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Welcome to ConsortiumInfo.org
Thursday, March 18 2010 @ 11:25 AM PDT
 Our story so far: Now under surveillance, Frank begins to plan his escape. Read the first chapters here, and you can also follow the Further Adventures of Frank on Twitter.
 To Frank’s disgust, it was love at first sight for Lilly when Carl Cummings arrived to collect Frank’s passport. But Frank’s distaste turned to glee when he realized that the CIA agent hated dogs. Frank stepped back to better appreciate Carl’s futile efforts to fend off the obese corgi’s surprisingly energetic advances.
Predictably, Mrs. Foomjoy popped just then like a jack-in-the-box out of her door across the hall. Frank thought she looked magnificent in her full regalia of housedress, fuzzy slippers and curlers, as she fiercely admonished Cummings for his lack of appreciation for canine perfection. With an effort, she pushed past him and snatched Lily up, lighting into the startled Cummings with a vengeance all the while. And then, as suddenly as she had appeared, Frank’s apparition of a neighbor disappeared with Lilly behind her energetically slammed door.
The agent turned to Frank, a helpless look on his face. But Frank simply smiled and tucked his passport in the agent’s pocket. “Sorry for my bad manners, Carl. Next time I’ll introduce you.” He closed the door gently in the bewildered agent’s face.
 Have you discovered the Alexandria Project?
By now you've probably read endless takes on the news that Elliott Associates, one of the oldest hedge funds, with over US $16 billion under management, has made an unsolicited offer for Novell. Almost all of these articles have focused on whether Elliott means business, what they'll do to Novell if they are successful, and whether another (and perhaps ultimately successful) bidder will enter the scene.
  I haven't seen any article yet, though, that describes in detail how the high stakes game of tender offers is played, and how the usual process maps (and doesn't) to a high tech company like Novell. So I thought I'd provide an overview for those that haven't had occasion to follow a tender offer in the past, and also my thoughts on what may happen over the next several months in this particular game of cat and mouse.
So here goes.
Our story so far: At the end of an “interview” with a CIA agent, Frank realizes he may have become the prime suspect in the investigation of the ongoing hacking of Library of Congress. Now what? Read the first chapters here, and you can also follow the Further Adventures of Frank on Twitter.
 Frank struggled to organize his thoughts as he left the fiasco of an “interview” he’d just endured at the hands of CIA agent Carl Cummings. Time to be logical, he thought, not emotional. If he didn’t start getting a hold of himself, at this rate he’d find himself in jail.
So what should be at the top of the decision tree, he asked as he walked back to his cubicle. Well, the first gate appeared to be whether Cummings really thought Frank was the culprit. If no, then Frank could relax, but if yes, then Frank could be in real trouble. Frank weighed the possibility that Carl was just jerking everyone around, to feel self-important. Negative, Frank decided. Everyone else thought the disappearing documents were part of a test, not a real exploit, and Carl would have wanted to keep it that way.
So that means I’m in trouble, Frank told himself. See? I'm making progress already.
Our story so far: Our hero, Frank Adversego is trying to catch a hacker threatening the Library of Congress, whose motives remain obscure. But the pursuer is about to become the pursued. Read the first chapter here, and follow the Further Adventures of Frank on Twitter.
 While Frank was enjoying himself spear phishing venture capitalists, back at the Library of Congress files were flashing out of virtual view like fireflies on a summer’s eve. One by one, documents important and banal, short and long, drifted silently off in the digital darkness to points unknown, leaving only Alexandria Project contribution screen code behind.
Thus it was that at 10 on Friday morning, Frank’s office phone buzzed, and he heard the receptionist say, “Your turn, Frank. Conference room two.”
Frank logged off his computer and stood up with a thoughtful look on his face. Just enough time for a little self-coaching as he walked down the hallway. Stay cool, he thought. Be calm. You don’t have anything to worry about, so just tell the news.
 Have you discovered the Alexandria Project?
 A long running case of great significance to the legal underpinnings of free and open source/open source software (F/OSS) has just settled on terms favorable to the F/OSS developer. The settlement follows a recent ruling by a U.S. Federal District Court judge that affirmed several key rights of F/OSS developers under existing law.
That case is Jacobsen v. Katzer, and the settlement documents were filed in court just after 9:00 AM this morning. Links to each of them can be found later in this blog entry. The brief background of the case, the legal issues at stake, and the settlement details are as follows.
