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Zulip is 100% free and open source, with no proprietary version.

Only #decentralized, #OpenStandards based on #OpenSource implementations will survive in the long term.

That is why #AIM, #ICQ and #Skype are dead, #WhatsApp and #Telegram are on the verge of extinction and why @matrix is only slightly less bad than #signalapp because it has #SelfHosting functionality just like #Zulip

https://zulip.com/self-hosting/

Both the TETRA radio and Microsoft Azure Cloud vulnerabilities are ‘Negligent Security Practices’ and ‘Security Through Obscurity’ is not secure

Listening to Steve Gibson’s feedback today on the Security Now podcast #934 made me realise that both companies knew about the vulnerabilities but were extremely lax about doing anything (probably both trusting in their security by obscurity). Both also put government data and communications at risk globally.

It’s yet again a lesson on two fronts:
1. Obscurity is no good defence against, especially, state level actors. The same goes for proprietary encryption algorithms. You actually require transparency and interrogation around what is used, and re-inventing the wheel yourself is risky. The same goes for security backdoors, as they’re going to become known at some point.
2. There needs to be some legislative requirement for companies to urgently declare vulnerabilities, and to patch them. In both the cases here, months went by without any action.

Maybe both these companies are just too big, but it also goes to show that bigger, or more secretive, is just not better. I suppose both don’t want to risk their global government business, but this could actually have put lives at risk.

Security through obscurity is no reliable strategy, and should again be a warning against those who think it is fine to have a security backdoor just for governments to use. It’s a bad idea. You either have security, or you don’t. There is no such thing as 80% secure.

The Microsoft case is highly embarrassing, and it is no wonder that the US is going to try to investigate it. All the noise about Huawei, and the real problems were right in the US’s own backyard, committed by US companies. All products need the same levels of scrutiny, no matter what country they belong to. Intention and negligence can often amount to the identical consequences.

With both these vendors now, we’ve also seen their technology being pedalled to non-allies of the US, so that the vulnerabilities could be exploited. It’s also a lesson to other governments to be very careful about what promises are made, and to remember even your ‘allies’ are not your friends. It is no wonder that the BRICS countries all wanted to implement their own operating systems for use across their governments (mostly self-compiled and localised Linux distros). Now we know why…

And of course, with some of Microsoft’s products, once used, it may not be easy to actually switch to someone else (which is, in itself, possibly part of the problem on both sides). How does the US government actually carry through any threat not to use Microsoft? The cost, and time, to move off Huawei network hardware would pale into insignificance.

This is why security standards, interoperability standards, etc just cannot be compromised on. The standards need to be enforced no matter who the vendor is. I have myself seen standards being bent, where it is better just to say you won’t procure the product in the name of ‘modernisation’.

See https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-934-Notes.pdf
#Blog, #openstandards, #security, #technology, #vulnerabilities

Google throws its weight behind yet another messaging standard: This time though it is the IETF’s MLS standard

Yes I know, the words Google, Messaging and Standards, all diverge in different directions and visions, and which often overlap. I have no clue what Google’s own current latest messaging app is even called.

Google has announced its support though for the RFC 9420 specifications of the Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF) new Messaging Layer Security (MLS) standard. According to Google, the latest specification allows for interoperability across messaging services (WhatsApp, Messenger, Google Messages, etc.) and operating systems at scale. The company also promises to make its implementation open source, and available to app developers through the Android code base.

If lawmakers and market regulators get behind the standard as well, Google is confident MLS can become the de-facto protocol across apps, thereby ensuring every app developer isn’t busy maintaining proprietary end-to-end encryption (E2EE) protocols.

So, despite Google’s involvement, the world does very much need an interoperable E2EE protocol as we are just seeing more and more islands of apps that don’t talk to each other at all. I know I sound like a stuck record about e-mail standards, but imagine if Gmail users could only send e-mail to other Gmail users?

The ideal world would be much like e-mail (but more modern) in that you choose any provide or app, and are able to communicate securely to other users who have chosen their own provider and app to use. An example could be like the Fediverse, which is based on the W3C’s open standard ActivityPub social networking protocol. You could be on the Mastodon network using one of its many apps, and I could be on say Pixelfed network using one of its apps. We can still follow each other, comment, and reply to posts etc as there is a common open protocol connecting us.

