Weblog: Archive

Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), the oldest university of technology in Finland launched their new site today:

From the announcement:

The goal is for all TKK units to gradually adopt the new content management system. This would standardise the appearance of all TKK web pages as well as their style of presenting information.

The new TKK web pages utilise an open source content management system, Midgard CMS, provided by Nemein Oy, and their appearance has been designed by Activeark Oy. Adage Oy consulted TKK on user centered design of information architecture.

Quite a few interesting details on the site, like Shibboleth single sign-on and use of OpenStreetMap and Mapstraction as the official web map solution.

Update: It should be noted that TKK's Laboratory of Media Technology has been running Midgard since around 2000.

Technorati Tags: mapstraction, midgard, nemein, openstreetmap, sso

I've mentioned before that Ajatus is a P2P CRM, but what does that mean? It means that Ajatus has been designed to be a personal tool for information management, but that is has also been designed to help you connect with anyone you need to work with.

The means to that is CouchDb's integrated replication feature. With it you can easily share your Ajatus data with anybody in the network, or just keep your laptop and desktop system in sync.

At the moment we only support full replication over HTTP, but the plan is to support replicating only data with specific tags (for example, only data related to a specific project), and to do it over XMPP.

As things are, here is how you set up Ajatus replication on a Mac OS X system:

First allow CouchDb to talk to the outside world (note: it is a good idea to keep the firewall up when not replicating!):

Then access the CouchDb management console in http://localhost:5984/_utils/ and go to "Replication". Set up the replication paths there. The database you're interested in is "ajatus_db_content" (by default, see advanced setup):

Once you have entered the paths just click "Replicate" and wait a sec. Replication is one way, so remember to also replicate back from the other server!

When replication is done your Ajatus system should have data entered on multiple systems:

My company is now dogfooding Ajatus. At the moment we use it in full peer-to-peer mode, but there are some plans to install a central server for security and backup purposes. I will post some notes on our experiences later this month.

In related news: CouchDb lead developer Damien Katz has been hired by IBM to work full-time on the database. This is great news for both CouchDb and Ajatus. Congratulations!

Technorati Tags: ajatus, couchdb, replication

And I'm not talking about vodka this time, but instead about the latest internet tablet from Nokia, the N810. I've now had the device for some weeks, and it has really started to replace the laptop in many situations.

The idea of an universal communicator is a mobile device that can be used to connect with various communication networks including telephone, instant messaging and social networks. After the latest Internet Communications Software Update, the N810 fits the description quite well:

• Small and portable, fits a jacket pocket
• Keyboard for reasonably fast text messaging
• Skype for voice calls and keeping in touch with friends and family abroad
• Support for various instant messaging networks like Jabber / Google Talk, MSN, AIM, ...
• SIP voice-over-IP calling support
• Mauku for staying in touch with my Jaiku contacts
• Modest, a really neat mobile email client
• Mozilla-based web browser for the rest
• Multi-colour LED for alerting me when new messages arrive
• MaemoPlazer updates my location to the blog automatically

And did I mention it looks really nice?

The latest software releases mean that I've been able to remove Adium and Skype from my MacBook, and Pidgin from the device, and just use the tablet's native communications tools. This means a lot fewer interruptions when I'm working and easy mobile access to all my instant messaging and email conversations.

Of course, things could be improved even further. Here are my wish list items for future software updates:

• More consistent scrolling (preferably inertial and with thumb-friendly scrollbar) in different apps (#2564)
• SMS support for the instant messaging application through the bluetooth-tethered mobile phone (#2725)
• Ability to act as bluetooth headset for the tethered mobile phone (see ITT)
• A2DP support for wireless stereo headsets (#667)
• GeoClue so position-aware apps can also work indoors (when GPS is not available) (#2037)
• ZeroConf support so Mac (and other) computers discoverable as ".local" become available (#73)
• Video calls with Skype would make the device much more personal

Anyway, this is a big step from the OS2007 and N800 days!

Updated 2008-01-12: Added notes on MaemoPlazer and need for Skype cam calls.

Technorati Tags: jabber, jaiku, maemo, n810, skype, sip

Midgard's discussion forum component, net.nemein.discussion now has new moderation UI.

Regular users can mark posts as abuse (the message shown is a regular spam mail I found from my inbox):

Moderators will get an email (or whatever medium they have selected for receiving notifications, including a Nabaztag WiFi bunny) and can see all messages marked as abuse in the moderation view:

If they confirm the message as abuse or junk it will disappear from the site. If they confirm it as "not abuse" it will stay on site and the "report abuse" button will be removed from it. The full moderation history is kept with posts and displayed to moderators so they see if multiple people have marked something as abuse, for instance.

