These days, I feel that i cannot pick up a book without stumbling on some mention of open source. I was reading Kishore Biyani's (Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Future Group fame) autobiography, "It happened in India." Throughout the book, the theme is that of collaboration and partnerships. What was interesting to me was that, in the second last page of the book, Biyani talks of open source.
"In the Creative Economy, innovation will also necessarily come through collaboration. And that is evident from some of the most successful innovations that we have seen in recent years --from the Toyota Production System to the way Linux, or more recently, Wikipedia, has developed,"says Biyani in the book.
It is an interesting book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the changing business scenarios in India. I wonder if Biyani has read Eric Raymond's, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar?" I am glad to see that more and more industry leaders are talking about open source.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Bill Gates and open standards
In 1997, in my previous avatar as a journalist, I had interviewed Bill Gates. What a different world that was!
That was his first visit to India and the fanfare would have made you believe that this was a head of state visit. Microsoft had just crushed Netscape in the great internet wars and seemed completely indomitable. I was extremely keen to meet the man who sat at the very center of the desktop universe to understand what his next move would be.
One of the biggest changes from 1997 to 2007 is that the desktop rapidly diminished into being a subset of the Internet universe. The focus of users shifted from being limited to their desktops to collaboration and communication via the Net. I remember that my first PC was bought in 1994 and I soon got bored of it until my 1200 baud modem was purchased in 1995. It was as if a whole new universe was now available to me through my rasping, screeching modem. Of couse, none of us, including Bill Gates, expected this universe to expand so rapidly.
One of the factors (and consequences) of the growth of the Internet was that open standards became more popular. The Internet itself would not have existed without open standards. One consequence that I could notice around 1997-2003 was that new file formats for audio and video and other forms of data emeerged that were no longer tightly tied down to the desktop. My term for it, at that time, was Platform Independent File Formats (PIFF). Looking back, the PIFF observation was a good one as far as trends go. However, having file formats that are independent of the underlying platform is not good enough and this is where open standards come back into the picture. If I create a document, the document belongs to me. However, if I made the mistake of creating it in a proprietary file format, the only way I can decode it faithfully is by using that proprietary vendor's application or try my best to reverse engineer that file format. That is like buying a house but while I own the house, the builder owns the keys to *my* house. Not a good idea right?
I have blogged about this in my article "The importance of Open Standards." In a world of truly open standards, monopoly pricing cannot be guaranteed. And that world is not far away because users clearly understand the alue of open standards and the impact it can have on their lives.
That was his first visit to India and the fanfare would have made you believe that this was a head of state visit. Microsoft had just crushed Netscape in the great internet wars and seemed completely indomitable. I was extremely keen to meet the man who sat at the very center of the desktop universe to understand what his next move would be.
One of the biggest changes from 1997 to 2007 is that the desktop rapidly diminished into being a subset of the Internet universe. The focus of users shifted from being limited to their desktops to collaboration and communication via the Net. I remember that my first PC was bought in 1994 and I soon got bored of it until my 1200 baud modem was purchased in 1995. It was as if a whole new universe was now available to me through my rasping, screeching modem. Of couse, none of us, including Bill Gates, expected this universe to expand so rapidly.
One of the factors (and consequences) of the growth of the Internet was that open standards became more popular. The Internet itself would not have existed without open standards. One consequence that I could notice around 1997-2003 was that new file formats for audio and video and other forms of data emeerged that were no longer tightly tied down to the desktop. My term for it, at that time, was Platform Independent File Formats (PIFF). Looking back, the PIFF observation was a good one as far as trends go. However, having file formats that are independent of the underlying platform is not good enough and this is where open standards come back into the picture. If I create a document, the document belongs to me. However, if I made the mistake of creating it in a proprietary file format, the only way I can decode it faithfully is by using that proprietary vendor's application or try my best to reverse engineer that file format. That is like buying a house but while I own the house, the builder owns the keys to *my* house. Not a good idea right?
I have blogged about this in my article "The importance of Open Standards." In a world of truly open standards, monopoly pricing cannot be guaranteed. And that world is not far away because users clearly understand the alue of open standards and the impact it can have on their lives.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Six Questions on MS OOXML
Georg Greve of Free Software Foundation, Europe has come up with a simple set of six questions that policy makers must ask before approving OOXML which has been proposed as a standard.
This is recommended reading for those interested in open standards.
This is recommended reading for those interested in open standards.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Eben, Kerala and other issues
I had a very long chat with Eben Moglen last week and had gone down to Delhi in this heat wave to meet with him. On Saturday morning, when the temperature was 45 degrees centigrade, around 50 people turned up to hear him talk about the issue of software patents and Microsoft's claims that Linux violates its patents. Eben is a combative force-of-nature and I am glad he is on our side!
We spoke about a number of things that will become common knowledge once the Software Freedom Law Center unveils its plans for India. Before, coming to Delhi, Eben had spent three days in Kerala. We agreed that it was important that Kerala succeeded with Free and Open Source Software because it is one place where there is both, political will as well as grassroots support for FOSS. The plans to set up an academic center of excellence for FOSS in Kerala was another thing that we spoke about. This academy is a wonderful idea and I would love to teach there. Incidentally, I will now be speaking on open source at the IIT Bombay's course on ICT for Development.
We spoke about a number of things that will become common knowledge once the Software Freedom Law Center unveils its plans for India. Before, coming to Delhi, Eben had spent three days in Kerala. We agreed that it was important that Kerala succeeded with Free and Open Source Software because it is one place where there is both, political will as well as grassroots support for FOSS. The plans to set up an academic center of excellence for FOSS in Kerala was another thing that we spoke about. This academy is a wonderful idea and I would love to teach there. Incidentally, I will now be speaking on open source at the IIT Bombay's course on ICT for Development.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
The Success of Open Source
I finally managed to read the first chapter of Steven Weber's book, "The Success of Open Source." My first reaction on reading it was, "Wow! Somebody really gets it and can also explain it to others in a lucid way." The first chapter is available online and I encourage you to download it and read it without delay.