Watching what is happening with Twitter, Reddit, and others, the need is becoming ever more urgent to have established common protocols that even Apple complies with. Otherwise, we are going to face an ever-increasing fragmentation of instant messaging systems. It’s not in our interests to have a single messenger only that everyone has to use. We need to have choices and options, but be able to interconnect securely.

Let me leave you with a sobering thought… imagine if decades old e-mail were to be replaced with something updated, and with all the power players on the market we’d end up with Meta’s version of e-mail, Apple’s version, Google’s version, and more, and company X won’t just be able to send an e-mail to company Y any more.

We need standards bodies to move faster with establishing standards, and for them to be flexible enough to evolve with newer improvements. We can’t leave this up to Big Tech to do. I’m so tempted now to mention Microsoft’s OOXML “standard” but I’m biting my tongue very hard.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/google-backs-mls-standard-e2ee-everywhere/
#Blog, #messaging, #MLS, #openstandards, #technology

Think how much richer Internet searches will be with results from Lemmy, Beehaw, Kbin, etc

I have found search results to be very good with Reddit links in the past. I get that Reddit needs to pay for their hosting (just like everyone else) but with so many more Internet users waking up to federated sites and truly open APIs, we are seeing a lot of what was on Reddit, now blossoming on the various Reddit alternatives on the Fediverse.

Just like Mastodon had to grow through its multiple waves of growth (thanks to Elon Musk), the Reddit alternatives seem to be going through the same growth spurts now.

Most users seem quite OK with how the alternatives work, as most are active where they joined, and have not fully explored how to follow and interact with other instances (and there is no need to really unless they want to). The key thing with searching for Communities (Subreddits) is to change the default from Local to All at the top, to see all communities no matter where they are, and just subscribe. That’s really all there is to it. Carry On as normal.

So, as the communities are growing and flourishing, the content will also start to get richer, and hopefully the search engines will soon also start to show results from the various Fediverse sites as well. It is time that search engines and organisations started to adjust to the decentralised model of social networking. It has been interesting to see which organisations have already been dipping their toes into Mastodon, Bluesky, etc and yes, at some point the advertising is going to also arrive whether anyone likes it or not. One big difference is there is no paid push advertising (but don’t underestimate marketing teams!).

For me, it is not just about the cost of the Reddit API, it is about the freedom of use, and the future. We want something that can stay open and not be arbitrarily charged for, or manipulated, by a single individual company. It is much the same reason why I have long supported open standards such as ODF, PDF, ActivityPub, and many more. They help us interact and exchange data more easily and cheaper, whether for recreation or business, and they will endure the test of time for the future.
#Blog, #fediverse, #interoperability, #openstandards, #search, #technology

Bluesky vs. Nostr vs. ActivityPub — Which Should Developers Care About More?

Yes, there is quite a debate raging across different networks about what protocol to support. Obviously, those who know only one well, are going to root for that one, irrespective of whether it may be the best one.

From a dev perspective, where do you throw your efforts in from a perspective of the future growth of the protocol, and how flexible and free is that protocol going to be to new ideas and advancements. The “best” protocol also does not necessarily mean it will be the most successful, or the most adopted one, as we’ve seen all sorts of politics, misinformation, bad PR, etc play a role in the past (just see what happened to the Zot protocol which has nomadic ID).

From a user perspective, what network do you join and put all your creativity efforts into?

There is no easy answer, and some have even suggested, to get away from the entrenched positions, why not create a brand new protocol! But that has actually happened repeatedly already, and none ever took the “ring that would rule all rings”. Client apps like Hubzilla and Friendica, of course, took the approach rather to support multiple protocols so that your one app connects across different networks. Maybe there is still something in that idea.

The Bluesky protocol may well be loosened up in future, and although ActivityPub is quite open (not owned by anyone), it is still actually quite limited in terms of not having profile migrations, groups, and other features. So yes, Nostr right now is probably the most open with devs registering NIPs (Nostr Implementation Possibilities), much like we also see with XMPP protocol’s XEPs. It all comes down then, to what NIPs a particular client supports.

