Furthering Open Source Mobile Apps With Ad Revenue

Furthering Open Source Mobile Apps With Ad Revenue

Open source mobile messaging vendor Funambol plans to add micro-banner ads to its online portal myFUNAMBOL. Calling the ads "prominent yet non-intrusive," Funambol representatives say the new advertisements will display in several areas of the email client, including the inbox and message viewing screens. Company CEO Fabrizio Capobianco, says the move "will unleash a major revenue opportunity for service providers, portals and mobile operators." What"s in it for myFUNAMBOL customers? Plenty. Though some may shun the idea of ads in the inbox, anyone who"s used a free Webmail app like Hotmail or Yahoo! knows advertising is the trade-off you take for a free email account that"s accessible anywhere. Though Gmail"s mobile app is ad-free (at least for now), email account holders have been shown targeted ads in their Web-based inbox since the inception of the service. Though Funambol is a large company in its own right, it"s nowhere near the behemoth that is Google. In order to stay competitive, it"s logical that the company would try to monetize its service through ads and, frankly, I"m all right with that. Money to fund open source vendor projects has to come from somewhere and if that means a micro-banner ad in my message viewing screen, that"s fine with me. As long as myFUNAMBOL sticks around, I"ll be able to recommend it to friends and colleagues as a terrific open source push email solution over Apple"s MobileMe or commercial BlackBerry syncing apps. Funambol"s prepared statement pretty clearly outlines the company"s reasons for pushing ads along with email. "...while an ad-funded model enables mobile email to be provided for free or very low cost, while generating significant revenue for those throughout the value chain." In other words, it"s a win-win arrangement. Of course, the opportunity to carry around open source apps on your mobile phone is a great thing too. What do you think? Are you willing to view targeted ads in your inbox if it means helping open source apps get a foothold in the mobile phone industry? Trackback URL for this post: http://ostatic.com/trackback/173646 Related Activities Comments (2) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software funambol (add alternative, post review) email (add alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts Advertisements Aside, myFUNAMBOL Makes Syncing Easy (post comment) OStatic Buffer Overflow..... (1 comment) OStatic Buffer Overflow..... (post comment) Open source mobile messaging vendor Funambol plans to add micro-banner ads to its online portal myFUNAMBOL. Calling the ads "prominent yet non-intrusive," Funambol representatives say the new advertisements will display in several areas of the email client, including the inbox and message viewing screens. Company CEO Fabrizio Capobianco, says the move "will unleash a major revenue opportunity for service providers, portals and mobile operators." What"s in it for myFUNAMBOL customers? Plenty. Though some may shun the idea of ads in the inbox, anyone who"s used a free Webmail app like Hotmail or Yahoo! knows advertising is the trade-off you take for a free email account that"s accessible anywhere. Though Gmail"s mobile app is ad-free (at least for now), email account holders have been shown targeted ads in their Web-based inbox since the inception of the service. Though Funambol is a large company in its own right, it"s nowhere near the behemoth that is Google. In order to stay competitive, it"s logical that the company would try to monetize its service through ads and, frankly, I"m all right with that. Money to fund open source vendor projects has to come from somewhere and if that means a micro-banner ad in my message viewing screen, that"s fine with me. As long as myFUNAMBOL sticks around, I"ll be able to recommend it to friends and colleagues as a terrific open source push email solution over Apple"s MobileMe or commercial BlackBerry syncing apps. Funambol"s prepared statement pretty clearly outlines the company"s reasons for pushing ads along with email. "...while an ad-funded model enables mobile email to be provided for free or very low cost, while generating significant revenue for those throughout the value chain." In other words, it"s a win-win arrangement. Of course, the opportunity to carry around open source apps on your mobile phone is a great thing too. What do you think? Are you willing to view targeted ads in your inbox if it means helping open source apps get a foothold in the mobile phone industry? Trackback URL for this post: http://ostatic.com/trackback/173646 Related Activities Comments (2) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software funambol (add alternative, post review) email (add alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts Advertisements Aside, myFUNAMBOL Makes Syncing Easy (post comment) OStatic Buffer Overflow..... (1 comment) OStatic Buffer Overflow..... (post comment)

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Not Open Source, But Free: Four Must-Have Apps