"The conventional notion of property is the right to exclude. Property in open source is configured fundamentally around the right to distribute, not the right to exclude."
One reason why open source appealed to me from the very beginning was because of the notion that we could grow richer by sharing. When we began localization of Linux to Hindi with IndLinux.org in 1999, it was exciting to know that our effort would one day reach millions and millions of people could freely contribute and share this work. And mind you, I knew very little about Free Software or Open Source in 1999.
Call it an epiphany or whatever you will but it just felt so right and so good. Starting IndLinux.org was probably one of the best decisions in my life.
In the industrial era, people grew richer by creating private property that excluded others. In the knowledge era, the open source model proves that we can all grow richer by sharing. So, why should we build the foundations of our country on the exclusionary notions of the industrial era?
When we started IndLinux.org, there was never any doubt that we should use the GPL license because our intention was that those who spoke Hindi and other Indian languages should be able to use a computer with the same comfort that English language users enjoyed. We did not want our work to be captured by private interests and converted into a monopoly and the GPL with its "share-and-share-alike" model was the perfect vehicle for a developing country like India.
Our vision was the schools and colleges and villages and the poorest of the poor should be able to use computers in their own language. Our concern was that if such a fundamental tool as the computer was denied to our people, it would only accelerate the digital divide. That was not something that our conscience was comfortable with. Our hope was that more and more people would join us, help us with the translations, improve upon the software and share it freely so that the digital divide could be bridged rapidly. Looking back, our biggest self criticism is that we were not more ambitious and more courageous in our goals. The last eight years has only strenthened our convictions that open source is the path ahead for India.
There is still along way to go before we bridge the digital divide but we can We can look back with some satisfaction and see that the movement has grown quite a bit. I am reminded of the lovely lines of the Urdu poet, Majrooh Sultanpuri:
Main akela hi chala tha jaanib-e-manzil magar,
Log saath aate gaye aur kaaravaan bantaa gayaa.
This loosely translates as:
We set out alone towards our goal,
but others kept joining us
and our caravan kept growing
And since I am on poetry, let me close with the last four lines from John Lennon's immortal Imagine:
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.
"The conventional notion of property is the right to exclude. Property in open source is configured fundamentally around the right to distribute, not the right to exclude."
One reason why open source appealed to me from the very beginning was because of the notion that we could grow richer by sharing. When we began localization of Linux to Hindi with IndLinux.org in 1999, it was exciting to know that our effort would one day reach millions and millions of people could freely contribute and share this work. And mind you, I knew very little about Free Software or Open Source in 1999.
Call it an epiphany or whatever you will but it just felt so right and so good. Starting IndLinux.org was probably one of the best decisions in my life.
In the industrial era, people grew richer by creating private property that excluded others. In the knowledge era, the open source model proves that we can all grow richer by sharing. So, why should we build the foundations of our country on the exclusionary notions of the industrial era?
When we started IndLinux.org, there was never any doubt that we should use the GPL license because our intention was that those who spoke Hindi and other Indian languages should be able to use a computer with the same comfort that English language users enjoyed. We did not want our work to be captured by private interests and converted into a monopoly and the GPL with its "share-and-share-alike" model was the perfect vehicle for a developing country like India.
Our vision was the schools and colleges and villages and the poorest of the poor should be able to use computers in their own language. Our concern was that if such a fundamental tool as the computer was denied to our people, it would only accelerate the digital divide. That was not something that our conscience was comfortable with. Our hope was that more and more people would join us, help us with the translations, improve upon the software and share it freely so that the digital divide could be bridged rapidly. Looking back, our biggest self criticism is that we were not more ambitious and more courageous in our goals. The last eight years has only strenthened our convictions that open source is the path ahead for India.
There is still along way to go before we bridge the digital divide but we can We can look back with some satisfaction and see that the movement has grown quite a bit. I am reminded of the lovely lines of the Urdu poet, Majrooh Sultanpuri:
Main akela hi chala tha jaanib-e-manzil magar,
Log saath aate gaye aur kaaravaan bantaa gayaa.
This loosely translates as:
We set out alone towards our goal,
but others kept joining us
and our caravan kept growing
And since I am on poetry, let me close with the last four lines from John Lennon's immortal Imagine:
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Colonizing Yoga
CNN-IBN reports that "According to the US Patent Office, 150 yoga-related copyrights, 134 patents on yoga accessories and 2315 yoga trademarks have been granted." I remeber reading that the US Patent Office is supposed to train the Indian Patent Office on how to grant patents. Makes me feel like someone awaiting a consignment of toxic waste.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Focus on the positive agenda
I have been talking to several of my friends within the Free and Open Source community on the issues around open standards etc. So far, we have been reactive rather than proactive. However, the Open Source community has a positive agenda of democratizing technology and deploying it to improve the lives of people. The access to source code and the freedom to modify it are extremely relevant to developing countries like India.
India has everything to gain by using open source and open standards. Policy makers from the National Knowledge Commission to the advisors to the Kerala Government and many others are realizing that open source is the fastest and most effective way of bringing the benefits of IT to the people of India. We will do everything we can to accelerate this change. In the next one year, the Free and Open Source Software community will be more proactive in bringing the benefits of open source to the people of our country.
The Kerala Government's decision to migrate 12,500 schools to open source is one such example. There are projects like Vigyaan CD (www.vigyaancd.org) that aim to empower engineering students with a wealth of open source software. There are people within the FSF who are doing some brilliant work on user interfaces for the blind. Instead of being reactive and defensive, we will work on scaling up such initiatives that improve the lives of people. Through open source we can create a just and equitable information society.
India has everything to gain by using open source and open standards. Policy makers from the National Knowledge Commission to the advisors to the Kerala Government and many others are realizing that open source is the fastest and most effective way of bringing the benefits of IT to the people of India. We will do everything we can to accelerate this change. In the next one year, the Free and Open Source Software community will be more proactive in bringing the benefits of open source to the people of our country.
