Steve Woods

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  • Open data a closed book to most civil servants

    Steve WoodsOpen Data, Politics, Tech

    An Open Data Insitute blog post of the first ever survey* into civil servants’ awareness of open data reveals an astonishing level of ignorance.

    Among the survey’s main findings were the following:

    • 78% of civil servants do not know about government plans for open data and the benefits that follow;
    • 75% say they don’t know where to find useful data to help their decision making;
    • 57% do not know how to access data sets, how to interpret them or how to best apply data standards;
    • Only 52% recognised that ready access to data and data standards will generate new enterprises, jobs and services in the public and private sectors.

    Sir Humphrey and his Whitehall mates (plus their counterparts in local government. Ed.) are essentially saying that they find it too difficult to access and reuse the right data and – more importantly – that they do not have the technical knowledge and expertise to exploit what data is available.

    What implications does this have for the UK government’s aspirations to be a world leader in open data – aspirations that Chancellor George Osborne voiced in his 2011 autumn statement? Negative ones probably, unless better skills, training and communication are introduced across government departments, local government and the public sector in general.

    * The research was conducted in December 2012 on behalf of Listpoint and involved over 1,000 responses received from central and local government, non-departmental bodies, the NHS and the police.

  • The “mad priest of Kent”

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    Courtesy of Project Gutenberg, I’m currently reading some of Jean Froissart’s Chronicles and last night perused his account of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt. One of the main protagonists of the Revolt was a priest (possibly excommunicated and probably a “hedge-priest“) called John Ball, whom Froissart termed the “mad priest of Kent“.

    image of John Ball (on horse) encouraging Wat Tyler's rebels (14th century MS of Froissart's Chronicles). Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
    John Ball (on horse) encouraging Wat Tyler’s rebels (14th century MS of Froissart’s Chronicles). Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    John Ball (c.1338-15 July 1381) gained considerable fame as a preacher by expounding the doctrines of John Wycliffe, but especially by his insistence on the principle of social equality. These utterances brought him into collision with the Archbishop of Canterbury and on 3 occasions the archbishop committed him to prison. Indeed Ball was in prison when the Revolt began and he was released by Kentish rebels who then marched on London, along with Ball.

    John Ball’s most famous public address was that to the assembled masses on Blackheath Common during the Peasant’s Revolt that began: “When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then a gentleman?”

    However, what struck me most of what Ball is reported to have said is a sermon he’s alleged by Froissart to have delivered to a congregation leaving the minster of Canterbury one Sunday:

    Ah, ye good people, the matters goeth not well to pass in England, nor shall not do till everything be common, and that there be no villains nor gentlemen, but that we may be all united together, and that the lords be no greater masters than we be. What have we deserved, or why should we be kept thus in servage? We be all come from one father and one mother, Adam and Eve: whereby can they say or shew that they be greater lords than we be, saving by that they cause us to win and labour for that they dispend? They are clothed in velvet and camlet furred with grise, and we be vestured with poor cloth: they have their wines, spices and good bread, and we have the drawing out of the chaff and drink water; they dwell in fair houses, and we have the pain and travail, rain and wind in the fields; and by that that cometh of our labours they keep and maintain their estates: we be called their bondmen, and without we do readily them service, we be beaten; and we have no sovereign to whom we may complain, nor that will hear us nor do us right. Let us go to the king, he is young, and shew him what servage we be in, and shew him how we will have it otherwise, or else we will provide us of some remedy; and if we go together, all manner of people that be now in any bondage will follow us to the intent to be made free; and when the king seeth us, we shall have some remedy, either by fairness or otherwise.

    To me this shows that John Ball was a man way ahead of his times – and not mad at all (Froissart as a chronicler was true to his times and favoured the elite and their version of events). Indeed ideas of equality such as he voiced were not widely heard again until the Commonwealth (1649-1660) and still have relevance today as the gap between rich and poor, the haves and have-nots yawns ever wider once more.