While OStatic is dedicated to open source, one of the big attractions with open source applications for many users is that they"re free. That"s why when we see really outstanding freeware applications--even though they"re not open source--we still call them out. In this post, I"ll discuss four really outstanding freeware options. Windows and Mac users will find tools to like here, and the price is right. Beating the Boot Time Blues. Startup Delayer from r2 Studios is probably the best freeware utility I"ve found in 2008. (Hat tip to PC World for calling it to my attention.) I wrote about it yesterday on WebWorkerDaily. This great little utility addresses one of the main points of frustration that Windows users have: lengthy boot times. The program gives you a list of the applications and other things that you load upon bootup, and then you can drag any item on the list down to an empty white space. Once you let go of your mouse there, a line appears in the white space with the line set by default at 20 seconds. That means Startup Delayer intends to wait 20 seconds before it attempts to boot the item represented by the line. You can drag the line around for the various applications you load upon startup to customize when they"ll load. When you boot a Windows machine, the applications you have specified to load crash into each other. That"s why you have to sit and stare while their launches resolve. Check the WebWorkerDaily story for how I was instantly able to slash my boot time by a third with Startup Delayer. Defying Dashboard. Mac users are undoubtedly familiar with what a resource hog Dashboard is. The amounts of RAM, processor cycles, and swapfile access that Dashboard consumes creates huge annoyances. TheAppleBlog has a good post up on a utility called DashQuit that can eliminate these headaches. When DashQuit launches it computes the percentage of memory (RAM) that Dashboard is using and displays it in a little panel. With one click, you can disable Dashboard and then enable it again with one click. There are versions for Leopard and for Tiger. Free and in the Cloud. Do you use the Zoho suite of free online applications? Zoho has a truly exhaustive set of hosted applications, ranging from a mail app to a word processor to a CRM app to project management and online sharing apps. As Webware notes Zoho Mail is now updated so that it works both online and offline, and with the iPhone. Also check the WebWorkerDaily story. Offline availability and iPhone compatibility are holy grails for many applications right now, so this is a good one to look into. Free Graphics Gem. IrfanView is one of the most popular freeware graphics programs in the world, which I wrote about here. (Just take a peek at the reader comments for that post.) It"s great when you need to open an image editor quickly, perform quick tasks and get right back to work. However, it has a surprisingly robust feature set, especially if you often need to convert file formats or work with batches of graphics files. IrfanView also has many useful plug-ins available for it, with outside contributors creating the plug-ins in nearly open source fashion. Highly recommended. For many other good freebies from the pure and open source world, see our roundup. Trackback URL for this post: http://ostatic.com/trackback/173708 Related Activities Comments (3) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software IrfanView (4 alternatives, post review) Related Blog Posts 10 Free Mini Apps; Perfect for a USB Thumb Drive (post comment)

Open Source Apps in Your Brain

Many people think you can tell a lot about a person"s subconscious thought by measuring various bodily functions including heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension (think polygraph machines). Whether you believe that biofeedback technology is cutting edge, interesting to ponder, or just a lot of hooey, there are a few biofeedback apps for Linux users who want to explore the concept. The OpenEEG Project wants to further the development of free and open source software for biofeedback and EEG analysis. Its Website tracks existing apps, including a few closed source options that offer support for OpenEEG hardware. "It is aimed toward amateurs who would like to experiment with EEG," notes the Web site. "However, if you are a pro in any of the fields of electronics, neurofeedback, software development etc., you are of course welcome to join the mailing-list and share your wisdom. One app that caught my eye is BioEra, "a visual designer for analyzing bio-signals in real time [that] can be used with any bio-feedback device that has ability to send bio data to computer." It works on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and even PocketPC PDAs. While not everyone believes in bio- and neurofeedback, researchers at NASA think it has merit. They use it to help train pilots, which ultimately led to spinoff technology that"s helping children overcome the affects of ADD and ADHD. Trackback URL for this post: http://ostatic.com/trackback/176915 Related Activities Comments (1) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software add (add alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts Phoenix Mars Lander - A Victory for Open Source (10 comments) NASA Embraces Open Source for Space Missions (4 comments)

G1 Phones bust down the door with 50 open source apps, more to come

Google Android is chasing the coattails of Apple’s iPhone with its initial offering of 50 [...]