The Kerala Government's decision to migrate 12,500 schools to open source is one such example. There are projects like Vigyaan CD (www.vigyaancd.org) that aim to empower engineering students with a wealth of open source software. There are people within the FSF who are doing some brilliant work on user interfaces for the blind. Instead of being reactive and defensive, we will work on scaling up such initiatives that improve the lives of people. Through open source we can create a just and equitable information society.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Eleventh Five Year Plan recommends FOSS
The Eleventh Five Year Plan for Information Technology recommends the usage of Free and Open Source Software. Section 4.9 on Page 104 says:
4.9 Enhancing usage Free/Open Source Software (FOSS)
Indian domestic market is extremely cost-sensitive as well as language sensitive. As the market expands and volume increases the cost of computer hardware would be coming down steadily. Consequently, the software price would become an appreciable percentage of the total price. It is not expected that the proprietary software owners would reduce the price to increase the volume of the sale. The experience of last few years further strengthens this apprehension.
If computer adoption has to reach from current 1% of population to say 5% in next five years, we have to seriously pursue some other route, viz., that of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS). Today, all basic system software including Operating Systems, DBMSs, Networking and Web Services, various Application Software, etc., are available as FOSS. They are not only free, but in some cases far more efficient, superior, and robust to corresponding proprietary software. What limits the widespread usage of FOSS is the absence of market-driven mechanism of making the end-user aware what is available, where is available, how to use it, and hand holding support for its usage for considerable period. In brief, Indian domestic software users need, in addition to the
availability of FOSS, is the continued service support of FOSS at lower cost.
Further, developing Indian Language software on proprietary platforms is not very commercially attractive proposition in cost-sensitive market of India. The absence of widespread usage of FOSS has, consequently, restricted the growth of software in Indic language, and this in turn, has starved the spread of computer to larger Indian commercial and home segments. This gridlock can be broken only when Government of India takes qualitative steps to make:
* Easy availability of FOSS for few identified application segments (e.g., e-governance),
* Making available all basic software as FOSS with Indic interfaces and make appropriate fund available for the same,
* Service support of FOSS at lower cost to all taluka towns, through Call Centers in all regional languages,
* Encouragement of development of Indic Software (may be proprietary) on FOSS platform through well thought incentive programs, (e.g., no sales tax or service tax).
4.9 Enhancing usage Free/Open Source Software (FOSS)
Indian domestic market is extremely cost-sensitive as well as language sensitive. As the market expands and volume increases the cost of computer hardware would be coming down steadily. Consequently, the software price would become an appreciable percentage of the total price. It is not expected that the proprietary software owners would reduce the price to increase the volume of the sale. The experience of last few years further strengthens this apprehension.
If computer adoption has to reach from current 1% of population to say 5% in next five years, we have to seriously pursue some other route, viz., that of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS). Today, all basic system software including Operating Systems, DBMSs, Networking and Web Services, various Application Software, etc., are available as FOSS. They are not only free, but in some cases far more efficient, superior, and robust to corresponding proprietary software. What limits the widespread usage of FOSS is the absence of market-driven mechanism of making the end-user aware what is available, where is available, how to use it, and hand holding support for its usage for considerable period. In brief, Indian domestic software users need, in addition to the
availability of FOSS, is the continued service support of FOSS at lower cost.
Further, developing Indian Language software on proprietary platforms is not very commercially attractive proposition in cost-sensitive market of India. The absence of widespread usage of FOSS has, consequently, restricted the growth of software in Indic language, and this in turn, has starved the spread of computer to larger Indian commercial and home segments. This gridlock can be broken only when Government of India takes qualitative steps to make:
* Easy availability of FOSS for few identified application segments (e.g., e-governance),
* Making available all basic software as FOSS with Indic interfaces and make appropriate fund available for the same,
* Service support of FOSS at lower cost to all taluka towns, through Call Centers in all regional languages,
* Encouragement of development of Indic Software (may be proprietary) on FOSS platform through well thought incentive programs, (e.g., no sales tax or service tax).
The travails of being an open source evangelist
Sigh! The travails of being an open source evangelist! While the Mumbai Police has accepted our request of making the Cyber Cafe Regulations open so that it does not exclude Linux, the situation on the ground still needs much improvement.
My friends who are running cyber cafes say that when they showed the GPL license to the inspectors who came to check their cyber cafes, the inspectors still insisted on seeing the cyber cafe names splashed on the screens of the computers. If they understood what the GPL means, this would have been a completely redundant request.
Perhaps we should do a workshop for the police officers to educate them on open source licences?
Venky
My friends who are running cyber cafes say that when they showed the GPL license to the inspectors who came to check their cyber cafes, the inspectors still insisted on seeing the cyber cafe names splashed on the screens of the computers. If they understood what the GPL means, this would have been a completely redundant request.
Perhaps we should do a workshop for the police officers to educate them on open source licences?
Venky
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Mumbai Cyber Cafe issue update
Last week, we met the police offficer in charge of the Cyber Cafe licensing
and requested the changes. We found the officer quite open to changes. Many
a times, community members feel that people are against us if they do not
recommend open source. However, I find that since open source/free software
is a relatively new phenomenon it is more a question of lack of awareness.
We made the police officers aware about Linux as a desktop operating system.
Given the size of India, there is a lot of work to be done in terms of
awareness building. As Red Hat's chairman, Matthew Szulik keeps saying, "It
is a marathon, not a sprint."
and requested the changes. We found the officer quite open to changes. Many
a times, community members feel that people are against us if they do not
recommend open source. However, I find that since open source/free software
is a relatively new phenomenon it is more a question of lack of awareness.
We made the police officers aware about Linux as a desktop operating system.
Given the size of India, there is a lot of work to be done in terms of
awareness building. As Red Hat's chairman, Matthew Szulik keeps saying, "It
is a marathon, not a sprint."