Technorati Tags: forum, midgard, moderation

This is mostly old news, but The Pirate's Dilemma - an excellent post on open innovation - highlighted it quite strongly: Roughly two-thirds the world’s 150 largest economies aren’t nations, but corporations.

Take a look at the top 187 of largest economic entities on Earth as measured by GDP. How many companies do you recognize?

United States; China; Japan; India; Germany; United Kingdom; France; Italy; Russia; Brazil; Korea, South; Canada; Mexico; Spain; Indonesia; Taiwan; Australia; Turkey; Iran; Argentina; Thailand; South Africa; Poland; Netherlands; Philippines; Pakistan; Saudi Arabia; Colombia; Ukraine; Exxon Mobil; Bangladesh; Belgium; Egypt; Wal-Mart Stores; Malaysia; Royal Dutch Shell; Sweden; Austria; BP; Vietnam; Algeria; Hong Kong; Switzerland; Greece; Czech Republic; Norway; Portugal; Chile; Denmark; Romania; General Motors; Chevron; Nigeria; DaimlerChrysler; Toyota Motor; Peru; Ford Motor; Ireland; Venezuela; Hungary; Finland; ConocoPhillips; Israel; General Electric; Total; Morocco; Kazakhstan; Singapore; ING Group; Citigroup; AXA; United Arab Emirates; Allianz; Volkswagen; Fortis; Crédit Agricole; American Intl. Group; New Zealand; Assicurazioni Generali; Siemens; Sinopec; Slovakia; Sudan; Nippon Telegraph & Telephone; Carrefour; Iraq; HSBC Holdings; Sri Lanka; ENI; Aviva; Intl. Business Machines; McKesson; Tunisia; Honda Motor; State Grid; Hewlett-Packard; BNP Paribas; PDVSA; UBS; Bank of America Corp.; Burma; Hitachi; China National Petroleum; Pemex; Nissan Motor; Berkshire Hathaway; Home Depot; Valero Energy; Belarus; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; Samsung Electronics; Matsushita Electric Industrial; Bulgaria; Deutsche Bank; HBOS; Verizon Communications; Syria; Libya; Cardinal Health; Puerto Rico; Prudential; Nestlé; Deutsche Telekom; Dominican Republic; Metro; Dexia Group; Credit Suisse; Ethiopia; Royal Bank of Scotland; Tesco; Peugeot; U.S. Postal Service; Altria Group; Zurich Financial Services; E.ON; Sony; Vodafone; Société Générale; Électricité De France; Nippon Life Insurance; Statoil; France Télécom ; LG; Guatemala; Kroger; Ecuador; Munich Re Group; Deutsche Post; Croatia; State Farm Insurance Cos; Ghana; Marathon Oil; Azerbaijan; BMW; Fiat; Hyundai Motor; Procter & Gamble; ABN AMRO Holding; Royal Ahold; Repsol YPF; Legal & General Group; Petrobrás; Toshiba; Dell; Lloyds TSB Group; ThyssenKrupp; Boeing; Uzbekistan; AmerisourceBergen; Lithuania; Santander Central Hispano Group; BASF; Costco Wholesale; Suez; Target; Morgan Stanley; Robert Bosch; Kuwait; Angola; Uganda; Renault; Costa Rica; Slovenia; Turkmenistan; Serbia; Congo, Democratic Republic of the; Cuba.

Coming next: Megacorporations. Somehow the concept brought back memories...

Updated 2008-01-12: Some dispute the way of comparing company turnover directly to country GDP, but also in their lists companies are pretty prominent. Via Gregor Rothfuss.

Technorati Tags: future, megacorp

COSS - the Finnish Centre for Open Source Solutions - is a national development agency for open source business ecosystem. COSS consists of 125 Finnish Open Source companies, several universities and public administration.

My company Nemein has been a COSS member for quite a while and benefited from the publicity and collaborative efforts in the organization. An important part of our work with COSS was the Digital Business Ecosystem project where we developed some P2P inter-company project management tools and did some evangelization work in various conferences.

So when the annual members' meeting came last December I thought it was time to give back a bit. I volunteered and was elected as the small business representative in the COSS steering group for the 2008-2009 term.