Over 35 Free, Essential Open Source Resources and Apps

Every so often, we here at OStatic like to round up our ongoing collections of open source resources, tutorials, reviews and project tours. These educational tools are a central part of the learning mission we try to preserve at the site. We regularly round up the best Firefox extensions, free online books on open source topics, free tools for developers, resources for working with and enjoying online video and audio, Linux tutorials, and much more. In this post, you"ll find more than 35 collections and resources. Hopefully, you"ll find something to learn from here, and the good news is that everything found in this collection is free. 1. Digital Music, Video Graphics and Multimedia Resources                                                                                                                 Sure the world of digital music is loaded with copyright sharks, DRM and other undesirables, but it"s also increasingly teeming with cool, free open source tools and applications. Do you want to sync iPods and iPhones to any computer anywhere? How about playing Doom on your own customized OS for iPods or most other music players? Do you need customized music library management for multiple platforms, including Linux? Check this post for 8 free, open source tools for a better digital music experience. It can take you way beyond iTunes. It used to be that open source video tools were scarce and often fraught with problems--but no more. In this post, we recommend eight top-notch tools for video playback and encoding, ranging from the very flexible SMPlayer, which lets you add subtitles to your videos, to the super-easy Simple Theora Encoder.  Are you under the impression that BitTorrent downloads are illegal or DRM infected? There are plenty of sites out there that offer free and legal torrent downloads to save bandwidth and make file sharers happy. Here, you"ll find sites such as Legit Torrents, where you can get free video, games and Linux distros, plus nine other legal torrent sites worth checking into. Songbird is one of the slickest open source music players available. It just arrived in a final new version. Here we took a look at the final beta version and summarized why you ought to consider this melody maker for your open source arsenal.  In our post 6 Ways to Get Much More Out of GIMP you"ll find lots of good resources for leveraging the power of one of the most popular open source graphics programs. The post includes links to a free, full online book on beginning and advanced GIMP skills, and more.       Recently, we came across a great, free online book on the super powerful open source 3D graphics and animation application Blender. If you"re unfamiliar with Blender, it"s so flexible that impressive, full-length animated movies have been created with it. In this post, you"ll find a review of the online book on beginning and advanced Blender skills. The book is called Blender Basics, Second Edition.        If you haven"t tried out some of the many open source utilities and apps focused on video conveniences, take a gander at this post. It introduces XVid (a utility that can compress video files at a ratio of 100:1), and many more useful titles. Open source media center applications have matured substantially, and can now bring tons of premium content to your TV. Here are four excellent, free applications that can quickly start entertaining you.  High-end graphics software is expensive when you shop on the proprietary aisle, but we"ve collected six cool, free tools here. Quite a few of these are easily as good, if not better, than proprietary alternatives. Make sure to check out IrfanView (which is freeware, not open source, but just had to be here). You"ll find more on IrfanView, and other graphics tools, in this post.          2. All Things Firefox The iMacros Firefox extension is incredibly powerful--an application unto itself, disguised as a Firefox extension. It lets you record macros that you can play back at any time, and the process is about as easy as using a VCR. In this post, you"ll find a collection of screenshots that function as a guided tour to using iMacros, including how to use Super Bookmarks--macros that sit right on your Bookmarks menu in the browser, capable of executing task-based scripts of any complexity--or elegant simplicity--you choose. Several readers have gotten this running in minutes and written in with imaginative, time-saving applications for iMacros. OStatic"s Firefox Superguide has been one of our most popular posts. It collects more than 100 ways to get more out of the Firefox browser, including screenshot driven tutorials, and a collection of the very best extensions for Firefox. Here"s a pictorial tour of one of the more useful Firefox extensions we"ve tried out in a while: VideoSurf. It provides chronological timelines for online videos at YouTube, Google Video and other sites. Jump straight to what you want. In this post, you"ll find two excellent tutorials singled out by Mozilla. The first is a step-by-step recipe for how to build Firefox extensions. The second is a guide to how to use Mozilla"s useful Ubiquity command-line tool, and create commands for it.    Do you frequently share web-based content with others via social networks? If so, check out BlueOrganizer, a slick Firefox extension that we reviewed here. It"s also very handy to have when you want to search the web for content related to what you"re currently looking at. (Make sure and check out Glue, an update to this project.) GPhotoSpace is a very interesting extension for Firefox that we wrote up here. It requires Firefox 3 and leverages the 7GB+ of storage space that you currently get with a Gmail account for an online photo storage repository. Uploads tend to be much faster than on sites such as Flickr, and there are other conveniences to having your photo management application in your e-mail engine.  3. In Our Linux Toolboxes     Keir Thomas, a noted Linux author, has made available a free book online: Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference. It"s very good, and has already been downloaded over 150,000 times. You"ll find information for beginners, and more advanced material.       Some people love Linux but just can"t use it full time. In this post, you"ll find a discussion of free virtualization options that can put Linux right on your Windows PC or Mac.   What if you want to put Linux and Linux applications on your USB thumb drive? Here, you"ll find instructions and a huge collection of useful tools for making it work.         Are you upgrading a Linux box? Our own Reuven Lerner--a skilled and experienced developer--has a guide here to a large collection of resources for SELinux--which protects Linux systems from security threats. Ramesh Natarajan is giving out free copies of his ebook, Linux 101 Hacks (the password "linuxrocks" starts the download). Though it targets a farily experienced audience, it looks like a handy reference for those common command line tasks that arise every so often -- but not often enough that you completely recall how to do them.               Do you have a need for warding off patent trolls who may threaten your idea or patents with dubious patents of their own? Linux Defenders is a brand new organization, with some heavy hitters backing it, working to ward off patent trolls. Check out our writeup here. One of the chicken-and-egg problems that keeps some users from trying out and becoming skilled at good open source applications is lack of adequate documentation. How are you supposed to learn effectively without it? The good news is that for a whole lot of open source applications and operating systems, there are good, free books you can get online. You"ll find tons of documentation for nearly every Linux distro at Linuxtopia. See this post for details.  4. For Developers On the web development front, our post More Than Five Top, Free Tools for Web Developers has been very popular. It discusses Piwik (open source web analytics software with useful plug-ins from the community), Kompozer (a very popular web development environment, especially for CSS fans), and OpenX (a free, open source ad server for monetizing your site), plus several more.        Cloud computing is all the rage these days, but did you know that there are many open source infrastructure tools for cloud computing that can provide free flexibility, cost savings, and more?Especially if you"re a developer, try these five examples. Webinars have increased in popularity in recent years, and this post rounds up seven resources for finding free ones on open source topics. You can sit in on educational webinars on MySQL, Drupal and much more. Want to view videos and presentations on Google"s free offerings for the development community? We wrote up how you can find a slew of them here, on topics ranging from Google"s AJAX APIs to using Google Gears. 5. Apps and Resources for Them  Along with free, open source software, there are many good, visual tutorials for top open source applications found free on the web. In this post, you"ll find a whopping sixteen of them. You can brush up on web development skills such as CSS and AJAX, become a graphics wizard with GIMP, and learn how to install and master any Linux distro.    Want to put a bushel of free open source applications on your computer or even on a USB thumb drive in one, free download? You can find out how to do so here, and dive right into everything from the OpenOffice suite of productivity applications, to Thunderbird e-mail, to open source calendar applications. Many of the applications are guaranteed to be ones you"ve never heard of, but they"re all hand-picked by folks in the know. You get hundreds of applications--all free. For Macintosh users, you"ll find an equally good one-download offering at MacLibre, as we discussed here.       Do you use Mozilla"s Thunderbird e-mail application? If you do, or you"re moving to it, check out our list of the best add-ons for Thunderbird.       Are you thinking of getting a netbook? They"ve become hugely popular and come with various flavors of Linux and lots of open source applications installed for very fair prices. Here are some good pieces of advice and links focused on ideal applications for netbooks if you"re in the market for one.   Looking for a killer open source word processor? AbiWord is a top-notch one, and we took the brand new version for a spin, which you can read about here.  Among other things, it now works much better with Microsoft Office files.         In addition to OStatic itself, where can you go to evaluate and kick the tires on open source applications? We found six sites looking into--many with user ratings for useful FOSS products--and you can check them out here.   Open sourcers often collaborate with each other, and if you work with others who are in remote locations, Dimdim is a very powerful open source web meeting application, recently out in a new version. Check out our impressions here. For an alternative from the world of freeware, including a Linux version, look into Yugma.   Are you interested in some of the best brand new open source projects? In this post, you"ll find a collection of 10 of the "best rookies" selected by Black Duck Software, including note-taking applications, automated trading software, and much more. 6. In Need of Open Source Work? Want to sell your open source skills to the highest bidder? Here we covered over 10 ways to get paid for your FOSS wizardry. Also check out this interview with oDesk"s CEO (oDesk connects people with open source skills with employers, even guaranteeing work and payments).  Have you suffered a layoff recently? If so, we have scores of good ideas for finding work in the world of open source here. You can find good places to put up a profile of yourself, good sites to visit for advertised jobs in open source, and more.  Part of OStatic"s mission is to deliver good educational resources on open source. We hope these free tools and tutorials help you.       Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software Ubuntu (13 alternatives, 10 reviews) Thunderbird (26 alternatives, 8 reviews) OpenOffice (18 alternatives, 17 reviews) Related Blog Posts A Peek at DeviceKit in Fedora 11 and Beyond (post comment) Firefox Extension Kerfuffle Raises Question: How Much Freedom is Too Much? (3 comments) Open, Free, Functional, and Wrapped In a Strong Sense of Self (4 comments)