Monday, April 02, 2007
Mumbai Cyber Cafe issue resolved
I called up the Mumbai Police and had a word with the concerned officer. They are willing to amend the regulations so that all legal operating systems are acceptable. Thanks are due to Nandakumar Saravade of NASSCOM for making this possible.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Mumbai Police mandates usage of M$ in Cybercafes!
The Mumbai Police has come up with regulations for Cyber Cafes. Clause 14 of this regulation requires Cyber Cafes to have "Microsoft Open License Agreement." This is the letter that I have been sending out to the Home Minister, Home Secretary, IT Secretary and others.
Dear Sir,
The Mumbai Police has come up with regulations for Cyber Cafes. Clause 14 of this regulation requires Cyber Cafes to have "Microsoft Open License Agreement."
While the government has every right to insist on the usage of legal software, we believe that a government department mandating the use of a proprietary software brand (or any brand) is not in the spirit of a democracy. As you may be aware, Linux has emerged as a very capable alternative to proprietary software and is available under the General Public License. This license has been in existence since 1991 and is a perfectly valid legal license that governs Linux usage.
Usage of the Linux operating systems on desktops has been catching up rapidly. In Kerala many of the Akshaya Internet Centers are running on Linux and around 12,500 schools are also moving their desktops to Linux. For Cyber Cafes, Linux provides a legal and affordable alternative to expensive proprietary software programs.
I therefore urge you to use your influence with the Mumbai Police to get them to recognize the Linux GPL license and remove the mention of brand names in their regulations. This move will greatly benefit the Cyber Cafe owners and the users who access these Cyber Cafes.
I will be happy to meet you personally to explain the benefits of the Linux desktop, the legality of the GPL license and look forward to an appointment with you.
With warm regards,
Regards,
Venkatesh Hariharan
Dear Sir,
The Mumbai Police has come up with regulations for Cyber Cafes. Clause 14 of this regulation requires Cyber Cafes to have "Microsoft Open License Agreement."
While the government has every right to insist on the usage of legal software, we believe that a government department mandating the use of a proprietary software brand (or any brand) is not in the spirit of a democracy. As you may be aware, Linux has emerged as a very capable alternative to proprietary software and is available under the General Public License. This license has been in existence since 1991 and is a perfectly valid legal license that governs Linux usage.
Usage of the Linux operating systems on desktops has been catching up rapidly. In Kerala many of the Akshaya Internet Centers are running on Linux and around 12,500 schools are also moving their desktops to Linux. For Cyber Cafes, Linux provides a legal and affordable alternative to expensive proprietary software programs.
I therefore urge you to use your influence with the Mumbai Police to get them to recognize the Linux GPL license and remove the mention of brand names in their regulations. This move will greatly benefit the Cyber Cafe owners and the users who access these Cyber Cafes.
I will be happy to meet you personally to explain the benefits of the Linux desktop, the legality of the GPL license and look forward to an appointment with you.
With warm regards,
Regards,
Venkatesh Hariharan
Sunday, March 04, 2007
National Conference on Free Software
I attended the National Conference on Free Software at Hyderabad on 3rd and 4th March 2007. Almost a thousand students attended the event thanks to some fantastic work done by Kiran Chandra and his group of tireless volunteers from FSF Andhra Pradesh. Kiran commandeered me into writing the press release for the FSF and into speaking at three back to back sessions on IT and Social Impact, Software Patents and Free Software Business Models. I enjoyed myself hugely because the audience was so serious and interested in the subject. I had assumed that not too many students would be interested in the panel on software patents but the hall was packed with more than 120 students and the questions kept flowing at the end of the panel discussion.
I stirred up some controversy and heated rejoinders from my other panel members Prabir Purkayastha and G Nagarjuna, Chairman of the Free Software Foundation when I said that I see a dichotomy between the way the west treats knowledge and the way the east treats it. My point was that our traditions of knowledge come from a spiritual tradition where there is a moral imperative to share knowledge while western tratment of knowledge springs from commercial traditions which seek to commoditize knowledge. I will elaborate on this theme one of these days.
Many faculty members from the University of Hyderabad acted as volunteers for the event and it was great team work. I enjoyed myself a lot at this event.
I stirred up some controversy and heated rejoinders from my other panel members Prabir Purkayastha and G Nagarjuna, Chairman of the Free Software Foundation when I said that I see a dichotomy between the way the west treats knowledge and the way the east treats it. My point was that our traditions of knowledge come from a spiritual tradition where there is a moral imperative to share knowledge while western tratment of knowledge springs from commercial traditions which seek to commoditize knowledge. I will elaborate on this theme one of these days.
Many faculty members from the University of Hyderabad acted as volunteers for the event and it was great team work. I enjoyed myself a lot at this event.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
BIS and Open Standards
I attended a meeting organized by the Bureau of Indian Standards on standards. During the Q&A session, I asked for a definition of open standards. I did get a reply but felt that more work needs to be done on defining what open standards are. The word is bandied about loosely so I took the opportunity to hand over copies of my article, "The importance of (truly) open standards."
There is lots of work to be done in educating Indian policy makers on this issue.
Venky
There is lots of work to be done in educating Indian policy makers on this issue.
Venky
Sunday, February 11, 2007
OOXML and Open Standards
We can trust Microsoft to be always up to some interesting tricks. They recently tried to get members of the International Standards Organization to rush through approving a 6000 page document on Office Open XML (OOXML) and submit their comments on the same in 30 days! What does one say to this? My colleague Tom Rabon, from our US office put it best when he said that the longer a dead fish stays out of the freezer, the more it stinks.
Microsoft's urgency in putting the sheen of an "open standard" on OOXML may be understandable but for a soveriegn country like India, standards are not something to be decided on a whim. Standards are the foundation on which we build our National IT infrastructure and we need to be careful that we build them on open standards that are free of royalties and other encumberances. If data is stored in proprietary standards, India could end up paying a toll for accessing its own national data.
