Monthly Archives: May 2014

  • Brussels increases investment in open data

    Steve WoodsOpen Data, Politics, Tech

    After launching its open data site opendata.bruxelles.be in February 2012, the Belgian capital has acquired an open data platform, according to Le Monde Informatique.

    As a pioneer of open data in Belgium, the city of Brussels launched its open data site in February 2012, making public datasets available in CSV et HTM formats. Wanting to comply better with the 2012-2018 legislative period which foresees the “systematic posting online of the city’s public data in a digital format in the spirit of open data“, the Belgian capital sought a means of boosting the supply of the council’s data and more especially it use. The data’s storage and downloading in various formats needed to be facilitated. The city of Brussels turned towards an open data platform created by the French start-up OpenDataSoft.

    Screenshot of Brussels Open Data website
    Screenshot of Brussels Open Data website

    An open data platform managed by IT consultants GIAL

    The platform was quickly deployed and is currently managed by Belgian IT consultants GIAL. The tool enables a better visualisation of data via systems of table, maps or graphics. Furthermore, these can also be embedded in other sites, particularly blogs. The data is now arranged into 70 different sets which can easily be found using the site’s internal search facility which offers different types of search – keywords, theme, data producer, etc. The majority of the datasets are produced by the local authority itself, but others produced by federal or regional public sector organisations are also available. On account of this new platform, the city of Brussels is strengthening its role as an open data pioneer in Belgium alongside the local authorities of Ghent, Antwerp and Kortrijk.

  • Paris adds open data clause to public contracts

    Steve WoodsOpen Data, Politics, Tech

    The City of Paris has added an open data clause to its public contracts Le Monde Informatique reports.

    The City of Paris is continuing its open data process which was launched in 2011 and made a reality by the launch of the opendata.paris.fr website. It has recently launched a series of meetings between its departments and the re-users of data, to whom it is now offering data challenges.

    Since 17th April, the city council’s public contracts have included a clause asking suppliers responding to invitations to tender to “release the data” produced within the scope of fulfilling the contract. This is one of the council’s latest open data initiatives, a field in which it has been active for more than 3 years. Via Open Data France, the City of Paris wants to share these items with other local authorities who would like to include this type of clause in their invitations to tender.

    Paris has also just started a series of meetings it is planning to organise regularly between council departments and open data users. Under the name “Open Data Paris meetups”, these meetings are open to developers, sponsors, students and more broadly all who are interested in the city’s open data project. The first of these meetings was held at the Hôtel de Ville on 28th April. This meeting featured the launch of the city’s data challenges.

    95 datasets on opendataparis.fr

    screenshot of Paris Open Data website
    Screenshot of licensing page of Paris Open Data website

    Paris set up its open data website in January 2011. It is now on version 2 and currently offers 95 datasets and an API enabling visitors to use them. Amongst the most recently added or amended data are the results of the 2014 local elections, the list of works contracts awarded by the Département de Paris and by the city from 2009 to 2013, as well as, for example, the geographical data for the city’s parks and gardens or a list of outlets in Paris selling coffees for €1.00.

  • Liberal Democrats cannot spell Sussex

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    image of Norman Baker MP
    Illiterate – Norman Baker MP
    It seems hardly a week goes by without the Liberal Democrats having difficulties with their literature (posts passim).

    Brighton’s regional newspaper, The Argus, reported yesterday that Lewes MP Norman Baker has been spelling the name of the county wrong on the front page of a booklet sent out to his constituents.

    Apparently, Sussex was misspelt as Susex on the front of copies of the Let’s Talk booklet delivered to homes across his constituency.

    image of Catherine Bearder MEP
    Illiterate – Catherine Bearder MEP
    According to the report in The Argus, the leaflet states that Norman Baker and Lib Dem MEP Catherine Bearder are…. “Delivering for East Susex“.

    There was then an attempted cover-up with stickers being used to mask the error, but – as so often happens – some leaflets escaped this procedure and were delivered.

    Let’s Talk is another one of those template Liberal Democrat leaflets where local supporters supply the relevant text and locality name (posts passim).

    Here’s a little bit of advice for the Liberal Democrats: you’re probably using a word processor to produce copy for your leaflets. The word processor has a very useful little feature called a spellchecker. 🙂

  • Chinese hotel etiquette

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities

    The image below recently cropped up in my Twitter timeline. Research seems to indicate the original document emanates from the Star Hotel in Guangzhou.

    Not being familiar with Chinese, I asked my good friend Ling Wong whether the English was an accurate translation of the Chinese; he has confirmed this. He also added that strange notices are a common feature of Chinese hotels.