  • rms coming to Bath

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Politics

    image of Richard Stallman
    Richard Stallman – the conscience of the free software movement
    Richard Stallman, also known as rms, the Founder and President of the Free Software Foundation and often described as the conscience of the free software movement, will be giving at talk entitled “Copyright vs Community” at 6.00 pm on Thursday 21st March at the University of Bath as part of the 2013 Bath Digital Festival.

    Admission is free, but booking is essential. More details are available on the Bath Digital Festival site, which, for those unfamiliar with his decades of work in the field of software and freedoms of various kinds, also has potted biography of rms.

  • Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview due next week

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Ubuntu logoThere’ll be a further foretaste of the Ubuntu OS for smartphones with effect from 21st February according to a report on German IT news website Heise since Ubuntu developer Canonical wants to publish its Touch Developer Preview of the mobile operating system then. It is aimed at developers so they can test their applocations with it, as well as users who like to experiment. Besides images for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and LG Nexus 4 smartphones, Canonical also wants to publish the sources with which the operating system can be ported to other smartphones.

    An Ubuntu for smartphones wiki page is already online, but will only be filled with additional content on 21st February. Anyone visiting the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona from 25th February can also see the Ubuntu OS on smartphones at the Canonical stand (81D30) in Hall 8.1.

    image of Ubuntu running on smartphones
    Ubuntu: coming to a smartphone near you soon

    Using Ubuntu for smartphones is heavily based on swipe gestures and dispenses with the usual Android home, back and menu buttons. The final version is provisionally scheduled to ship in the autumn, as was recently announced by Canonical’s founder Mark Shuttleworth.

  • Happy birthday to The Document Foundation

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    the LibreOffice logoThe Document Foundation, the organisation behind the LibreOffice productivity suite, is celebrating its first birthday as a German charitable foundation.

    Florian Effenberger of The Document Foundation has today posted the message below on Google+:

    Exactly one year ago, February 17th 2012, The Document Foundation was established as a charitable Foundation under German law (gemeinnützige rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts). So far, it has proven to be the ideal entity for reflecting the LibreOffice’s community needs. I am proud and honoured to be part of this project, part of this community, and part of TDF. I would like to thank all of you who have contributed to the success of our common goal – all developers, marketeers, localizers, administrators, designers, testers, donors, adopters, users and everyone else involved. You have made possible what the community has been dreaming of for a decade, and we all can be excited about the future!

    I’d like to add my best wishes for the future of The Document Foundation and LibreOffice to those of Florian. Keep up the good work; LibreOffice is a great product without which I wouldn’t be able to work so well. 🙂

  • Parliamo Shropshire!

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Social Media

    flag of Shropshire
    Floreat Salopia
    One can’t help where one’s born and that often affects how one speaks. It certainly did for me. Until I left home to go to do my degree, I spoke Shropshire dialect.

    On 5th February I tweeted the text below to link to a report in the Shropshire Star about a new project which is going to be mapping Shropshire dialects:

    I started out saying anna, cunna and wunna and went to Shoesbree for a treat. #Shropshire dialect

    .

    Today I was delighted to note I’d received the response below in dialect from the @shroppiemon Twitter account.

    @wood5y yer munna say cunna it inna polite and yer munna say wunna cos that inna roite*.

    * For non-Salopians: “You mustn’t say cannot, it isn’t polite and you mustn’t say won’t because that isn’t right”.

  • Python Software Foundation in European trademark battle

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    image of Python logoCalling all companies using software built using the Python programming language! The use of the term Python for free and open source software is at risk in the EU due to a Community trade mark application. The situation is explained in the following Python Software Foundation News blog post from yesterday.

    There is a company in the UK that is trying to trademark the use of the term “Python” for all software, services, servers… pretty much anything having to do with a computer. Specifically, it is the company that got a hold on the python.co.uk domain 13 years ago. At that time we weren’t looking a lot at trademark issues, and so we didn’t get that domain.

    This hasn’t been an issue since then because the python.co.uk domain has, for most of its life, just forwarded its traffic on to the parent companies, veber.co.uk and pobox.co.uk. Unfortunately, Veber has decided that they want to start using the name “Python” for their server products.