There’s More To Open Source Net Management Apps Than Cost Savings

Staff expertise

Will open source succeed in the mobile space?

Open source has come to the forefront of the mobile space this year in a big way. Nokia spun off Symbian and created the Symbian Foundation to put the mobile OS into open source to drive development. Google"s Android made a big splash with its openness designed to drive development...

Smart Installer Pack Delivers Solid Open Source and Freeware Apps

I"ve written before about PortableApps and MacLibre which offer free, single downloads that deliver bushels of top-notch open source applications to Windows and Mac users, respectively. With them, you can almost instantly populate a computer or even a USB thumb drive with useful applications ranging from AbiWord (word processor), to Blender (animation and graphics), to GIMP (graphics), to Adium (instant messaging), to Cyberduck (FTP client), to Firefox (browser). As DownloadSquad notes, Windows users have a similar free option in Smart Installer Pack.  Here"s what you get for free with it. Smart Installer Pack is a free download for Windows that gives you an installer application, and 24 good, open source and freeware applications. It"s positioned as good for populating new computers and devices with solid applications in a time-saving way, although it does require you to iteratively choose the applications you want installed. In the screenshot below, you"ll find the open source and freeware applications you get--an excellent collection, although there are a few applications I"d replace with better open source options. For example, AbiWord is a better word processor than the Writer word processor in OpenOffice, and VLC Media Player beats KMPlayer. Still, Smart Installer Pack is another good option for quickly getting many excellent applications that you can use without lots of searching and downloading.       Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software portableapps (add alternative, post review) maclibre (add alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts Two Instant Ways for Windows Users to Make Broader Use of Open Source Apps (1 comment) PortableApps Still Offers Herds of Free Apps in One Download, Gets Upgrade (post comment) Putting Linux Muscle in Your Pocket: Resources for USB Thumb Drives (post comment)

