A new year is upon us and we’ve made our resolutions already. In fact we have only one. To provide open source tools and services for quality journalism. Simple.
Contents of this newsletter include:
Journalism is back.
We’ve begun our countdown. 2011 is the year that journalism strikes back. No more overworked blogging platforms or generic content management systems. No more audio software hacks and clumsy radio archives. Just next-generation tools made by journalists, for journalists.
Login to Sourcefabric with Facebook & Twitter
login.sourcefabric.org now supports facebook & twitter authentications. Signing into to submit a bug or use our forums is now even easier - it can be done securely using your already existing Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Open ID or Verisign account. Already registered users can also easily assign new services in the profile form.
Open Innovation Network
Sourcefabric has joined the Open Innovation Network, an intellectual property organisation that was created in order to promote Linux by using patents to create a “collaborative ecosystem”.
OIN “ensures the openness of the Linux source code, so that programmers, equipment vendors, ISVs and institutions can invest in and use Linux with less worry about intellectual property issues. Its licensees can use the company’s patents to innovate freely. This makes it economically attractive for companies that want to repackage, embed and use Linux to host specialized services or create complementary products.”
The recent sale of 882 Novell patents to a Microsoft consortium highlighted several issues in this field. Thankfully, The patents of OIN members and licensees are licensed to each other royalty-free in perpetuity so there’s still time to join OIN (before January 23rd) and get the benefit of the license to those patents. For the full lowdown see this article.
ON2 Test Signals channel
Over at vimeo.com/channels/on2testsignals you can find all the documentation from the Test Signals conference that Sourcefabric organised in Berlin in October last year. Featuring over ten hours of debate on new forms for radio and software, you’re able to catch-up on David Bailey MBE providing insight into the remarkable broadcast environment of modern day Afghanistan, James Cridland convincing crowds that the future of radio is hybrid and Abdoulaye Diakhate introducing the innovation behind the West Africa Democracy Radio network.
The next Test Signals will take place as part of transmediale.11 in Berlin from 01 - 06 February. See the programme at our wiki.
Developer Snapshot
The developer team are all working amazingly hard to hit the 24th January deadline for Campsite 3.5. The real work is being done on overhauling the graphical user interface at the moment, with extensive testing off all the new features. Help us out - download today and test, test, test! campsite.sourcefabric.org
Campcaster is looking good too with the release candidate out on 10th January for testing and 31st January slated as its release date. We’ll be looking for as much feedback as we can get, so download the release candidates from, test and let us know what you think in the forums or via twitter. campcaster.sourcefabric.org
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