    No further comment is required.

    image of hotel notice to guests

  • FSFE sends open letter to the EU Commission

    Steve WoodsOpen Standards, Politics, Tech

    FSFE logoThe Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has written an open letter to the EU Commission today – the international “Day against DRM” – asking the EU to prevent Digital Rights Management (or Digital Restrictions Management as termed by the FSFE. Ed.) technology from being closely integrated into the HTML5 standard.

    The FSFE is concerned about efforts currently in progress at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to encourage the integration of DRM technology into web browsers. The W3C oversees many of the key standards on which the World Wide Web is based.

    The full text of the letter is reproduced below.

    To: Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem (Home Affairs)

    cc: Antonio Tajani (Enterprise)
    Viviane Reding (Justice)
    Joaquin Almunia (Competition)
    Michel Barnier (Internal Market)
    Neelie Kroes (Digital Agenda)

    Dear Commissioner Malmstroem,

    we are writing to you on the occasion of the international Day Against Digital Restrictions Management, which today is being celebrated around the world. We are very concerned about the security of European citizens, and we ask you to take action to protect them.

    The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is an independent charitable non-profit dedicated to promoting Free Software and freedom in the information society. Today we would like to direct your attention to a very specific threat to the freedom and security of computer users everywhere.

    Both at work and in our personal lives, we conduct a large part of our activity through Web browsers. Ever more of our work and life migrates into the digital domain, and many people use a growing number of web services to work, create, socialise, and express themselves. Businesses and public sector organisations similarly rely on web browsers as crucial tools to perform their everyday tasks.

    Recently, the importance of the Web browser was highlighted when numerous state agencies and IT security companies warned about a long-standing critical security problem in the widely used Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, soon followed by warnings of a vulnerability in the also widely used Adobe Flash Player.

    These incidents were only the most recent ones to highlight the importance of ensuring that such a crucial piece of software as the Web browser is fully under the control of its user. The German Federal Office of Information Security (BSI) issued a list of recommendations for secure Web browsers and their components for use in companies and public bodies on April 14. The BSI notes that due to the way they are used, “Web browsers are exposed to especially high risk from malware”. In the list of recommendations for a secure Web browser, the BSI includes the demand that Web browsers and their components should be completely auditable (Point 1.6).

    Web browsers like Mozilla Firefox or the Chromium browser have succeeded in this regard, providing the public with web browsers that are not only fully auditable, but which can also be freely shared and improved. This is in line with the Open Standards approach which has made it possible for the Internet and the World Wide Web to thrive and grow into its current role as a vital platform for economic activity, social interaction without borders, and unchained creativity.

    The protocols on which the Internet is built, such as the TCP/IP stack and the HTML standard, are fully open and implemented in myriad Free Software products. Free Software powers the vast majority of Web servers, smartphones, embedded devices, and many other applications of technology. The rise of today’s leading Web companies, such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, would not have been possible without Free Software, and they could not operate without it today. Whatever European companies step up to challenge them are inevitably going to rely on Free Software and Open Standards as well. Free Software and Open Standards are both the foundation of our digital world, and the condicio sine qua non for its future.

    HTML5 is the latest revision of the HTML standard. It is hard to think of a standard that is more crucial for the World Wide Web. HTML5 will deliver a number of important improvements, and is set to be the basis of the World Wide Web for the coming years, and to allow for the kind of rich, responsive interactivity that will allow browsers to replace “apps” as controllers for everything from thermostats to automobiles.

    This is why we are very concerned about efforts currently in progress at the World Wide Web Consortium, which oversees many of the key standards on which the Internet and the World Wide Web are based, to encourage use of the Content Decryption Module (CDM) which cannot be audited. The CDM, though not specified in the HTML5 standard itself, is required by the so-called “Encrypted Media Extension” (EME), developed by a W3C working group. This extension’s primary purpose is to satisfy the desire of a limited number of content providers with traditional business models to generate revenue through restrictive distribution practices. With EME, the W3C would be building a bridge to let content providers take control of users’ computers, letting them impose restrictions far in excess of what consumers’ rights and copyright allow.

    The discussion about EME at W3C is largely driven by a few large US-based companies, and except the BBC takes place without significant European involvement. Given these circumstances, the discussion will likely result in a solution that fails to take the needs of European citizens, businesses and governments fully into account.

    Auditing the Content Decryption Module will be difficult, because the source code of this functionality will be a closely held secret of the company which provides it. Performing such an audit and reporting security flaws would also be illegal in the many countries which have adopted so-called “anti-circumvention” laws. Reporting a security problem in CDM would expose the reporter to the risk of prosecution for making a circumvention device.

    In consequence, individuals, companies and organisations (including the European Commission) would likely end up increasing the amount of software with unknowable security problems which it uses in a high-risk setting.

    Integrating DRM facilities into HTML5 is the antithesis of everything that has made the Internet and the World Wide Web successful. It is directly contrary to the interests of the vast majority of Internet users everywhere, and especially in Europe.