During the term I especially want to focus on enabling us small companies to work together more efficiently through networking. I also want to build some collaboration with Europe-wide organizations like Free Software Foundation Europe, which I'm a fellow of.

As my first COSS assignment I'm currently meeting representatives of other European Open Source business associations in Berlin. Stay tuned for more on that.

Technorati Tags: coss, freesoftware

I've spent today in the Plazes headquarters in Berlin attending the PlazeCamp developer event. Plazes is a social website that connects WiFi networks with geographical positioning and can be used for event coordination and as a location source for various services.

In the event we third party developers got introduced to the new restful Plazes API and were able to showcase our Plazes-integrated apps. These included:

• MaemoPlazer - the Plazes client for Nokia's internet tablets
• Plazes OS X Dashboard widget
• Mobile and Wii-optimized web UIs for Plazes
• Symbian application for positioning via all visible WiFi base stations without connecting to them
• Midgard's Plazes integration for automated geospatial metadata

In addition to the official program there has been some quite interesting talk about ubiquitous technology, Ajax, RFID and geoprivacy. It has been very refreshing to spend a day in code after two days of hammering down European open source business collaboration details.

2008-01-21: There is a quite good PlazeCamp wrap-up on Four Starters.

Technorati Tags: plazes, plazecamp

MySQL, the world's most popular open source database has today been bought by Sun Microsystems. Congratulations to Monty and the rest of the team! Billion dollars, quite a deal in the free software space.

Jonathan Schwartz writes:

This puts products like MySQL in an interesting position. They're a part of every web company's infrastructure, to be sure. And though many of the more traditional companies use MySQL (from auto companies to financial institutions to banks and retailers), many have been waiting for a Fortune 500 vendor willing to step up, to provide mission critical global support.

So what are we announcing today? That in addition to acquiring MySQL, Sun will be unveiling new global support offerings into the MySQL marketplace. We'll be investing in both the community, and the marketplace - to accelerate the industry's phase change away from proprietary technology to the new world of open web platforms.

MySQL has been the trusty storage back-end of our Midgard CMS for a decade now. To those worried about the acquisition, it should be noted that Midgard 2 is built on top of GNOME's libgda database abstraction library and can run also on top of Postgres and SQLite storage.

The first alpha of Midgard 2 libraries should be out soon so we can start porting MidCOM...

Technorati Tags: mysql, libgda, sun

A BBC article is reporting how cell phones have become ubiquitous in the developing world, and how they instead of "regular" computers will be the communications, learning and business platform in many of those regions.

If I had told you ten years ago that by the end of 2007 there would be an international network of wirelessly-connected computers throughout the developing world, you might well have said it wasn't possible.

...

But regardless of where the developer is located, I think it's time that we recognised that for the majority of the world's population, and for the foreseeable future, the cell phone is the computer, and it will be the portal to the internet, and the communications tool, and the schoolbook, and the vaccination record, and the family album, and many other things, just as soon as someone, somewhere, sits down and writes the software that allows these functions to be performed.

To make software in this space, simple, mobile technologies are the ones that matter. This means SMS-based information retrieval, mobile (or multi-platform using detectors like WURFL to morph the UI) web applications, inter-application communication techniques like XMPP, P2P architectures, and hopefully open platforms like GNOME Mobile and Android will be where the action is.

It is also important to get rid of the "you're never offline" mindset. We're talking about a world where network or power outages are frequent and data transfer fees can be high. So good offline access to data is mandatory, although constrained by the potentially small (but growing!) storage space of cell phones.

See my "Solving the logistics of Mamona" and "The World's Internet Tablet?" posts, and the Midgard positioning related to this.

Via Boing Boing Gadgets.

Technorati Tags: android, future, p2p, maemo, sms, xmpp

We're in the process of publishing the new corporate website today. While our web needs are actually quite simple, the site includes some nice features. As we're involved in GeoCMS development, one such feature is the active team map:

The OpenStreetMap gets automatically updated as we move around. This doesn't however mean that we've GPS collared our employees, but instead that we're using the Plazes service to coordinate our comings and goings. Everybody runs a Plazer on either the Mac desktop or an Internet Tablet, and the position changes whenever we connect to a wireless network.

Other details on the site include showing the Skype availability status of everybody, and providing a "Planet Nemein" view of blogs by team members.

This all was reasonably simple to accomplish using a stock Midgard setup.

Technorati Tags: nemein, openstreetmap, planet, plazes, nemein, skype

This is a guest blog by Outi and Jyrki Wahlstedt. I loaned my N800 to them in late December and here they write about their experiences with the device.