The Bureau of Indian Standards, which votes on India's behalf at ISO said that they have not received the documents and therefore could not vote! [1]
The ODF Alliance requested ISO to resend the documents with a copy to us. We built up political pressure on BIS to request more time to study the document. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) sent a strongly worded letter to the IT Minister and other policy makers, pointing out that there was no need for an alternative document format since Open Document Format was already accepted as a standard by ISO after a four-year long review process. The Kerala Chief Minister sent a letter stating that Kerala had already decided to adopt open standards like ODF and did not see merit in a single vendor controlled "standard" like OOXML. The Free Software Foundation of India also supported the move for a more thorough review of OOXML.
If OOXML does benefit India, great. But, we are a democracy and in the spirit of a democracy, let there be a debate around OOXML and its merits and demerits. Above all is the question, "Is OOXML beneficial to India in the long run?" Standards that are decided behind closed doors stink and do not merit the title of "open standards."
BIS finally voted on the issue and was among the 19 countries that submitted their vote by the deadline of 5th February 2007. What they submitted has not been shared with us yet. Hopefully, they have asked for more time to review the document. That is the least they can do.
A few days later, 8th February, to be exact, I got a call from a head hunter, asking if I would be interested in joining Microsoft. thanks for the compliment, but the answer is "No. Thanks."
[1] Reminds me of a scene from the eternal classic BBC series, Yes Minister
Hon. Minister Jim Hacker: (in an aggravated tone) "What do you mean, 'we are looking into the matter'?
Derek Fowlds, Secretary to Jim Hacker: (in an apologetic tone) "It means, 'we have lost the files and are searching for it.'"
Microsoft's urgency in putting the sheen of an "open standard" on OOXML may be understandable but for a soveriegn country like India, standards are not something to be decided on a whim. Standards are the foundation on which we build our National IT infrastructure and we need to be careful that we build them on open standards that are free of royalties and other encumberances. If data is stored in proprietary standards, India could end up paying a toll for accessing its own national data.
The Bureau of Indian Standards, which votes on India's behalf at ISO said that they have not received the documents and therefore could not vote! [1]
The ODF Alliance requested ISO to resend the documents with a copy to us. We built up political pressure on BIS to request more time to study the document. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) sent a strongly worded letter to the IT Minister and other policy makers, pointing out that there was no need for an alternative document format since Open Document Format was already accepted as a standard by ISO after a four-year long review process. The Kerala Chief Minister sent a letter stating that Kerala had already decided to adopt open standards like ODF and did not see merit in a single vendor controlled "standard" like OOXML. The Free Software Foundation of India also supported the move for a more thorough review of OOXML.
If OOXML does benefit India, great. But, we are a democracy and in the spirit of a democracy, let there be a debate around OOXML and its merits and demerits. Above all is the question, "Is OOXML beneficial to India in the long run?" Standards that are decided behind closed doors stink and do not merit the title of "open standards."
BIS finally voted on the issue and was among the 19 countries that submitted their vote by the deadline of 5th February 2007. What they submitted has not been shared with us yet. Hopefully, they have asked for more time to review the document. That is the least they can do.
A few days later, 8th February, to be exact, I got a call from a head hunter, asking if I would be interested in joining Microsoft. thanks for the compliment, but the answer is "No. Thanks."
[1] Reminds me of a scene from the eternal classic BBC series, Yes Minister
Hon. Minister Jim Hacker: (in an aggravated tone) "What do you mean, 'we are looking into the matter'?
Derek Fowlds, Secretary to Jim Hacker: (in an apologetic tone) "It means, 'we have lost the files and are searching for it.'"
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Linux Asia 2007 and Microsoft
I was incredibly disappointed to see that Microsoft was included as a sponsor of Linux Asia 2007. This completely shortsighted move on the part of the organizers made participating or sponsoring the event even less meaningful. Our feedback to the organizers has been that audience generation has not been up to expectations. My blunt feedback to the organizers was that when the platform is called Linux Asia, they should not have invited Microsoft. If it was IT Asia or some such title, inviting Microsoft would have been OK, but to invite a company that has done so much to damage the open source revolution was a sell-out.
The agenda was quite stale. For example, there was no presence from Kerala, which has done so much in the area of Free and Open Source Software or around the issue of software patents that has come up specially after the Microsoft Novell deal.
In future, I would rather support community events like FOSS.in.
The agenda was quite stale. For example, there was no presence from Kerala, which has done so much in the area of Free and Open Source Software or around the issue of software patents that has come up specially after the Microsoft Novell deal.
In future, I would rather support community events like FOSS.in.
Monday, January 29, 2007
The importance of Open Standards
A standard truly becomes great when we stop thinking about it and take
it for granted. When we wake up in the morning and drive to work, we
don't spend time wondering which side of the road we should drive on.
Standards eliminate the friction from routine activities and enable us
to focus on more important priorities in our life. When we surf the web,
send e-mails to each other or drive a car, an enormous amount of open
standards enable us to accomplish what we set out to achieve.
In the world of software, open standards is a term that is freely used
but loosely defined. Many companies try to push proprietary standards as
open standards and try to convert the term into an oxymoron. The Open
Source Initiative (www.opensource.org) has proposed a draft definition
aimed at keeping open standards truly open. The definition reads:
1. The standard must include all details necessary for
interoperable implementation.
2. The standard must be freely and publicly available (e.g., from a
stable web site) under royalty-free terms.
3. All patents essential to implementation of the standard must be
licensed under royalty-free terms.
4. There may be no requirement for execution of a license
agreement, NDA, grant, click-through, or any other form of
paperwork to deploy conforming software.
5. Implementation of the standard may not critically require any
other technology that fails to meet the criteria of this
Definition.
Clear documentation is the most basic starting point for establishing a
standard. However, it is not enough that a standard be clearly
documented to enable interoperable implementation. The standard must be
clear of encumbrances like copyright, patents etc. that could prevent
users from making full use of the standard. For example, when we buy a
house, we seek a document from the builder or the seller, certifying
that the property is free of all encumbrances and has a clear and
marketable title and that the seller agrees to indemnify the buyer
against any claims on the property being sold. No bank would sanction a
home loan without such a document. In the world of software, the
consequences of encumbrances can be enormous, as can be seen from the
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) patent case.