Smart Installer Pack Delivers Solid Open Source and Freeware Apps

I've written before about PortableApps and MacLibre, which offer free, single downloads that deliver bushels of top-notch open source applications to Windows and Mac users, respectively. With them, you can almost instantly populate a computer or even a USB thumb drive with useful applications ranging from AbiWord (word processor), to Blender (animation and graphics), to GIMP (graphics), to Adium (instant messaging), to Cyberduck (FTP client), to Firefox (browser). As DownloadSquad notes, Windows users have a similar free option in Smart Installer Pack.  Here's what you get for free with it. Smart Installer Pack is a free download for Windows that gives you an installer application, and 24 good, open source and freeware applications. It's positioned as good for populating new computers and devices with solid applications in a time-saving way, although it does require you to iteratively choose the applications you want installed. In the screenshot below, you'll find the open source and freeware applications you get--an excellent collection, although there are a few applications I'd replace with better open source options. For example, AbiWord is a better word processor than the Writer word processor in OpenOffice, and VLC Media Player beats KMPlayer. Still, Smart Installer Pack is another good option for quickly getting many excellent applications that you can use without lots of searching and downloading.       Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software portableapps (add alternative, post review) maclibre (add alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts Two Instant Ways for Windows Users to Make Broader Use of Open Source Apps (1 comment) PortableApps Still Offers Herds of Free Apps in One Download, Gets Upgrade (post comment) Putting Linux Muscle in Your Pocket: Resources for USB Thumb Drives (post comment)

Open Source Projects Surge On Mobile Devices

Apple"s iPhone gains surprising

Nokia Releases Open Source Mobile Development Framework

Licensing terms for Nokia"s Qt 4.5 apps framework for

EpiSurveyor and The Call For Open Source Mobile Healthcare Applications

Have you ever heard of EpiSurveyor? It"s an open source tool designed to allow anyone in the world to create handheld data entry forms, use them to collect data on mobile devices, and transfer the data to other devices for analysis. Developed by Dr. Joel Selanikio (shown), it"s widely used in public health efforts all around the world, for disease surveillance and collecting public health data. Today, the Lemelson-MIT Program has announced that Selanikio is the recipient of its 2009 $100,000 Award for Sustainability for his contributions to public health. Here is what"s significant about EpiSurveyor, and how there is room for open source apps like it. As people all around the world increasingly tote mobile devices, their smartphones, netbooks and other gadgets also become increasingly potentially potent as data collection devices, and collecting health data is a good application of this concept. I"ve written before about how the open source community could have a big impact on the new wave of "doctor apps" for mobile devices. When Apple showed off its early version of the iPhone 3.0 operating system recently, it also showed applications designed to monitor the blood pressure and glucose levels of iPhone owners, and send the data off to remote doctors. Many more of these applications are on the way. Dr. Selanikio, with his EpiSurveyor application, appears to be right on top of these trends, and he created a useful open source application that can improve public health efforts on behalf of others. Consider this from the announcement of his award:   "With the proliferation of mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), Selanikio recognized the potential of handheld computers in dramatically improving the data collection process. “I set out to develop software that was extremely simple to use; taking the skills, expertise and capacity that previously came with hiring a consultant and instead, put the necessary tools into the hands of the actual public health officer, nurse or physician,” states Selanikio. “I was determined to make the software both free and open source, so as not to raise barriers to data collection.”   The announcement also points out that in developing parts of the world where laptops and computers are less prevalent, mobile devices such as cell phones are still in wide use. EpiSurveyor is being especially widely used in Africa, but is also in use in Indonesia and many other parts of the world. Interested parties can download it here, and also download a manual for it. There are also videos showing field tests of EpiSurveyor. Congratulations to Dr. Selanikio on a well-deserved award. Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software Health (add alternative, post review) episurveyor (add alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts Open Source in Health IT: Not a Done Deal, But At Least a Chance to Make a ... (post comment) Open Source in Healthcare IT Takes a Baby Step (post comment) Vodafone: Looking At Community and Open Source for Growth (1 comment)

