Open Source and Standards Must Mesh for Blockchains to Succeed

5/02/2018

There’s a belief in some open source circles that standards can be consigned to the ash heap of history now that OSS development has become so central to information technology. While it’s true that today many use cases can be addressed with OSS where open standards would have been used in the past, that approach can’t solve all problems. Most obviously, while resolving interoperation issues through real-time collaboration among up and downstream projects may meet the need within the same stack, it doesn’t help that stack communicate with other software.

Blockchain technology is an architecture where collaboration on software alone will often not suffice to meet the challenge at hand.

It’s Time for the Personal Datasphere (Finally!)

4/27/2018

When it comes to the blockchain, most people fall into one of two camps: the hand-wavers that think the blockchain will disrupt and benefit the world as profoundly as the Internet, and those who are scratching their heads and just can't see how that could be possible. I confess that I fall more into the second camp than the first, but I do recognize that blockchain technology can provide a far superior tool to tackle some challenges than any that we've had to work with before.

I identified just such a challenge many years ago when the Internet was really taking off, and suggested that individuals needed to seize control of their personal information before commercial interests ran off with it instead, locking it away inside proprietary databases. The date of that article? February 2004, the same month that a little Web site called Facebook went live. Back then the problem was (and it still is) that the critical keys to avoiding data lock in are standards, and the process that develops those standards wasn't (and still isn't) controlled by end users.

Here's how I posed the challenge in that article:

Frank Adversego Book Five! Prologue and Chapter One

1/27/2018

Courtesy Urban and Wikimedia Commons - Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to read a book as its written? Or better yet, be able to make suggestions as the book develops and see your ideas help shape the result? Well, here’s your chance. If you’re already a Friend of Frank at my author site, or want to become one, that’s what you’re invited to do. As the book evolves, I'll ask for your advice, and answer any questions you may have. I’ll also give you the inside scoop about how and why each chapter is written as it is. Sound interesting? Great, because I’ve just posted the Prologue and First Chapter below. To read the future chapters for free as they’re posted, all you have to do is become a Friend of Frank.

Open Source or Open Standards? (Yes!) The Future has Arrived

11/15/2017

Courtesy of EFF Graphics/Wikimedia Commons - Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States license. Once upon a time – oh, say fifteen years ago – the terms open standards and open source software (OSS) were often used interchangeably. Not because they were the same thing, but because many people weren't sure what either really was, let alone the differences between them. That was unfortunate, because at that time the two had little in common, and were developed for very different purposes.

Recently, many people (especially OSS developers) have begun referring to the software they develop as “a standard.” This time around they’re a lot closer to being right.

So, what’s going on here? And is it a good thing?

Please Welcome the Community Data License Agreement

10/24/2017

CDLA Logo Those who have followed the spread of open source software (OSS) know that a bewildering thicket of OSS licenses were created in the early days. They also know that although the Open Source Initiative was formed in part to certify which of these documents should be permitted to call itself an “open source software license,” that didn’t mean that each approved license was compatible with the other. Ever since, it’s been a pain in the neck to vet code contributions to ensure that an OSS user knows what she’s getting into when she incorporates a piece of OSS into her own program.

In the intervening years, more and more entities – private, public and academic – have decided to make public the increasingly large, various and valuable data sets they are producing. One resulting bonanza is the opportunity to combine these data sets in order to accomplish more and more ambitious goals – such as informing the activities of autonomous vehicles. But what if the rules governing these databases are just as diverse and incompatible as the scores of OSS licenses unleashed on an unwitting public?

First Reviews of The Turing Test Are In

7/30/2017

Turing Cover 100 My latest book, The Turing Test is out, and the first reviews are in. Here are a few samples from the reviews (all five star) posted at Amazon so far:

Beyond any shadow of doubt, 'The Turing Test' is a worthy addition to the Frank Adversego series and more than satisfied my every expectation ... For me, 'The Turing Test' is a stealthier creature. It packs its punches in a different but equally effective manner, delivering a terrific tension and suspense that ebbs and flows throughout a lengthy narrative peppered with twists, turns and shocking surprises ...

Frank Rides Again: The Turing Test is Available!

7/14/2017

TTT%203D%20100_1.png Releasing a new book is always a big deal for an author, no matter how many times it happens. this is the fourth time around for me, and I think The Turing Test, a Tale of Artificial Intelligence and Malevolence, is my best book so far. Happily, my much-esteemed beta readers all agree.

Long time Friends of Frank will also be happy to learn that, unlike the plots of the three preceding books, this one isn’t likely to come true. That is, for awhile.

Open Source Stacks: Jumping the Shark or Poised for Dominance?

6/16/2017

By any measure, the rise of open source software as an alternative to the old proprietary ways has been remarkable. Today, there are tens of millions of libraries hosted at GitHub alone, and the number of major projects is growing rapidly. As of this writing the Apache Software Foundationhosts over 300 projects, while the Linux Foundation supports over 60. Meanwhile, the more narrowly-focused OpenStack Foundation boasts 60,000 members living in more than 180 countries.

Supreme Court Curtails Patent Case “Forum Shopping”

5/22/2017

Supreme%20Court%20140.jpg The Supreme Court issued an opinion today that restricts the ability of patent owners to choose the court in which they bring an infringement suit. The case is called TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Food Group Banks LLC, and the justices unanimously ruled in favor of the new restrictions.

Guest Post: This is France’s Moment

5/04/2017

Several months ago, I called on France to learn from America’s mistakes. I told the French that it wasn’t too late to save themselves. They still had a chance to do what we could not – to vote a xenophobic, nationalist candidate out of the race and away from the presidency (though, in their case, Donald Trump is replaced by Marine Le Pen, leader of the far right party, le Front national). I warned them of the complacency felt by so many Americans in the days before November 8, of the voice in their heads that said it was okay to stay home on election day. The voice that said your vote doesn’t matter, or that it’s okay to cast a vote to show that you’re fed up with the status quo, a vote for a candidate you never expect to win. The voice that yawns and says, ‘Well, it can’t happen here.’

The Standards Blog