Personally, as a user, I still long for a fully interoperable protocol, one for instant messaging, as well as for social networking (or combined into one). Look at e-mail. It may be very dated, but it made no difference which service your joined (apart from the domain name you got) and it always connected to other e-mail clients, and it is not owned by any one company or central server.

But whilst we have this situation, I’m wondering if we won’t see the emergence of some future “translation protocol” that will allow posts from XMPP to translate into ActivityPub, Bluesky, Nostr, etc, and go the other way too?

I do think users, at least, are starting to accept the situation of social networks going decentralised and federated, and are realising it is not so complicated to grasp. We’ve been spoilt and brainwashed too long by strong authoritarian centralised network services. If we don’t demand more open and interoperable social networks now, we are doomed to repeat the lock-ins of Twitter, Facebook, etc all over again. Then our friends can be on any network, and we can still interact fully with each other, like we’ve been doing with e-mail.

See https://thenewstack.io/bluesky-vs-nostr-which-should-developers-care-about-more/
#Blog, #interoperability, #openstandards, #protocols, #socialnetworks, #technology

The Unix philosophy - simple and beautiful (so it "just works")

“The Unix Philosophy in One Lesson”

“All the philosophy really boils down to one iron law, the hallowed ‘KISS principle’ of master engineers everywhere:”

https://homepage.cs.uri.edu/~thenry/resources/unix_art/ch01s07.html

src: https://homepage.cs.uri.edu/~thenry/resources/unix_art/ch01s07.html

“Keep It Simple, Stupid” or “Keep It Super Simple” (less offensive)

The Unix philosophy emphasizes building simple, short, clear, modular, and extensible code that can be easily maintained and repurposed by developers other than its creators.

This is what allows a system to “boom” “it just work” as Mr Jobs puts it.

The Unix philosophy favors composability as opposed to monolithic design.

Later summarized by Peter H. Salus in A Quarter-Century of Unix (1994):[1] This is the Unix philosophy:

• Write programs that do one thing and do it well.
• Write programs to work together.
• Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.
• there is more to learn from the “Elders of UNIX”:
  • https://homepage.cs.uri.edu/~thenry/resources/unix_art/ch01s06.html
  • https://homepage.cs.uri.edu/~thenry/resources/unix_art/ch01s08.html

would add:

• Keep it as simple as possible and as complex as ABSOLUTELY necessary (more moving parts = more problems)
• simplify & agree on common standards & automate:
  • design standards together “open standards”, so they can take care of (almost) all required use cases
• software minimalism
  • only run as little software on a system (even if it has plenty of resources) as absolutely necessary
    • in GNU Linux Debian that would be:
      • 1) “start from scratch” with the net install minimal iso (working LAN internet connection required) - if the user knows there are “Open Source” drivers for (networking, wifi) hardware: go with “Free” version https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ - otherwise go with the “Cloused Source” blobs of evil “Non-Free” version: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/amd64/iso-cd/
      • 2) then from there only install what the system absolutely needs
  • for example: don’t run full blown desktop guis on servers that do not need them
    • a lot of admins rely on the “html gui” webmin, and virtualmin
      • if that helps to keep a system in well working secure shape, that’s fine but… it is not optimal for two reasons: - less software = always better - at least enhance security with a ssh-tunnel, meaning the port to access web-console (80 or 443) should only be accessible by localhost via ssh-tunnel (if there are zero-day exploits against latest OpenSSH (aka OpenSSH hacked) it’s “all internet offline doomsday” anyway… so this very very critical piece of software needs relentless testing and fast updates/patching) - gui-admins using this software, know “the gui buttons” but not the bash commands - thus: the gui-admins do not really know, what the software is actually doing in the background when they click a button, thus they might be unable to debug the problem, if things fail (that is where this “monitor all logs” bash script comes in handy)

• genius: “the genius is in control of chaos” (maybe true for a while, but long term it’s deadly wrong)

  • A true genius keeps everything simple, so that there is no chaos (“mess”) in the first place and almost everyone immediately can understand the program and fix a bug or develop it further (while always keeping the k.i.s.s principles in mind 🙂

• standards:

  • to standardize is a good thing, imagine a world, where every electronic device would have it’s own power plug… nobody could plugin anywhere without adapters… adding adapters increases complexity (fire hazard?) and decreasing simplicity
  • https://dwaves.de/2019/02/26/usb-cable-salad-of-madness-usb-3-0-and-wifi-interference-micro-usb-usb-c-mess-has-finally-arrived/
  • what existing standards are there?
  • can they be adapted? (try to identify & contact the creators)
    • instead of everyone making a new standard -> mess-of-standards (maximum incompatibility to each other)
  • is it really necessary to create a new standard? (e.g. one fine day, someone might decide to use /config for config files and not /etc, because what does etc stand for? (it stands for “all other files that do not fall in the /bin /dev /lib /usr /sbin… category” it stands for “et cetera” (lat. “the rest”))
    • it evolved into “the directory where config files are stored” and everyone knows that, so it has “grown” into a standard
    • it is agreed, that things should be called what they are and the naming of this directory is just bad (not self speaking)
    • but changing that standard would mess up this “grown-into-standard” and get a lot of users and programs confused… worth it?
    • imho THE worst idea is to add another directory and place another network config file, so that there are 2, 3, 4, 5 different places to configure network = complete mess

Malcolm Douglas McIlroy: “Everything was small… and my heart sinks for Linux when I see the size of it. […]

The manual page, which really used to be a manual page, is now a small volume, with a thousand options…

We used to sit around in the Unix Room saying, ‘What can we throw out? Why is there this option?’

It’s often because there is some deficiency in the basic design — you didn’t really hit the right design point.

Instead of adding an option, think about what was forcing you to add that option.” (src: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doug_McIlroy)

https://archive.org/details/DougMcIlroy_AncestryOfLinux_DLSLUG

Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, key proponents of the Unix philosophy.

“we are trying to make computing as simple as possible – in the late 1960s Dennis Richie and I realized that the then current Operating System where much way too complex – we attempted to reverse this trend by building a small simple operating system on a minicomputer” (Ken Thompson)

“What we wanted to preserve was not just a good programming environment in which to do programming – but a system around which a community could form – fellowship – we knew from experience that the essence of communal computing – as supplied by remote access time sharing systems – is not just to type programs into a terminal instead of a key-punch – but to encourage close communication” (Dennis M. Ritchie)

https://homepage.cs.uri.edu/~thenry/resources/unix_art/ch01s06.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy

“As a programmer, it is your job to put yourself out of business. What you do today can be automated tomorrow.”

— Doug McIlroy

Damn this guy is a philosopher.

Working in IT seems to be just like capitalism itself: working to make one’s job obsolete. “great” outlook.

There need to be alternative lifestyles that make sense and are sustainable.

https://ytpak.net/watch?v=JoVQTPbD6UY

[video width=”586″ height=”436″ mp4=”https://dwaves.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ken-Thompson-and-Dennis-Ritchie-Explain-UNIX-Bell-Labs.mp4″\]\[/video\]

what happens if companies can not agree on standards:

• probably the best example:

  • Apple and the “one button vs two button mouse”

  • “Steven P. Jobs, once said that one was the obvious answer because that made it impossible to push the wrong button” (src)

    • turns out: two button mouses are “easy enough” for users that used them for more than 3 days straight
    • by now, approx 99% of Apple’s one-button mouses are in the (recycling?)trash and got replaced by at least two-button mouses (what a waste of resources, right?)
    • GNU Linux users would want a 3 button mouse (the middle button is for pasting stuff)

    • Why Apple hates USB?

      • probably: so Apple can sell more power adapters
      • turns out: shipping iphones without adapters while charging the same price makes even more money

      • finally in 2020 (after aprox. 10 years?) they came along and adopted USB-C Macbook ARM M1 CPU

        - they are still refusing to make the iPhone charge via USB-C
        - [![https://dissectiontable.com/best-chargers-iphone-12-pro-mini-max/](https://dissectiontable.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Best-chargers-for-iPhone-12-iphone-12-Pro-12-Mini-iphone-12-pro-max.jpg)](https://dissectiontable.com/best-chargers-iphone-12-pro-mini-max/)
        
                  > <https://dissectiontable.com/best-chargers-iphone-12-pro-mini-max/>
        - so the user STILL in 2022 needs a special Apple cable to plug into “everyone’s else’s” chargers 
                  - it is… 
                              - 1) truly ridiculous
                              - 2) wasting resources (in 2022 the electronic trash recycling quotas are still pretty bad, only [13% to 35%](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=how+much+of+electronic+waste+get%27s+recycled) of disposed electronics becomes new electronics)
                              - 3) #wtf Apple seriously?
        