JPEG, as most users of digital photographs know, is a popular format for
saving photographic images that has been widely adopted by makers of
digital cameras, camcorders, PDA, cellphones and other devices. In 2002,
Forgent, a company that owned Patent No. 4,698,672 in the US, ambushed
the industry by suing 31 major hardware and software vendors, including
Dell and Apple Computers. The company alleged that these companies
infringed on its claim to an algorithm used in the popular JPEG picture
file format. It is reported that Forgent's legal assault earned it $150
million before it was brought to its heels by the Public Patent
Foundation that challenged and overturned Forgent's claims.
Dan Ravicher of the Public Patent Foundation who fought the JPEG patent
case points out that 900 patents are issued every week in the US and
fifty five patent law suits are filed every week. While it costs only 39
cents to send a postcard with a cease and desist notice to an alleged
patent infringer, the defendant would have to spend $40,000 to get a
lawyer's opinion and anywhere from $2-4 million to defend a case.
The indiscriminate manner in which software patents are granted hang
like the proverbial Damocles sword over open standards. Tim Berners Lee,
inventor of the World Wide Web and a great champion of open standards
told Wired magazine in an interview on web services that, “My fear is
that significant standards will be covered with patents, and if so it'll
just kill development. A lot of these [proposed] vendor patents are
ridiculous, but the fear and uncertainty over them is there.”
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that Berners Lee leads, says that,
“In order for the Web to reach its full potential, the most fundamental
Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any
hardware and software used to access the Web to work together. W3C
refers to this goal as “Web interoperability.” By publishing open (non-
proprietary) standards for Web languages and protocols, W3C seeks to
avoid market fragmentation and thus Web fragmentation.” Imagine where
the web would be without open standards!
Open standards are the foundation of our IT infrastructure and it is
therefore important that these standards should be free of encumbrances
and freely available to all-—now and forever.
Hariharan heads Open Source Affairs at Red Hat India Pvt. Ltd. Red Hat
is the world's leading open source software company.
it for granted. When we wake up in the morning and drive to work, we
don't spend time wondering which side of the road we should drive on.
Standards eliminate the friction from routine activities and enable us
to focus on more important priorities in our life. When we surf the web,
send e-mails to each other or drive a car, an enormous amount of open
standards enable us to accomplish what we set out to achieve.
In the world of software, open standards is a term that is freely used
but loosely defined. Many companies try to push proprietary standards as
open standards and try to convert the term into an oxymoron. The Open
Source Initiative (www.opensource.org) has proposed a draft definition
aimed at keeping open standards truly open. The definition reads:
1. The standard must include all details necessary for
interoperable implementation.
2. The standard must be freely and publicly available (e.g., from a
stable web site) under royalty-free terms.
3. All patents essential to implementation of the standard must be
licensed under royalty-free terms.
4. There may be no requirement for execution of a license
agreement, NDA, grant, click-through, or any other form of
paperwork to deploy conforming software.
5. Implementation of the standard may not critically require any
other technology that fails to meet the criteria of this
Definition.
Clear documentation is the most basic starting point for establishing a
standard. However, it is not enough that a standard be clearly
documented to enable interoperable implementation. The standard must be
clear of encumbrances like copyright, patents etc. that could prevent
users from making full use of the standard. For example, when we buy a
house, we seek a document from the builder or the seller, certifying
that the property is free of all encumbrances and has a clear and
marketable title and that the seller agrees to indemnify the buyer
against any claims on the property being sold. No bank would sanction a
home loan without such a document. In the world of software, the
consequences of encumbrances can be enormous, as can be seen from the
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) patent case.
JPEG, as most users of digital photographs know, is a popular format for
saving photographic images that has been widely adopted by makers of
digital cameras, camcorders, PDA, cellphones and other devices. In 2002,
Forgent, a company that owned Patent No. 4,698,672 in the US, ambushed
the industry by suing 31 major hardware and software vendors, including
Dell and Apple Computers. The company alleged that these companies
infringed on its claim to an algorithm used in the popular JPEG picture
file format. It is reported that Forgent's legal assault earned it $150
million before it was brought to its heels by the Public Patent
Foundation that challenged and overturned Forgent's claims.
Dan Ravicher of the Public Patent Foundation who fought the JPEG patent
case points out that 900 patents are issued every week in the US and
fifty five patent law suits are filed every week. While it costs only 39
cents to send a postcard with a cease and desist notice to an alleged
patent infringer, the defendant would have to spend $40,000 to get a
lawyer's opinion and anywhere from $2-4 million to defend a case.
The indiscriminate manner in which software patents are granted hang
like the proverbial Damocles sword over open standards. Tim Berners Lee,
inventor of the World Wide Web and a great champion of open standards
told Wired magazine in an interview on web services that, “My fear is
that significant standards will be covered with patents, and if so it'll
just kill development. A lot of these [proposed] vendor patents are
ridiculous, but the fear and uncertainty over them is there.”
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that Berners Lee leads, says that,
“In order for the Web to reach its full potential, the most fundamental
Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any
hardware and software used to access the Web to work together. W3C
refers to this goal as “Web interoperability.” By publishing open (non-
proprietary) standards for Web languages and protocols, W3C seeks to
avoid market fragmentation and thus Web fragmentation.” Imagine where
the web would be without open standards!
Open standards are the foundation of our IT infrastructure and it is
therefore important that these standards should be free of encumbrances
and freely available to all-—now and forever.