    Recommendations

    The discussions within W3C are now at a crucial juncture in this regard. It is still just about possible to prevent the W3C from making it too easy to effectively require the inclusion of such secret, inauditable software in Web browsers.

    • We urge the Commission to engage with the W3C and ensure that the organisation takes these concerns on board as it decides on the adoption of the Encrypted Media Extension (EME).
    • We further ask the Commission to underline its commitment to the security and freedom of Europe’s citizens by pledging not to make use of the Encrypted Media Extension in its own infrastructure, even if EME would be standardised by W3C.
    • At a minimum, the W3C should require covenants from EME participants through which they promise not to take action against entities who report and demonstrate vulnerabilities in EME and the CDM; and covenants to safeguard entities who reverse-engineer and publish details of EME and CDM implementations for the purpose of interoperability, including interoperability with Free Software.

    At FSFE, we look forward to supporting the Commission in taking the appropriate actions to safeguard the interests of Europe’s citizens and companies, and remain at the Commission’s service.

    Sincerely,
    Karsten Gerloff, President Free Software Foundation Europe

  • Rainbow Worrier

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities

    In Bristol’s Barton Hill district, there’s a lovely little pub affectionately known as the Little Russell (its real name is the Russell Arms; the ‘Big’ Russell used to be nearby on Church Road, Lawrence Hill, but has long since closed. Ed.).

    It’s a friendly place and is little changed from when it first opened in the 19th century.

    One change in recent years, however, is the addition of a fine mural by local artist Andie that covers 2 walls of the yard, which has since the smoking ban become the pub’s smoking area. Part of the mural is shown below.

    image of mural at Little Russell
    Rainbow Worrier at the Little Russell. Click on the image for a larger version

    The train in the shot is known as Rainbow Worrier because it’s green and has a shady-looking character in a hoodie in the cab. Note the machine gun and the fish-shaped bombs; they’re more reason to worry.

    Andie is definitely a man with a sense of humour and I love his punning references; note ‘Royal Male’ on the next locomotive.

    Rainbow Worrier itself reminds me of reading about the armoured trains that used to chug up and down the Russian railway network around the time of the Russian revolution. For instance, the Czechoslovak Legion used heavily armed and armoured trains to control large lengths of the Trans-Siberian Railway (and of Russia itself) during the Russian Civil War. One of the Czechoslovak Legion’s armoured trains is shown below.

    image of Czechoslovak Legion armoured train
    Czechoslovak Legion armoured train. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    I wonder if these trains or the later ones used in World War 2 were what inspired Andie; or was he just having fun?

  • Bryan Lunduke says: “Linux sucks”

    Steve WoodsLinux, Media, Tech

    I’m indebted to Linux.com for alerting me to the video below.

    Bryan Lunduke is social media marketing manager at SUSE (the first Linux distribution your correspondent used daily. Ed.), as well as a writer and commentator.

    The talk was delivered at LinuxFest Northwest in Bellingham, Washington on Saturday 26th April 2014.

    Lunduke takes a good-humoured critical aim at some of the things that make Linux annoying, the development process which is likened to ‘herding millions of cats’, the large amount of forking that goes on, the age of the X.Org display server and the insistence of some distributions, particularly Fedora and Ubuntu on developing their own alternatives – Wayland and Mir respectively – for what is essentially something old, trusted and reliable, like X.Org.

    Fedora and Ubuntu/Canonical come in for plenty of gentle ribbing from Lunduke.

    About halfway through, Lunduke then turns the criticism completely on its head by stating that all the annoyances are actually what make Linux great and why we users love it. Furthermore, he points out that we can criticise our operating system of choice – and have it criticised – without acrimony; at this point Lunduke mentions something about Mac users… 🙂

    Anyway, the video itself is 45 minutes long, but well worth it. I hope you watch it all the way through and enjoy it (you should do if you you’re more than just content with running Linux as an operating system. Ed.). I certainly did.

  • May contain traces of Greens

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Election leaflets from the Liberal Democrats are renowned amongst followers of politics for their inaccuracies, in particular their dodgy ‘bar chart’ graphs.

    With the European Parliament elections later this month, sitting Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West Graham Watson has been getting his leaflets out. Those leaflets feature the picture below.

    ld_lab_green

    Here we have a typical picture of smiling Liberal Democrats campaigning for better rail services in Bristol. Keen watchers of politics will notice some familiar local LD faces, such as former Bristol councillor ‘Jolly’ Jon Rogers, sitting Bristol councillor Tim Kent and Bristol West MP Stephen Williams.

    Keener eyes will also spot prominent local transport campaigner and Green Party member Julie Boston, as well as sitting Bristol Labour councillor Mark Bradshaw.

    Well done, Lib Dems!

    Hat tip: Anna McMullen.

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