#linux #gnu #gnulinux #opensource #administration #sysops #unix #philosophy #m #mcilroy #philosophie #torvalds #itsec #cybersecurity #security #kernel #thompson #ritchie #apple #jobs #standards #standard #gnu-linux #simplify #open #source #openstandards

Originally posted at: https://dwaves.de/2017/05/02/the-unix-philosophy-simple-and-beautiful-so-it-just-works/

Insteon looks dead – just like its users’ smart homes – Always try to use open standards for cloud based IoT, so you’re not left stranded

The smart home company Insteon has vanished. The entire company seems to have abruptly shut down just before the weekend, breaking users’ cloud-dependent smart-home setups without warning. Users say the service has been down for three days now despite the company status page saying, “All Services Online.” The company forums are down, and no one is replying to users on social media.

Insteon is (or, more likely, “was”) a smart home company that produced a variety of Internet-connected lights, thermostats, plugs, sensors, and of course, the Insteon Hub. At the core of the company was Insteon’s propriety networking protocol, which was a competitor to more popular and licensable alternatives like Z-Wave and Zigbee.

A proprietary protocol can often mean your device is a useless paperweight if the company which owns it goes bust. Open standards like MQTT however mean other support exists to continue using your devices, for example, on Home Assistant and other open smart home services. More and more we are seeing companies close down, leaving consumers stranded, so it is imperative to instead choose to buy products which support open standards.

See https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/shameful-insteon-looks-dead-just-like-its-users-smart-homes/

#technology #openstandards #smarthome #MQTT #IoT
#Blog, ##iot, ##mqtt, ##openstandards, ##smarthome, ##technology

How to design an anti-monopoly interoperability system

"A historical accident made Massachusetts a lab for studying how tech can serve monopolies, and the moves, countermoves and counter-countermoves show how businesses, tinkerers, governments and the public can liberate themselves from seemingly all-powerful monopolists."

How to design an anti-monopoly interoperability system
https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/05/time-for-some-game-theory/#massholes

#monopoly #monopolies #tech #technology #computers #software #internet #BigTech #GAFAM #Google #Apple #Facebook #Amazon #Microsoft #Meta #AntiMonopoly #AntiTrust #interoperability #privacy #competition #policy #law #RightToRepair #DRM #DigitalRestrictionsmanagement #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #standards #protocols #OpenStandards #OpenFormats #DigitalMarketsAct #DMA

The internet was designed around principles of openness, simplicity, and decentralization, but Big Tech’s private networks and protocols threaten the ‘net, say internet registries

So says a Study on the Internet’s Technical Success Factors commissioned by APNIC and LACNIC – the regional internet address registries for the Asia–Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions respectively – and written by consultancy Analysys Mason.
The document states that “a significant fraction of global IP traffic now consists of data that is moved between the datacentres and edge networks of large internet companies.” Those companies’ needs, and growing networks, lead the analysts to suggest that “over time, we could see the internet transform into a more centralised system with a few global private networks carrying most of the content and services.

Another risk is that when private networks break, many users suffer. Exhibit A: yesterday’s AWS brownout, which hurt Netflix and Disney+, among others.

Yet, if you look at nearly all the alternative social networks springing up, you’ll see decentralisation, openness, interoperability, chronological feeds, no Big Tech…

See Big Tech’s private networks and protocols threaten the ‘net

#technology #interoperability #BigTech #openstandards #decentralisation

APNIC and LACNIC worry about who will set the rules of future internetworking

#Blog, #rss- - - - - -

https://gadgeteer.co.za/the-internet-was-designed-around-principles-of-openness-simplicity-and-decentralization-but-big-techs-private-networks-and-protocols-threaten-the-net-say-internet-registries/

Digital Markets Act - the FSFE calls for Device Neutrality

"On the imminent voting of the Digital Markets Act - the latest EU proposal on internet platform regulation - the FSFE demands device neutrality as a fundamental element for safeguarding consumer protection in open, fair, and contestable digital markets."