Hariharan heads Open Source Affairs at Red Hat India Pvt. Ltd. Red Hat
is the world's leading open source software company.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Creative Commons India launch
Spent yesterday with Joichi Ito, Catharina Maracke and our very own Lawrence Liang doing press interviews for the launch of Creative Commons India. The launch function was pulled off well by Shishir Jha, who is the project lead and the KRESIT auditorium at IIT Bombay was packed for this event. Since I am an ex-journalist, I volunteered to coordinate this for CC India and I really enjoyed the experience. Joichi is the Chairman of CC worldwide and I was surprised to see that he is so young. For his age, he has accomplished a lot. The interviews went off really well and I learnt a lot from listening to Joichi and Lawrence. Both of them were the star speakers at the launch of CC India that was held on 26th January, which is India's Republic Day.
The launch functions and the interviews went off really well and I hope to see the interviews appearing soon.
The launch functions and the interviews went off really well and I hope to see the interviews appearing soon.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
A society that shares: India's traditions of knowledge
Intellectual property is one of the defining terms of the 21st century. At a knowledge symposium, "Owning the future: Ideas and their role in the digital age" organized by IIT Delhi and Red Hat, we deconstructed the term "intellectual property" and examined the assumptions beneath it. Since the event was being held in India, it seemed appropriate to examine intellectual property in the context of Indian traditions of knowledge.
Anyone with even a passing interest in India knows that India has a rich
tradition of intellectual inquiry. Over several millennia, India has
been home to mathematicians who calculated the orbit of the earth around
the sun with astonishing accuracy, the intensely evolved spiritual
traditions of yoga, the ancient system of medicine called ayurveda and
many others. India was also home to the first university in the world,
the Nalanda University. Set up in the fifth century, the university had
over 10,000 students and 1500 teachers. Even the word Nalanda means "one
who is insatiable in giving."
Most of the branches of knowledge in India were rooted in India's
spiritual traditions and great value was placed on the sharing of
knowledge. This is seen in the respect accorded to the guru--one who
imparted knowledge--even today in India. Knowledge was even considered
to be one of the paths to salvation.
One of my favorite stories illustrates the importance accorded to the
sharing of knowledge. After the brutal battle of Kalinga, the Emperor
Ashoka was so overcome with remorse that he renounced bloodshed and
embraced Buddhism. As part of his penance, Ashoka went to monasteries
across the country.At each monastery, he would leave munificent
donations of gold coins. At one monastery, the emperor left behind one
solitary gold coin. When his perplexed followers asked him to explain,
Ashoka said that the abbot of the monastery was a great man but he did
not share his knowledge with others.
At the deepest level, this is the ethos that lead to the flourishing of
a great culture where the arts and the sciences prospered. However,
there is a cautionary tale here that illustrates why eternal vigilance
is the price to be paid for liberty.
Anyone with even a passing interest in India also knows that India's
caste system was (and remains) one of the greatest blights in the
history of this country. The traditional system of social stratification
in ancient India categorized people into four classes, Brahmana
(scholars), Kshatriya (warriors or politicians), Vaishya (mercantiles)
and Shudra (service providers). In the initial period, the caste system
was flexible and the caste one belonged to was determined on the basis
of merit. For example, the word 'Brahmin" literally means, "One who
knows Lord Bramha, the creator of the Universe." Thus any individual
could merit the status of a brahmin by virtue of spiritual practices
that helped them realize their unity with the creator of the universe.
Over centuries this meritocratic setup got hijacked and subverted into
an exploitative system where one's status was determined by birth. Thus,
to be a Brahmin, you had to be born into a Brahmin family and knowledge
of the sacred scriptures could be acquired only through inheritance. The
lower castes were considered "untouchables" and were ruled with an iron
hand by the upper castes. Knowledge had now become proprietary and it
was decreed that if a lower caste person heard the sacred scriptures
they should be punished by pouring molten lead into their ears. The
repercussions of this divisive system are still being felt in India
millenia later.
There are two key lessons to be learned from India's history. The first
is that intellectual pursuits flourished in ancient India despite the
fact that the terms "intellect" and "property" were rarely combined in
the same sentence. One of the finest examples of this is the vast
traditions of yoga which have been synthesised over thousands of years
in a manner akin to the "share and share alike" philosophy that governs
most of open source software development. Though no one has a
proprietary lock on yoga, it is still a thriving $30 billion business in
the United States.
The second is that the urge to colonize knowledge and claim it as
private property is an eternal one. We need to be constantly vigilant
about it, especially in an environment where private gain is worshipped
as the greatest motivation for innovation.
The term "intellectual property" reduces knowledge into a tangible
product. In international trade negotiations, when India negotiates on
the basis of the term "intellectual property," we implicitly accept that
intellect can be reduced to property and all that remains is to dot the
i's and cross the t's. We buy into the rhetoric that without the
"propertization" of knowledge, there will be no innovation. And in doing
so, we ignore our own history where astonishing innovations flourished
over thousands of years. In accepting the term "intellectual property,"
we implicitly accept a playing field that is dominated by the commercial
traditions of the West, rather than the spiritual traditions of the
East.
What are the consequences of accepting this playing field? To understand
this, let us shift, for a moment, into another playing field, that of
field hockey. Until the early eighties, hockey was played on grass and
the dominant players were India and Pakistan because of their artistry
and wrist work. When synthetic surfaces began replacing grass, India and
Pakistan lost the primacy they enjoyed. The game became much faster,
emphasizing speed and athleticism over artistry and skill. Secondly,
synthetic surfaces were expensive, and few clubs in India and Pakistan
could afford them, leading to a decline in the game in these countries.
>From 1928 to 1956, India won 6 successive gold medals in the Olympic
Games. The shift to synthetic surfaces saw a permanent decline in the
fortunes of Indian hockey, even though hockey remains the national game
of India.
The selection of a playing field is fraught with economic, social, and
political consequences.
Just as the term "horseless carriage" vanished into history, we may
find, a hundred years from now, that the term "intellectual property"
has faded into oblivion. The industrial era mindset is that, in giving,
we make ourselves poorer. But, in the digital era, we can enrich
ourselves immensely by giving. Indian tradition belives that knowledge
grows through sharing. The open source philosophy, based on the
principles of collaboration, community, and shared ownership of
intellectual resources has much in common with Indian traditions of
knowledge. We therefore owe it, not only to India, but to the world, to
ensure that the sharing of knowledge and not its reduction into
"intellectual property" is the norm.