    We contacted the owners of python.co.uk repeatedly and tried to discuss the matter with them. They blew us off and responded by filing the community trademark application claiming the exclusive right to use “Python” for software, servers, and web services – everywhere in Europe.

    We got legal counsel in the UK and we (the PSF) are opposing the community trademark application, but our own trademark application hasn’t yet matured. Accordingly, we are going with the trademark rights we have developed through using “Python” consistently over the past 20 years.

    According to our London counsel, some of the best pieces of evidence we can submit to the European trademark office are official letters from well-known companies “using PYTHON branded software in various member states of the EU” so that we can “obtain independent witness statements from them attesting to the trade origin significance of the PYTHON mark in connection with the software and related goods/services.” We also need evidence of use throughout the EU.

    What can you do?

    1. Do you work for a company that uses Python? Are in the EU, do you hire in the EU, or do you have an office in the EU? Could you write a letter on company letterhead that we can forward to our EU counsel?

    We would want:

    just a brief description of how Python is used at your company how your company looks for and recognizes “Python” as only coming from the PSF, and your view that another company using term Python to refer to services, software, and servers would be confusing.

    This doesn’t need to be long – just a couple of paragraphs, but we would want any description of how you use Python for software, web hosting, Internet servers, VPNs, design and development of computer hardware or software, hosting websites, renting servers (like Openstack), or backup services. For those who are interested the specific class descriptions are at the bottom of this message. [1][2]

    You can send a PDF copy of the letter to psf-trademarks@python.org

    2. Do you have, or know of, anything that was published in the EU and uses “Python” to refer to Python-the-language? Can we get copies, pictures, or scans? This includes:

    • Books
    • Pamphlets
    • Conference programs or talks
    • Job listings
    • Magazines or other publications
    • Prospectuses

    You can send a PDF scan of the materials to psf-trademarks@python.org

    3. You can also help protect the Python intellectual property with financial support.

    Since the costs of a trademark opposition are in the range of tens of thousands of dollars, we will need to find a way to refinance the legal costs of the opposition.

    Please consider donating to the Python Software Foundation at:

    http://www.python.org/psf/donations/

    or get in touch with me directly.

    This is the first time the PSF has to take legal action to protect Python’s intellectual property. Please do consider helping the PSF in any way you can. The threat is real and can potentially harm your business in Europe, especially if you are in the web hosting business and provide Python as part of your hosting plans.

    Please let me know if there are any questions that I can answer. If you know someone who might have this information, please feel free to forward this.

    Thanks,

    Van Lindberg, Chairman
    van@python.org
    Python Software Foundation

    [1] Class 9 – Computer software; Servers for web hosting; VPN [virtual private network] hardware; Internet servers; Internet servers.

    [2] Class 42 – Design and development of computer hardware and software; Website hosting services; Hosting computer sites [websites]; Hosting the websites of others; Hosting of websites; Hosting the web sites of others on a computer server for a global computer network; Hosting websites on the Internet; Hosting the web sites of others; Web hosting services; Hosting of digital content, namely, on-line journals and blogs; Application service provider [ASP], namely, hosting computer software applications of others; Website hosting services; Hosting of digital content on the internet; Hosting of web sites; Hosting web sites; Hosting web sites for others; Hosting websites of others; Hosting of internet sites; Hosting the computer sites (web sites) of others; Web site hosting services; Hosting computer sites [web sites]; Hosting web sites of others; Rental of web servers; Servers (rental of web-); Servers (Rental of Web -).

  • Helen Grant MP “glib”

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    PI4J logoCampaign group Professional Interpreters for Justice (PI4J) has condemned Justice Minister Helen Grant’s response to the Justice Committee’s scathing report published on 6 February as “glib” (posts passim).

    Keith Moffitt, Chair of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, representing PI4J says: “If the Minister, as she has stated, wants to work ‘effectively and positively’ with the interpreting community to develop a system that meets the needs of the justice sector, then she must take the report’s findings seriously. This continued repetition of misleading and inaccurate figures is not helping and there is a real risk of the legal interpreter profession collapsing altogether”.