Our Internet tablet is present almost imperceptibly in our life from dawn till dusk. It wakes us up in the morning, and tells news in the evening. It is small and stylish, and it mixes well with the environment.

Its utilities include e.g. a browser for surfing the net, Skype for phone calls, and several radios. Its smallness allows it to be enjoyed together, not separately as often happens with our personal computers. Several times a day we look at weather information, and TV programme guides. Also we use it in looking for dogs in need of home, this being the most important project at the moment.

Though its screen is small, the tablet can be used professionally e.g. to monitor large systems with nagios, as the problem components are discernible due to alert colors. This can be handy for remote control.

Skype phone is very easy to use, and we can use it as a speakerphone or with Bluetooth headset. Speakerphone is quite pleasant, as there is no audio feedback from speakers to microphone. Screen quality is good, which enables showing photos as slideshow.

The tablet is easy to use, though there are some difficulties that might be improved in its successor, N810. Screen lock is not very intuitive, the procedure is implemented like in cellphones. In using the screen keyboard it is extremely easy to press <ENTER> and so it is easy to write e.g. an erroneous URL.

Technorati Tags: maemo, n800

A week ago I spent some time in Berlin representing the Finnish Centre for Open Source Solutions (COSS). The event was about building a new pan-European network for Open Source companies.

The result of that meeting is the Open Business Organizations of Europe (OBOOE), which is focused on creating a voice for the thousands of Open Source SMEs which are a currently under-represented industry and a vital part of the European economy.

From the press release:

The Open Business Organisation of Europe (OBOOE) will unite regional associations of open source businesses. Henri Bergius, representative of the Finnish Centre for Open Source Solutions (COSS): "The current situation is that most of European OSS companies have more business cooperation with software companies from abroad than within Europe."

OBOOE aims to represent European OSS professionals in a joint voice and tap the full potential of the regional industries. Elmar Geese, representative of the German LIVE Linux Verband: "OBOOE will develop the open source market and industry by matchmaking, sharing of knowledge and business opportunities."

Alexandre Zapolsky representative of French federation of open source professionals (FNILL) says: "It is an historical day! With OBOOE we are going to build the Europe of open Source Software. We are going to pass from the time of speech to the time of action. It is very exciting!"

There is also an article in heise.de: Neues Netzwerk für Open-Source-Firmen in Europa (BabelFish translation).

Expect to hear more about OBOOE after FOSDEM. In the meanwhile, feel free to contact us.

Updated 2008-01-23: Some mentions in Finnish press: SWbusiness.fi, Digitoday, Tietokone and HighTech Forum

Technorati Tags: coss, freesoftware, europe

According to the Finnish Ministry of Justice, the new electronic voting system that will be used in next municipal elections is a proprietary system.

This means that Finland enters the era of Black Box Voting where the algorithms used for counting votes are secret and there is no paper trail.

Electronic Frontier Finland (Effi) writes:

"Companies may have business secrets, but democratic elections require transparency", says Effi board member Jyri Luostarinen. "How is it possible that the justice ministry buys an election system that has operations that can not be publicized for business reasons?"

The Finnish electronic voting system will be delivered by TietoEnator, a company which hasn't even gotten the parliamentary electronic voting panels used by 199 MPs to work reliably.

It is not too late to support or join Electronic Frontier Finland!

Image adapted from The Diebold Variations site. Diebold is a US vendor of proprietary, and often faulty elections machines.

Technorati Tags: finland, politics, tietoenator, voting

Nokia has announced today that they're intending to acquire Trolltech, the Norwegian company behind the Qt cross-platform widget set and the Qtopia mobile platform.

Ari Jaaksi from Nokia writes:

Both GNOME and KDE are very interesting and active projects. Our strong participation in the Gnome community and the new access to KDE and Trolltech's technology puts us in an unique position to create even more interesting mobile devices, together with the open source communities.

Despite this and some collaborative efforts between the GNOME and KDE projects, the acquisition does cast the deeply GNOME-based maemo platform Nokia has been pushing so far into an interesting light.

In any case, good to see more movement in the mobile Linux space!

Updated 9:24Z: I would guess Nokia intends to use Qt to provide a transition path for developers from legacy Symbian environments to mobile Linux. Qt is already cross-platform and with strong support for independent developers, so it would fit this task quite well.

Technorati Tags: maemo, nokia, trolltech, qt