About the author: Venkatesh Hariharan is an open source evangelist based in India.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/) and can be freely reproduced provided that credit is given to the author.
Anyone with even a passing interest in India knows that India has a rich
tradition of intellectual inquiry. Over several millennia, India has
been home to mathematicians who calculated the orbit of the earth around
the sun with astonishing accuracy, the intensely evolved spiritual
traditions of yoga, the ancient system of medicine called ayurveda and
many others. India was also home to the first university in the world,
the Nalanda University. Set up in the fifth century, the university had
over 10,000 students and 1500 teachers. Even the word Nalanda means "one
who is insatiable in giving."
Most of the branches of knowledge in India were rooted in India's
spiritual traditions and great value was placed on the sharing of
knowledge. This is seen in the respect accorded to the guru--one who
imparted knowledge--even today in India. Knowledge was even considered
to be one of the paths to salvation.
One of my favorite stories illustrates the importance accorded to the
sharing of knowledge. After the brutal battle of Kalinga, the Emperor
Ashoka was so overcome with remorse that he renounced bloodshed and
embraced Buddhism. As part of his penance, Ashoka went to monasteries
across the country.At each monastery, he would leave munificent
donations of gold coins. At one monastery, the emperor left behind one
solitary gold coin. When his perplexed followers asked him to explain,
Ashoka said that the abbot of the monastery was a great man but he did
not share his knowledge with others.
At the deepest level, this is the ethos that lead to the flourishing of
a great culture where the arts and the sciences prospered. However,
there is a cautionary tale here that illustrates why eternal vigilance
is the price to be paid for liberty.
Anyone with even a passing interest in India also knows that India's
caste system was (and remains) one of the greatest blights in the
history of this country. The traditional system of social stratification
in ancient India categorized people into four classes, Brahmana
(scholars), Kshatriya (warriors or politicians), Vaishya (mercantiles)
and Shudra (service providers). In the initial period, the caste system
was flexible and the caste one belonged to was determined on the basis
of merit. For example, the word 'Brahmin" literally means, "One who
knows Lord Bramha, the creator of the Universe." Thus any individual
could merit the status of a brahmin by virtue of spiritual practices
that helped them realize their unity with the creator of the universe.
Over centuries this meritocratic setup got hijacked and subverted into
an exploitative system where one's status was determined by birth. Thus,
to be a Brahmin, you had to be born into a Brahmin family and knowledge
of the sacred scriptures could be acquired only through inheritance. The
lower castes were considered "untouchables" and were ruled with an iron
hand by the upper castes. Knowledge had now become proprietary and it
was decreed that if a lower caste person heard the sacred scriptures
they should be punished by pouring molten lead into their ears. The
repercussions of this divisive system are still being felt in India
millenia later.
There are two key lessons to be learned from India's history. The first
is that intellectual pursuits flourished in ancient India despite the
fact that the terms "intellect" and "property" were rarely combined in
the same sentence. One of the finest examples of this is the vast
traditions of yoga which have been synthesised over thousands of years
in a manner akin to the "share and share alike" philosophy that governs
most of open source software development. Though no one has a
proprietary lock on yoga, it is still a thriving $30 billion business in
the United States.
The second is that the urge to colonize knowledge and claim it as
private property is an eternal one. We need to be constantly vigilant
about it, especially in an environment where private gain is worshipped
as the greatest motivation for innovation.
The term "intellectual property" reduces knowledge into a tangible
product. In international trade negotiations, when India negotiates on
the basis of the term "intellectual property," we implicitly accept that
intellect can be reduced to property and all that remains is to dot the
i's and cross the t's. We buy into the rhetoric that without the
"propertization" of knowledge, there will be no innovation. And in doing
so, we ignore our own history where astonishing innovations flourished
over thousands of years. In accepting the term "intellectual property,"
we implicitly accept a playing field that is dominated by the commercial
traditions of the West, rather than the spiritual traditions of the
East.
What are the consequences of accepting this playing field? To understand
this, let us shift, for a moment, into another playing field, that of
field hockey. Until the early eighties, hockey was played on grass and
the dominant players were India and Pakistan because of their artistry
and wrist work. When synthetic surfaces began replacing grass, India and
Pakistan lost the primacy they enjoyed. The game became much faster,
emphasizing speed and athleticism over artistry and skill. Secondly,
synthetic surfaces were expensive, and few clubs in India and Pakistan
could afford them, leading to a decline in the game in these countries.
>From 1928 to 1956, India won 6 successive gold medals in the Olympic
Games. The shift to synthetic surfaces saw a permanent decline in the
fortunes of Indian hockey, even though hockey remains the national game
of India.
The selection of a playing field is fraught with economic, social, and
political consequences.
Just as the term "horseless carriage" vanished into history, we may
find, a hundred years from now, that the term "intellectual property"
has faded into oblivion. The industrial era mindset is that, in giving,
we make ourselves poorer. But, in the digital era, we can enrich
ourselves immensely by giving. Indian tradition belives that knowledge
grows through sharing. The open source philosophy, based on the
principles of collaboration, community, and shared ownership of
intellectual resources has much in common with Indian traditions of
knowledge. We therefore owe it, not only to India, but to the world, to
ensure that the sharing of knowledge and not its reduction into
"intellectual property" is the norm.
About the author: Venkatesh Hariharan is an open source evangelist based in India.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/) and can be freely reproduced provided that credit is given to the author.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Mavericks at Work and Open Source
Am reading the book Mavericks at Work, a book on how innovative companies are creating businesses that break the mould and are creating value. Was surprised (pleasantly!) to see a whole chapter on open source. The chapter talks of how a giant company like Procter and Gamble is applying open source principles to open itself to innovations from across the world. If anyone needs proof that open source is becoming mainstram, this is it!
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