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The Shuttleworth Foundation | Helen King, International Relations Manager
What's *really* new on the Web, as opposed to buzzwords and soundbites?:
Technology wise, the web hasn't changed very much, which isn't at all a bad thing. It needs to be stable as far as possible. That said, there are some exciting developments.
New services are challenging the way we work, educate and socialise, look at what Google is doing. They will be providing services such as having an entire data center in a container, and if someone needs to set up a huge website or Internet service they can literally buy all their server infrastructure in a can. Google has also released GTalk, which is an instant messanger which uses the Jabber (Open Source IM) protocol, it now also supports XML RPC, which means that it works seamlessly with other Jabber servers.
Mozilla corporation is also really moving with their XUL technology. Firefox and Thunderbird version 2 will work entirely off of XUL runner. Soon after we can expect more announcements of XUL based desktop environments and Office suites, which will be cross-platform and easily deployable across all platforms (including televisions, decoders, cell phones, etc).
FSF has announced the first alpha of Gnash, the GNU Flash player. This means that we can be less dependent on the the non Open Source Macromedia flash player. On a similar note, the Apache project has started a new project called Harmony, which will be a complete free SJRE replacement. It will only be completed in the next two years or so, but development has started in the last six months.
New services are challenging the way we work, educate and socialise, look at what Google is doing. They will be providing services such as having an entire data center in a container, and if someone needs to set up a huge website or Internet service they can literally buy all their server infrastructure in a can. Google has also released GTalk, which is an instant messanger which uses the Jabber (Open Source IM) protocol, it now also supports XML RPC, which means that it works seamlessly with other Jabber servers.
Mozilla corporation is also really moving with their XUL technology. Firefox and Thunderbird version 2 will work entirely off of XUL runner. Soon after we can expect more announcements of XUL based desktop environments and Office suites, which will be cross-platform and easily deployable across all platforms (including televisions, decoders, cell phones, etc).
FSF has announced the first alpha of Gnash, the GNU Flash player. This means that we can be less dependent on the the non Open Source Macromedia flash player. On a similar note, the Apache project has started a new project called Harmony, which will be a complete free SJRE replacement. It will only be completed in the next two years or so, but development has started in the last six months.
Which tools best embody the new opportunities from your point of view and why?:
This one is easy. Free and Open Source technology gives us lots of opportunities to create alternatives to the traditional expensive proprietary systems. You can create a much better system for much cheaper, which means that you can pass savings to your client and put more money into redevelopment, localisation or your pocket – vital for any smme or educational establishment.
Who's doing the best work with the new tools (technically or in terms of social benefit or both)?:
I would have to say Mark Shuttleworth. He's not just using new tools, he's creating them. He's putting in lots of energy into projects such as Ubuntu and Launchpad.net (something that has proved to be a really important part of community management). At The Shuttleworth Foundation we're going to use some ideas there for tuXlab CLUB (for more info: www.tuxlab.org)
He's specifically creating tools for technical benefit, and the good thing is that they lead to social benefit.
We also think that projects such as wikipedia.org and Creative Commons are making a huge success of the power of collaboration within the content world, two brains are better than one, and three are better than two!
What's the bad news? What are the greatest barriers preventing web-based technology from producing social change?:
Access. Less than 1% of the sub-Saharan population are Internet users. The revolutionary way in which the Internet has changed your life is only serving to create a greater and greater divide between developed and developing nations. We are focusing energies on projects such as the Freedom Toaster (www.freedomtoaster.org) to bring the benefits of the Internet to those that need it, attempting to reduce, if not cross, the digital divide.
We need to concentrate on cheaper forms of access from less traditional toolsets. Manual mechanisms - the kind state-of-the-art technology tries to replace - are still needed to pass on relevant knowledge and information from the web.
We need to concentrate on cheaper forms of access from less traditional toolsets. Manual mechanisms - the kind state-of-the-art technology tries to replace - are still needed to pass on relevant knowledge and information from the web.
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