➡ https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20211122-01.html

#Europe #Europa #EU #EuropeanUnion #DigitalMarketsAct #DMA #Regulation #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #Linux #OpenFormats #Formats #OpenStandards #Standards #Interoperability #Portability

E-Mail is 50 years old this month, and it works pretty much the same, which is good, otherwise we'd all have to use one e-mail company

Think about it, you can pick an e-mail domain anywhere and use any e-mail client on any platform, to send an e-mail to someone anywhere else... We just take that for granted, but if e-mail were newly invented today by a company like say Meta, all the billions of people in the world would have to belong to that same single company in order to send and receive mail to anyone else...

E-mail's greatest success lies in it's open standards and decentralisation. It will no doubt me replaced at some point in the future, as all technologies will, but let us hope that instant messaging and social networks go back to being open and decentralised (like they too were once).

See A Look Back at 50 Years of Email - SparkPost

#technology #email #decentralisation #openstandards #deletemeta

October 29, 2021 is a day to commemorate 50 years of email. Take a look back at how far email has come and where we're headed next.

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/e-mail-50-years-old-month-and-it-works-pretty-much-same-which-good-otherwise-wed-all-have-use-one-e

The Fediverse is a collection of independently run federated servers used for web publishing and social networking, connected by open standards

The Fediverse is an ensemble of federated (i.e. interconnected) servers that are used for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting, but which, while independently hosted, can communicate with each other.
On different servers (instances), users can create so-called identities. These identities are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more communication protocols which follow an open standard.

As an identity on the fediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities. In some cases, users can even show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

These communication protocols, which implement open standards, are used in the fediverse: ActivityPub, Diaspora Network, OStatus, and Zot. The diagram on the linked page shows really well how these services connect through the different protocols which they support.

See Fediverse - Wikipedia

#technology #openstandards #opensource #Fediverse #socialnetworks

The Fediverse (a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe") is an ensemble of federated (i.e. interconnected) servers that are used for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting, but which, while independently hosted, can communicate with each other. On different servers (instances), users can...

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/fediverse-collection-independently-run-federated-servers-used-web-publishing-and-social-networking

The Rise and Demise of RSS - Before the internet was consolidated into centralized information silos, RSS imagined a better way to let users control their online personas

About a decade ago, the average internet user might well have heard of RSS. Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary — what the acronym stands for depends on whom you ask — is an open standard that websites and podcasts can use to offer a feed of content to their users, one easily understood by lots of different computer programs. Today, though RSS continues to power many applications on the web, it has become, for most people, an obscure technology.

The story of how this happened is really two stories. The first is a story about a broad vision for the web’s future that never quite came to fruition. The second is a story about how a collaborative effort to improve a popular standard devolved into one of the most contentious forks in the history of open-source software development.

RSS is by no means dead at all, but it is just not as prominent as it once was. It is still often found on websites and even some social media sites, even if they do not advertise it with an icon (I use a browser extension to check a site). I use it every single day, and it is still my preferred way of tracking news and updates across 100 plus sites daily all in one place without adverts and distractions.

See The Rise and Demise of RSS

#technology #RSS #news #openstandards

Before the internet was consolidated into centralized information silos, RSS imagined a better way to let users control their online personas.

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/rise-and-demise-rss-internet-was-consolidated-centralized-information-silos-rss-imagined-better-way

Google’s new Address Maker app allows governments to easily create new addresses at scale using open source Plus Codes

Many don't realise that What3words is actually completely proprietary which means it's a bad idea for governments and others to adopt as a standard as at any time it can be changed, licensed with charges, or just disappear.

The Open Location Code (OLC or Plus Codes) is a geocode system for identifying an area anywhere on the Earth. It was developed at Google's Zürich engineering office, and the algorithm is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. and available on GitHub. It is also integrated into Google Maps, but anyone can freely integrate it into what they are developing. There is no backend server or service needed to use these codes.