EpiSurveyor and the Call For Open Source Mobile Healthcare Applications

Have you ever heard of EpiSurveyor? It's an open source tool designed to allow anyone in the world to create handheld data entry forms, use them to collect data on mobile devices, and transfer the data to other devices for analysis. Developed by Dr. Joel Selanikio (shown), it's widely used in public health efforts all around the world, for disease surveillance and collecting public health data. Today, the Lemelson-MIT Program has announced that Selanikio is the recipient of its 2009 $100,000 Award for Sustainability for his contributions to public health. Here is what's significant about EpiSurveyor, and how there is room for open source apps like it. As people all around the world increasingly tote mobile devices, their smartphones, netbooks and other gadgets also become increasingly potentially potent as data collection devices, and collecting health data is a good application of this concept. I've written before about how the open source community could have a big impact on the new wave of "doctor apps" for mobile devices. When Apple showed off its early version of the iPhone 3.0 operating system recently, it also showed applications designed to monitor the blood pressure and glucose levels of iPhone owners, and send the data off to remote doctors. Many more of these applications are on the way. Dr. Selanikio, with his EpiSurveyor application, appears to be right on top of these trends, and he created a useful open source application that can improve public health efforts on behalf of others. Consider this from the announcement of his award:   "With the proliferation of mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), Selanikio recognized the potential of handheld computers in dramatically improving the data collection process. “I set out to develop software that was extremely simple to use; taking the skills, expertise and capacity that previously came with hiring a consultant and instead, put the necessary tools into the hands of the actual public health officer, nurse or physician,” states Selanikio. “I was determined to make the software both free and open source, so as not to raise barriers to data collection.”   The announcement also points out that in developing parts of the world where laptops and computers are less prevalent, mobile devices such as cell phones are still in wide use. EpiSurveyor is being especially widely used in Africa, but is also in use in Indonesia and many other parts of the world. Interested parties can download it here, and also download a manual for it. There are also videos showing field tests of EpiSurveyor. Congratulations to Dr. Selanikio on a well-deserved award. Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software Health (add alternative, post review) episurveyor (add alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts Open Source in Health IT: Not a Done Deal, But At Least a Chance to Make a ... (post comment) Open Source in Healthcare IT Takes a Baby Step (post comment) Vodafone: Looking At Community and Open Source for Growth (1 comment)

Intel and Nokia Strike Mobile Partnership, Including Open Source

Intel is getting very serious about mobile phones and platforms, as evidenced by a far-reaching partnership with Nokia, announced today. The partnership comes on the heels of Intel"s acquisition of Wind River Systems, which is a big player in the embedded Linux, and embedded mobile technology space. As part of the new partnership, Intel and Nokia announced their intent to collaborate on numerous open source software projects, and Intel will license Nokia"s HSPA-capable 3G modem intellectual property for upcoming mobile products. The goal is "to define a new mobile platform beyond today"s smartphones, notebooks and netbooks, enabling the development of a variety of innovative hardware, software and mobile Internet services," according to Intel"s announcement. The announcement adds:   "The effort also includes technology development and cooperation in several open source software initiatives in order to develop common technologies for use in the Moblin and Maemo platform projects, which will deliver Linux-based operating systems for these future mobile computing devices. The companies are coordinating their open source technology selection and development investments, including alignment on a range of key Open Source technologies for Mobile Computing such as: oFono*, ConnMan*, Mozilla*, X.Org*, BlueZ*, D-BUS*, Tracker*, GStreamer*, PulseAudio*. Collectively, these technologies will provide an open source standards-based means to deliver a wealth of mobile Internet and communication experiences, with rich graphics and multimedia capabilities."   Moblin is now hosted by the Linux Foundation, after being launched by Intel, and is headed for devices ranging from smartphones to netbooks, to in-car telematics systems. Maemo is a Linux operating system, mostly based on open source code and powers mobile computers such as the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. This sounds like good news for Linux-based platforms, and undoubtedly some of the Wind River technology will boost the effort from Intel and Nokia. As GigaOm reports, it may also mean that Nokia netbooks are imminent. Intel wants to keep its x86 architecture moving in an increasingly mobile market, and will likely put large resources behind its new effort with Nokia. Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software Moblin (add alternative, post review) Maemo (1 alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts OStatic Buffer Overflow... (post comment) The Pocket Doctor: An Open Source Opportunity? (post comment) The Shifting App Landscape, and the Open Source Opportunities (post comment)