Our story so far: Our hero, Frank Adversego now understands where the name "Alexandria Project" comes from, but hasn't been able to figure out much else yet about the mysterious cracker whose exploit threatens the Library of Congress. Read the first chapters here, and follow the Further Adventures of Frank on Twitter.
 Frank fidgeted by the cheese and crackers, looking helplessly for his daughter Marla in the crowd. He hated social events with a passion, and especially having to speak to people he didn’t know. He was sure that every phrase that came out of his mouth came across as a non sequitur.
But fair was fair. Marla had kept him company at the Library of Congress holiday party the weekend before, and this Wednesday it was his turn. Marla was finishing up an internship with a local high tech company, and at the last minute, her date had come down with the flu.
“Please, Dad,” she’d said over the phone, “There’s this guy at work that’s been hitting on me all week. It’ll do you good to get out of your crummy apartment, and how can you turn down a request to protect your little girl?”
 Have you discovered The Alexandria Project?
 I don't usually post twice a day, but today was opening day in Barcelona of the Mobile World Congress, the biggest mobile show of the year, and the announcements were popping thick and fast. One of those announcements unveiled a new mobile platform called MeeGo - a new open source contender in the race to power the broad array of devices that are rapidly proliferating in the mobile marketplace. And, I'm happy to say, MeeGo will be hosted by The Linux Foundation.
We've been working for some time on this, and we're very pleased that the project has now gone public. The LF press release can be found here, and the Intel version of the joint Intel-Nokia release is here. As usual, both are also pasted in below for archival purposes. I think you'd also find LF Executive Director Jim Zemlin's blog entry worth a read, and I'll quote from it below.
Our story so far: Security expert Frank Adversego comes under suspicion when the Library of Congress is hacked by a mysterious cracker with motives unknown and a taste for the bizarre; to protect himself, Frank had better get to the bottom of things. Read the first chapters here, and follow the Further Adventures of Frank on Twitter.
 Back in his cube again, Frank powered up his computer and reflected on what he’d just learned, which was both not much and a lot. Not much, in that he still had no idea who was behind the attack, or what he was trying to accomplish. But a lot because the only people targeted besides himself were George and Rick, and because only the files in one directory had been affected. That meant that what had hit the Library of Congress was no virus unleashed against Web sites generally, bent on spreading random mayhem. Instead, it was obviously an attack targeted just at the LOC. And once it had made its way through the LOC firewall, the attack had been manually controlled rather than automated.
As you may recall, the Linux Foundation last year ran a video contest that drew a lot of entries, many of which were not only entertaining, but had surprisingly high production values as well. Last year's invitation was to use the popular "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" ad series as an inspiration, and you can see the winning videos here (all of last year's entries can be found here).
Well, it's that time again, and LF has just annnounced this year's contest theme, rules and deadline. The announcement is here, and also pasted in at the end of this blog entry. This year, the invitation is to submit what a Super Bowl ad for Linux might be like, if there was ever to be such a thing.
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There are over 1,000,000 supported standards, with more being developed all the time. The Standards Blog examines how standards are developed, and their impact on business, society, and the future. This site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. GU is an internationally recognized leader in creating and representing the organizations that create and promote standards and open source software. The opinions expressed in The Standards Blog are those of Andy Updegrove alone, and not necessarily those of GU. Please see the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for this site, which appear here.
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Quote of the Day“ A reasonable jury could have concluded that Microsoft 'willfully' infringed the '449 patent based on the evidence presented at trial” -Excerpt from the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals opinion reaffirming Microsoft's loss to i4A See all Quotes
Latest NewsCodePlex Foundation Announces Creation of Second Open Source Gallery, Acceptance of Anchor ProjectPress ReleaseCodePlex Foundation March 18, 2010 - The CodePlex Foundation today announced the creation of its second project gallery, the Systems Infrastructure and Integration Gallery, and the acceptance of the first project into that gallery, the Network Monitor Parsers Project. The gallery and project, contributed by Microsoft, the Foundation’s founding sponsor, were evaluated for acceptance using the Foundation’s Project Acceptance and Operation Guidelines.