There are many communities on Earth still which do not have a formal addressing system, nor even postal codes. Creating addresses for a whole town or village could take years. But with the Address Maker, it only takes a few weeks to get under-addressed communities on the map. Address Maker is already being used by governments and NGOs in India, Kenya, The Gambia, South Africa, and the US, “with more partners on the way.”

See Google's new Address Maker makes it easier to create new addresses

#technology #geolocation #openstandards #opensource #pluscodes

Address Maker is a free service that helps governments and NGOs easily create new addresses for under-addressed communities.

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/googles-new-address-maker-app-allows-governments-easily-create-new-addresses-scale-using-open

Microsoft Office 2021 now supports ODF 1.3 - Open Standards ODF should be the default format though

OpenDocument formats are (finally) becoming more ubiquitous in everyday life — Microsoft going out of its way to support the latest spec in its latest office suite is evidence of that.

Why? Well, it isn’t solely down to millions of desktop Ubuntu tapping away in LibreOffice et al. While home user’s activities are important, the surge in use of open file formats in businesses, organisations, and governmental bodies around the world is a factor.

We’ve all heard tales of councils and municipalities switching away from closed-source (and pricey) proprietary file formats in favour of cheaper, equivalent open standards.

This change means that Office apps will now save to the ODF 1.3 format only. ODF 1.2 and earlier files can be opened, but will be saved as 1.3.

See Microsoft Office 2021 Includes Better Support for LibreOffice Files - OMG! Ubuntu!

#technology #opensource #openstandards #ODF #opendocumentformat

We're used to hearing that the latest versions of out favourite open-source office suites come with better support for Microsoft Office files, but the

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/microsoft-office-2021-now-supports-odf-13-open-standards-odf-should-be-default-format-though

The Connectivity Standards Alliance Unveils Matter - An Open Standard To Unify The Smart Home Ecosystem Of The Largest Tech Giants

The proliferation of connected objects continues to change the way we live, work and play. From homes to offices, factories to hospitals, connected objects enable us to experience our environments in cohesive, interactive ways. Yet, for too long, disconnected platforms and disparate development paths have caused confusion for consumers and complicated processes for developers and innovators. Smart objects should be reliable, secure, and work together – this is the shared vision behind Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), now known as the new standard, Matter.

Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, SmartThings, and the Connectivity Standards Alliance came together in 2019 to develop and promote this new standard, joined by fellow Alliance board member companies IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Schneider Electric, Signify, Silicon Labs, Somfy and Wulian. Now, there are more than 180 Member organizations of all sizes, across a range of business categories, and over 1,700 Member individuals participating in bringing the Matter specification, reference implementations, testing tools and certification programs to life.

Consumers get increased choice, compatibility, and more control of their experience. Developers get lower development and operational cost via a single SKU and more time for innovation. Retailers get reduced complexity in-store to create a more simplified purchasing experience, leading to fewer returns for compatibility issues.

It seems though that the actual implementation is going to be slightly delayed though.

See The Connectivity Standards Alliance Unveils Matter, Formerly Known as Project CHIP - Connectivity Standards Alliance

#technology #openstandards #smarthome

Matter is creating connections between more objects, simplifying development for manufacturers and increasing compatibility for consumers DAVIS, California – May 11, 2021 – The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), formerly known as the Zigbee Alliance, an organization of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and delivering open, global standards for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced […]

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/connectivity-standards-alliance-unveils-matter-open-standard-unify-smart-home-ecosystem-largest

Tech spec experts seek allies to tear down ISO standards paywall because it inhibits education and innovation

Many of the almost 24,000 technical standards maintained by the International Standards Organization (ISO) are subject to copyright restrictions and are not freely available.

Two weeks ago, Jon Sneyers, senior image researcher at Cloudinary and co-chair of the JPEG XL (ISO/IEC 18181) adhoc group, invited fellow technical experts to collaborate on an open letter urging the ISO to set its standards free.

In an email to The Register, Sneyers explained that paywalled, copyrighted standards inhibit education and innovation.

These are standards that also reduce the cost of doing business, and which allow for various systems to interconnect with each other, for safety, and much more. It is actually crazy that they are not freely available for use. Even various ISO standards for free and open software protocols are hidden behind this paywall.