Intel and Nokia Strike Mobile Partnership, Including Open Source

Intel is getting very serious about mobile phones and platforms, as evidenced by a far-reaching partnership with Nokia, announced today. The partnership comes on the heels of Intel's acquisition of Wind River Systems, which is a big player in the embedded Linux, and embedded mobile technology space. As part of the new partnership, Intel and Nokia announced their intent to collaborate on numerous open source software projects, and Intel will license Nokia's HSPA-capable 3G modem intellectual property for upcoming mobile products. The goal is "to define a new mobile platform beyond today's smartphones, notebooks and netbooks, enabling the development of a variety of innovative hardware, software and mobile Internet services," according to Intel's announcement. The announcement adds:   "The effort also includes technology development and cooperation in several open source software initiatives in order to develop common technologies for use in the Moblin and Maemo platform projects, which will deliver Linux-based operating systems for these future mobile computing devices. The companies are coordinating their open source technology selection and development investments, including alignment on a range of key Open Source technologies for Mobile Computing such as: oFono*, ConnMan*, Mozilla*, X.Org*, BlueZ*, D-BUS*, Tracker*, GStreamer*, PulseAudio*. Collectively, these technologies will provide an open source standards-based means to deliver a wealth of mobile Internet and communication experiences, with rich graphics and multimedia capabilities."   Moblin is now hosted by the Linux Foundation, after being launched by Intel, and is headed for devices ranging from smartphones to netbooks, to in-car telematics systems. Maemo is a Linux operating system, mostly based on open source code and powers mobile computers such as the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. This sounds like good news for Linux-based platforms, and undoubtedly some of the Wind River technology will boost the effort from Intel and Nokia. As GigaOm reports, it may also mean that Nokia netbooks are imminent. Intel wants to keep its x86 architecture moving in an increasingly mobile market, and will likely put large resources behind its new effort with Nokia. Related Activities Comments (2) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software Moblin (2 alternatives, post review) Maemo (1 alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts HTC Hero: The First Android Phone with a Slick, Customizable Interface (post comment) OStatic Buffer Overflow... (post comment) The Pocket Doctor: An Open Source Opportunity? (post comment)

Open Source, Mobile Devices and the Economy Work in Sync to Push Funambol's Developer Community

In my inbox yesterday, along with the notes from my mom, forwards from relatives and friends who never really write, and a wide variety of great deals on fake watches, I discovered a press release from Funambol. That in and of itself isn't unusual, but what the open source mobile sync and push solution company was reporting is remarkable on several levels. Many open source software companies are seeing increases in revenue, stronger migration rates and a general upswing in business thanks to the rather anemic economy. You don't need to write about open source to see this -- it's readily apparent to anyone skimming tech-related headlines. Funambol's announcement certainly mentioned the economy, and gave some truly impressive figures surrounding the project's growth -- but they weren't in relation to undeniably important financial gains. The jaw-dropping growth is happening somewhere that's even more critical in the long-term: the community. We've written about Funambol's mobile push and sync services before, as well as some of Funambol's community projects. One of Funambol's greatest selling points (aside from its open source roots) is that it's one of the simplest, straightforward ways to sync and get devices and software that don't traditionally want to communicate to work together. Through it, I can get my Blackberry Curve to sync with Thunderbird on my Linux boxes. This is a fairly simple way to get a mobile device that's very much tied to one platform or software application to talk to the applications you need it to sync with. As Stefano Maffulli, Funambol's community manager puts it, "Funambol is the Switzerland of mobile sync and push email..." This, evidently, is an idea that appeals to the world beyond OStatic. Funambol is reporting that in the last three months the community has experienced record growth. Funambol says that open source community testing has increased a mind-boggling 2,000%, and downloads have gone up 34%. Active server deployments saw a 42% increase. Growth and interest like that is a funny thing, it tends to spur more growth and interest, and Funambol's ever increasing interoperability with MS Exchange, Google Apps, Thunderbird and Android only makes its potential more appealing to a greater number of developers -- and end users. Funambol suspects its striking out into mobile social networking is also feeding developer interest. One of the most popular mobile applications to emerge from the developer community lately is the AvatarGrabber. It was developed as part of the Code Sniper Program, which is a sort of "wishlist" of new Funambol features that developers can create, and receive a cash bounty upon completion. AvatarGrabber is essentially a little detail -- when a person updates a profile photo on a social networking site, the new photo syncs with contacts' mobile address books. Those little details add up, though, and make for a better experience. This is what open source, and an open source community, does best. Maybe community growth doesn't buy server banks and new hardware outright, but Funambol is finding the returns bring the project -- and the company behind it -- a different, and very tangible, value. Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software Funambol (add alternative, post review) email (1 alternative, post review) sync (add alternative, post review) Related Blog Posts Roku Proves Good (Open Source) Things Come in Small Packages (post comment) Likewise Secures $10 Million in Funding; Sets Sights on New Users and Produ... (post comment) Miro's Creative Fundraising: Adopt a Line of Incredibly Cute Code (6 comments)

Open Source Collaboration Software Maker Open-Xchange Secures $9 Million

Open-Xchange has closed a Series B round of venture funding to the tune of $9 million. The round was led by German venture firm eCAPITAL Entrepreneurial Partners AG and joined by BayBG and existing Munich-based investor BayTech Venture Capital. Open-Xchange received a total of $8.8 million in a Series A financing round from angel investors and BayTech back in 2006. Built as open source software, Open-Xchange aims to provide an alternative to commercial platforms like Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint, including features like mobility support (iPhones, Blackberry), document sharing, shared calendars and shared address books.