    The report described the Ministry of Justice’s outsourcing of court language services as “nothing short of shambolic” and concluded that performance figures for the contract are likely to represent a “significant overestimate” and “clearly do not reflect the company’s fulfilment against 100% of the requirements of HMCTS and should be altered, retrospectively and in the future, to indicate this”.

    In spite this, Justice Minister Helen Grant continues to insist that while there had been “significant” issues at the start of the contract last year, “swift and robust action” has led to “dramatic improvements”.

    Commenting on the report she said: “The vast majority of interpreter bookings are now being completed and complaints have fallen considerably. The changes we have made have led to major savings for taxpayers, totalling £15 mn. in the first year and we continue to monitor the contract on a daily basis and demand continuing progress.”

    PI4J has repeatedly rejected the misleading and unverified figures published by the Ministry and asserts that the Ministry of Justice has deliberately given the wrong picture about its contractor’s performance. Independent calculations estimate that the performance figure for the contract is nearer 50% rather than the Minister’s publicly stated figure of 95% and that fulfilment of the Framework Agreement, which has a total potential value of up to £42 mn. per year, is currently at just 20%.

    Nick Rosenthal, Chair of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), who gave evidence at the Justice Committee hearing on 23 October added: “We have told the Minister that in order to continue the discussions with us about improving quality in court interpreting, there needs to be recognition that the quality issues are a result of the system which uses a single private contractor and that alternative models must be considered”.

    PI4J is calling for the Minister to revert immediately to the previous National Agreement arrangement whereby qualified interpreters were sourced using the NRPSI. The value of the National Register was endorsed by the JSC report in its conclusions and recommendations, saying “there do not appear to have been any fundamental problems with the quality of services, where they were properly sourced i.e. through arrangements that were underpinned by the National Register of Public Service Interpreters.”

    Incidences of interpreter “no-shows” and poor quality interpreting at courts and police stations across the UK are still being reported at an alarming rate. This week a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court collapsed on 7 February due to disputed interpreting by a Sylheti linguist, resulting in Judge Joana Korner CMG QC specifically instructing the Crown Prosecution Service not to “hire any interpreters in future who are not on the National Register”.

    Geoffrey Buckingham, Chairman of the Association of Police and Court Interpreters (APCI), concludes: “The Framework Agreement and the contract with Capita do not work and never will. The Ministry of Justice was determined to push this through in the face of overwhelming evidence that it would reduce the quality of language services. This failed delivery model must be abandoned and replaced by arrangements that ensure justice can be delivered consistently through the use of properly qualified professional interpreters.”

    PI4J is awaiting a reply from the Justice Minister to a letter sent on 22 January expressing their dissatisfaction with Helen Grant’s cavalier use of statistics.

    Helen Grant’s glibness also finds expression in other forms: despite her constituency home being a mere 19 miles from the House of Commons in Westminster, she has the temerity to claim a second home allowance, as the BBC reported last November.

  • LibreOffice 4.0 released

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    The Document Foundation, the organisation behind the free and open source LibreOffice office suite, has released version 4.0 suite. Even though the office package has not changed much visually from earlier releases, it includes several underlying improvements such as changes to the API, support for the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) standard and better import/export of Microsoft Office file formats.

    image of LibreOffice Mime type icons
    LibreOffice for all your office suite needs: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, database, drawing and formulas

    The new release also includes some changes to the user interface, as well as a new feature – support for Firefox Personas themes (posts passim). An Android application allowing users to control an Impress presentation from a mobile phone is ready to be used with some Linux versions of LibreOffice (posts passim) and is expected to be released soon. LibreOffice developers are also working on bringing the feature to outstanding Linux versions of the suite, as well as its Windows and Mac OS X ports.

    LibreOffice 4.0 is available for download Linux, Mac and Windows. Please consult the release notes for full details of changes since the last version release.

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