See Tech spec experts seek allies to tear down ISO standards paywall

#technology #ISO #openstandards #paywall #standards

Open letter drafted against what's seen as unjustified profiteering

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/tech-spec-experts-seek-allies-tear-down-iso-standards-paywall-because-it-inhibits-education-and

Get to know XML, a strict yet flexible markup language used for everything from documentation to graphics, and the basis of most government open standard formats

XML is a hierarchical markup language. It uses opening and closing tags to define data. It's used to store and exchange data, and because of its extreme flexibility, it's used for everything from documentation to graphics (or for interchanging data between different systems or applications).

Reading the sample XML, you might find there's an intuitive quality to the format. You can probably understand the data in this document whether you're familiar with the subject matter or not. XML is also extremely flexible. Unlike HTML, there's no predefined list of tags. You are free to create whatever data structure you need to represent.

See What is XML?

#technology #openstandards #XML #interoperability

XML is a hierarchical markup language. It uses opening and closing tags to define data. It's used to store and exchange data, and because of its extreme flexibility, it's used for everything from documentation to graphics. Here's a sample XML document:

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/get-know-xml-strict-yet-flexible-markup-language-used-everything-documentation-graphics-and-basis

How interoperability could end Facebook’s death grip on social media after all ActivityPub and other open standards already exist for social media

If one factor explains the competition problem in social media, it’s network effects. The more members a social network onboards, the more valuable the platform becomes. After all, when all your friends and family are already on Facebook, you may feel the need to become a member in order to stay in the loop. And you might also end up spending far less time on other networks. This makes a tough road for all those Facebook alternatives out there.

If past judgements such as U.S. v. Microsoft are a guide, U.S. courts don’t smile on big companies that get a competitive advantage simply by being big. One way to mitigate Facebook’s network effects would be to make it less (socially) costly for people to stay on smaller, competitive networks. That’s why the concepts of portability and interoperability are so important.

Good precedents are given around phone number portability, and the fact that large social networks have had to quickly adapt their protocols before for changes such as Stories, Clubhouse, etc. What is not mentioned though is that open standards such as XMPP and ActivityPub already exist, and which successfully interconnect profiles, messages, posts, likes, media sharing between completely different social networks, and each of these social networks exists still on their own, but you can be on any one, and follow or be followed from any other network.

For those worrying about Facebook then being able to access their profiles or posts on these other networks... that possibility was always there anyway.

See How interoperability could end Facebook’s death grip on social media

#technology #monopoly #BigTech #openstandards #Facebook

The U.S. government forced wireless companies to let you take your phone number with you when you switched carriers. A similar move may be called for again.

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/how-interoperability-could-end-facebooks-death-grip-social-media-after-all-activitypub-and-other

Open standard but not open access: Schematron (a popular XML standard) author complains about ISO paywall

Schematron is a language for validating XML, designed for processing XML documents and reporting on errors. Version 1.0 was developed in 1999, since when it has been enhanced and standardised, with the latest version being ISO/IEC 19757-3:2020. This replaced the 2016 version: ISO/IEC 19757-3:2016.
Last month Jelliffe, who is no longer directly involved in editing the standard, posted to "note with extreme displeasure that ISO/IEC has recently reneged on its policy of making available free PDFs for standards that were brought into ISO from the outside: they want you to buy it.

"In the case of the 2020 edition, which is some corrections and additional annexes only to the freely available 2016 edition, it is ridiculous bastardry on ISO's part."

Jelliffe said that "the core library technologies are almost entirely implemented or maintained by private individuals as open source projects (such as David Maus' SchXslt): these small or not-for-profit developers should not have to abruptly fork out $175 for the 2020 edition, which differs only in a few pages from the freely available 2016 edition."

My comment is I'd really hope that open standards that we want universally adopted, should be freely available, at least to open source developers whose projects are usually not commercial by nature.

See Open standard but not open access: Schematron author complains about ISO paywall

#technology #openstandards #ISO #paywall

'This is shooting Schematron in the heart ... its heart is individual open source developers'

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/open-standard-not-open-access-schematron-popular-xml-standard-author-complains-about-iso-paywall