LibreOffice, open source software and open standards. These are the three things you can read about on my blog. I'll try to keep you updated on news and events in Denmark.
30 November 2008
Newsletter
28 November 2008
The Internet - not all success
We use Facebook, twitter, we blog and search for news and knowledge. We can find a satellite overview of almost any place on earth, and even the star heaven can be browsed.
Most of it is progress, compared two the times before Internet
I've been involved with computers and IT for about two decades now. I remember when we first head about electronic mail (later it became e-mail). First as a new way to communicate internally, but soon also with external contacts. It took a few years before we could rely on this new kind of communication media because not all contacts ad access to an e-mail account and even if they had, we couldn't be sure that the account was actually used. Computers was not a common thing.
I can find very few things that are not so good. I'll try to explain one of the major mistakes when the Internet was (commonly) implemented in the early nineteens: The personal e-mail account. Well as a private person it's ok, but in professional life, it was a big big mistake.
The problem today in a large company is, that correspondence, whether it is outgoing, incoming or internal, is stored in individual databases or tables. E-mails belong to the owner of the mail account and not to the employer. Of cause, legally, it might belong to the company, but technically, it's individual stored in different places.
One of the consequences is additional expenses is, that companies are investing huge amounts of money in additional software. For two major reasons:
- The law dictates that the company is responsible for storing and keeping any evidence intact
- Our daily work dictates a need for transparency in communication
Doing that, is fighting symptoms.
Why don't we solve the original problem and redirect all in- and outgoing mail to one common or a few departmental mailboxes and suspend all personal mail account in the company ?
I don't know about you, but I think I'll need a few weeks to get used to it. But perhaps it could help?
15 November 2008
Why not Lotus Symphony right away ?
The reason for not advocating Lotus Symphony at the present time is, that the application is basically build on old code. If you look at it from a functions- and features perspective, the Lotus Symphony is not as rich as OpenOffice.org. At the same tim IBM has been very closed when it comes to information about the actual plans. Last autumn I asked IBM if there where plans to move from OOo 1.x code base to 3.x code base. I also asked if IBM had plans to implement support for extensions. No reply. During this years OpenOffice.org Conference IBM announced that there are plans to elevate the application to OOo 3 code base but still no time frame for the plans (did I miss something?). That is the reason why I put Lotus Symphony 'on hold' as the best alternative for the moment. I hope IBM will show me that they can do better, but at the time that happens, a lot of customers will be using OpenOffice.org. With a clear and accurate time plan for the development of Lotus Symphony, lots of customers might be able to make another decision.
I see a lot of good perspective in Lotus Notes in the future. It give meaning to build productivity tools on the same (eclipse) platform and the screencasts I have seen so far from Notes 8.5 looks nice. Imaging composite applications with Lotus Notes, Websites and a spreadsheet or text document ? It gives very good meaning.
02 November 2008
3.0 and all
Last week I participated in a TV program on Danish National Television DR1. 24 minutes about open s ource software on prime time. The Ubuntu community could measure a 5-double of website acivity and the OpenOffice.org community could see a +30% activity on downloads. Great. And I can now call me the first and only official IT-Hippie in Denmark. Well, I can live with that.
The TV program was very nice. A family of four accepted to give up all Microsoft Software for two weeks. All computers was replaced with open source software (surpise: the family survived).
I was very happy to di a live presentation of OpenOfffice.org 3.0 at the Ubuntu release party in Copenhagen on saturday. Unfortunately Ubuntu has decided not to include 3.0 in Ubuntu 8.10. Unfortunately my Linux box was 'at the hospital' that day and had to do the presentation on Windows. Ok, I think the Ubuntu community can accept that. Thanks to the guys that fixed my computer at the event.