended and tested the use of blogs and wiki for intelligence sharing. The first sets of results are compelling: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/magazine/03intelligence.html.

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