Interoperability is a key need for IT customers who increasingly rely on heterogeneous computing environments. While open APIs and documented technical bridges from technology providers help assure interoperability, CodePlex.org believes that the collaborative open source development process benefits everyone....The Network Monitor Parsers project, the gallery’s anchor project, is an important first step in the overall Network Monitor project, which will open up specifications for substantial APIs where Windows platform technology interfaces with network protocols.... ...Full StoryJAPAN AIMS TO SET STANDARD FOR ELEC-CAR CHARGERS
Press Release
Toyota et al. March 18, 2010 - Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, will help lead a cross-industry effort to create a global standard for high-speed battery chargers for electric cars in Japan.
The trio will join Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. in chairing a consortium of 158 companies and organizations established Monday....European engineering group ABB Ltd. and German autoparts manufacturer Robert Bosch GmbH will also take part. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will be among 24 observers.
The forum aims to standardize how chargers communicate with cars....If Japan's standard becomes the world's, Japanese manufacturers will gain an advantage over their foreign rivals, which are working to promote their own charging technologies. International competition in the field looks likely to heat up.... ...Full Story Open Identity Exchange Launches at RSA
Press Release
OIX.org March 18, 2010 - Industry leaders Google, PayPal, Equifax, VeriSign, Verizon, CA, and Booz Allen Hamilton today announced at the RSA Conference 2010 the formation of the Open Identity Exchange (OIX) www.openidentityexchange.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to building trust in the exchange of online identity credentials across public and private sectors. With initial grants from the OpenID Foundation (OIDF) and Information Card Foundation (ICF), OIX has been approved as a trust framework provider by the United States Government to certify online identity management providers to U.S. federal standards for identity assurance.
Trust frameworks are a new way for one site to trust the identity, security, and privacy assurances from another site (the "identity provider") acting on behalf of a user. Google, Paypal, and Equifax are the first three identity providers certified by OIX to issue digital identity credentials that will be accepted for privacy-protected registration and login at U.S. government websites. Verizon is currently in the certification process and is expected to be completed shortly.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the first government website accepting these credentials, including OpenID and Information Card logins, a capability it demonstrated today at the RSA Conference. Citizens can use open identity technologies to support a number of online services across websites, including customized library searches, access to training resources, conference registration, and medical research wikis, with strong privacy protections, all designed to ensure accessible and transparent communication between the government agency and U.S. citizens.... ...Full Story New consortium aims to increase mobile broadband capacity tenfold
Lynnette Luna
FierceBroadbandWireless March 18, 2010 - Alvarion is leading a new initiative aimed at significantly increasing mobile broadband infrastructure capacity density.
Called Beyond Next-Generation Mobile Broadband (BuNGee), the initiative is looking to increase mobile broadband capacity tenfold. The $6.4-million project is funded in large part by the European Commission and will see European service providers, technology equipment vendors, universities and research organizations collaborate on the initiative.
The consortium's primary objective is to increase the overall mobile network infrastructure capacity significantly beyond what current technologies promise. The goal: 1 Gbps per square kilometer. The project will identify new network deployment strategies, especially for dense urban environments where demand for mobile broadband services is the heaviest.... ...Full Story New Mexico Innovators Join Forces on Fulldome Research
Press Release
University of New Mexico March 17, 2010 - The most common experience many people have with "fulldome immersive environments" is with planetariums such as the LodeStar planetarium at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. In today's digital age, however, it's not surprising that the technology used in producing such immersive environments is evolving quickly and that New Mexico is playing an important role. A new, statewide research partnership called "PFI: Consortium for Fulldome and Immersive Technology Development" received $597,220 in funding March 1 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Partnerships for Innovation program.
PFI grants promote innovation by bringing together colleges and universities, state and local governments, private-sector firms, and nonprofit organizations. PFI helps these organizations form partnerships that support innovation in their communities by developing the people, tools, and infrastructure needed to put new scientific discoveries to practical uses.
The new consortium will develop the hardware and software that will make it possible to use fulldomes as interactive, multisurface environments that help people visualize, simulate, or experientially comprehend a wide range of information, from educational and artistic material to evaluating scientific data and complex systems.
Two of UNM's most creative labs are cornerstones of the consortium – the Advanced Graphics Lab in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department of the School of Engineering and the multidisciplinary ARTS Lab.