Open Source is Ideal, Open Formats are Critical

It seems, lately, more people are embracing open source software. From the Android phone to OpenOffice.org"s latest, free software is getting (well deserved) good press. In a perfect world, all projects would make their code freely available, and everyone could benefit from the resulting innovation, security and interoperability. Since it"s likely the planet will be waiting a long while for perfection on a few fronts, would approaching open source adoption differently -- same goal, different strategies -- help foster interest and acceptance? How can advocates show the greatest benefits of open source to the most people in the least amount of time? More emphasis on the importance of open file formats would seem a reasonable starting point. Why? Wouldn"t tackling the source code, and encouraging openness there make proprietary file formats a thing of the past anyway? Wouldn"t it, ultimately, be a duplication of effort? There are two reasons that the open format aspect of the free software movement needs special attention. The first is simply that file formats are familiar to anyone who has ever worked with a computer. The code that makes an application run is an abstract concept to many, and whether it is open, or closed, means very little. There are few people who can say they"ve never received a file they"ve needed to edit, or open -- but couldn"t with the software on their computers. Telling people that open software is useful is fine. People who aren"t necessarily open source enthusiasts using it, and seeing that it"s useful is better still. But open source code is a foggy concept, even if people genuinely like the resulting application. It doesn"t take much more than a supervisor"s file requiring immediate edits that can"t be opened, or a slideshow appearing radically different when shown in another version of the software it was created in, for people to understand the importance of open formats. It can certainly be argued that it"s not quite the same thing. And that is one hundred percent correct, it isn"t the same. But it is a frame of reference that many can relate to -- and the concepts are related, and overlap. The second reason open formats need a boost to ultimately promote open source is a social issue. It is stated nicely in the GeekPAC position paper: ...we would even go so far as to suggest that information rights are human rights, because of the fundamental role that information plays in shaping our culture and economy. Information plays such a fundamental role in our daily lives, in fact, that to restrict one"s access is to restrict one"s ability to fully participate in a global culture, thus handicapping economic progress. It sounds dramatic. It is dramatic. Look at it this way: Open formats bring information to every person with access to a computer. Information is inherently valuable. Again, a frame of reference comes in to play here -- I know something I did not previously because I could access information with tools I already possessed. The value of the open format transfers to the value of the open code. Encouraging software developers (whether new to the industry or well established) to open their code, and encouraging others to try open source software is always worth the effort. This shouldn"t be set aside. It seems, though, that an emphasis on promoting openness in an area many relate to, and can actively benefit from, could bring new levels of support and appreciation for all that open source software has to offer. Trackback URL for this post: http://ostatic.com/trackback/174660 blogs adsense from blogs adsense on Sat, 2008-10-18 06:05 The vital thing to remember is that you must be patient. Related Activities Comments (1) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Blog Posts Q3 Results in Less VC Funding for Open Source Vendors (post comment) Recompiling Open Source Attitudes (1 comment) MythTV, Rainy Day Project With Staying Power (6 comments)

Nominations Open For OSCON's Open Source Awards

What do Pamela Jones, Chris Messina, Doc Searls, and Angela Byron all have in common? Aside from being very cool people, they’re also all past winners of a Google-O’Reilly Open Source Award. The honor is bestowed on people in the FOSS community  who have “demonstrated exceptional leadership, creativity, and collaboration in the development of open source software. The 2009 award winner will be announced at this year’s O’Reilly Open source Convention 2009 (OSCON) later this summer so if you know someone who you’d like to see win, there are still a few weeks left to nominate your favorite geek. OSCON Program Chair Allison Randal writes, “The nomination process is open to the entire open source community, closing May 22, 2009. Send your nominations to osawards@oreilly.com. Nominations should include the name of the recipient, any associated project/org, suggested title for the award ("Best Hacker", "Best Community Builder", etc.), and a description of why you are nominating the individual. Google and O'Reilly employees cannot be nominated.” Enthusiastic commenters on Randal’s blog post have already begun to kick around some names: PostgreSQL’s Tom Lane for Best Hacker, OSI’s Russ Nelson, and Dave Winer for “the invention of... the modern Web 2.0 world as we know it." Of course, only nominations received at osawards@oreilly.com will be considered, but we’d like to know who you think should take the prize. Make your nominations according to the rules, then come back here and let us know your suggestions in the comments.   Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Blog Posts Community Leadership Summit, Kick Off OSCON at an "Unconference" (1 comment) Will Open Source Conferences Go the Way of BrainShare? (4 comments) OStatic Buffer Overflow..... (post comment)

VMware’s Next Open Source Step: VMware View Open Client

No, VMware isn"t going open ...