The other two cornerstones are based in Santa Fe: the Santa Fe Complex and the Institute of American Indian Arts.... ...Full Story Carbon Trust launches green fuel consortium
Cath Everett
BusinessGreen March 17, 2010 - The Carbon Trust has today launched a new consortium of UK businesses committed to developing a commercially viable process for converting municipal and wood waste into a biofuel boasting higher levels of environmental sustainability than those currently on the market.
The consortium, which will be funded to the tune of ÂŁ7m over the next three to four years, will attempt to refine a process known as pyrolysis, which can be used to produce biofuels from existing organic waste material rather than controversial energy crops.
Pyrolysis works by heating organic material to extreme temperatures in the absence of oxygen. The process breaks down the material to create either a gas or oil that can then be used to create biofuel.... ...Full Story New Industry Forum - Network Test Automation Forum - Advocates Collaboration and Interoperability of Vendor Test Tools
Press Release
NTAF.org March 17, 2010 - Leading companies from across the communications and networking industries including BreakingPoint Systems, BT, Cisco, Empirix, Ericsson, EXFO, Fanfare Software, Ixia, JDSU, Spirent Communications, and Verizon today announced that they have joined forces to form the Network Test Automation Forum (NTAF), www.ntaforum.org, a global effort designed to promote interoperability between test tools and to simplify lab automation efforts. With representation from service providers, network equipment manufacturers and test & measurement vendors, NTAF advocates a customer-centric, device-agnostic framework that reduces time, complexity, and cost of product test cycles.
NTAF represents a fundamental shift from the stand-alone and proprietary approaches to an open lab automation approach. The forum asks test equipment vendors to collaborate with their customers to define an open and advanced automation framework. Through the agreement and adoption of multi-vendor technical architectures for test automation systems, test engineers and lab managers will benefit from accelerated deployment of next generation network products and services.... ...Full Story ICC, ASHRAE, USGBC and IES Announce Nation’s First Set of Model Codes and Standards for Green Building in the U.S.
ANSI.org March 17, 2010 - The International Code Council (ICC), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) – all members of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) – have announced the launch of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC).
The IGCC represents the merger of two national efforts to develop adoptable and enforceable green building codes. It will provide the building industry with language that both broadens and strengthens building codes in a way that will accelerate the construction of high performance green buildings across the U.S.
For decades, ICC and ASHRAE have worked to develop codes and standards that become the industry standard of care for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of residential and commercial buildings in the U.S. and internationally. In coordination with the efforts of ICC and ASHRAE, USGBC has been leading a nationwide green building movement centered on the LEED Green Building Rating System since LEED was launched in 2000. The convergence of these efforts in the IGCC is perhaps the most significant development in the buildings industry in the past 10 years.... ...Full Story Consensus Emerges for Key Web Application Standard
Stephen Shankland
CNET News.com March 17, 2010 - Browser makers, grappling with outmoded technology and a vision to
rebuild the Web as a foundation for applications, have begun converging
on a seemingly basic by very important element of cloud computing. That
ability is called local storage, and the new mechanism is called
Indexed DB....already it's won endorsements from
Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google, and together, Internet Explorer, Firefox,
and Chrome account for more than 90 percent of the usage on the Net today.
Standardization could come: advocates have worked Indexed DB into the
considerations of the W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium that
standardizes HTML and other Web technologies....Local storage lets
Web programmers save data onto computers where it's convenient for
processors to access. That can mean, for example, that some aspects of
Gmail and Google Docs can work while you're disconnected from the
network.... ...Full Story Now a No-Evil Zone
Tim Bray
Ongoing (blog) March 16, 2010 - As of this morning I work for Google. The title is “Developer Advocate”. The focus is Android. Fun is expected....On Google · It’s now too big to be purely good or in fact purely anything. I’m sure that tendrils of stupidity and evil are even now finding interstitial breeding grounds whence they will emerge to cause grief. And there are some Google initiatives that I feel no urge to go near.
But there are those Ten Things and you know, I’m down with ’em. Unreservedly.
The reason I’m here is mostly Android. Which seems to me about as unambiguously a good thing as the tangled wrinkly human texture of the Net can sustain just now. Here’s why:... ...Full Story
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Arriving at work on Monday, Frank found a Post-it® note on his monitor with three words: See me – George. It looked like the week was about to get off to an interesting start. The question was how?