From Acadia University’s School of Education, a sober plea for increasing the use of free-software commons within our information technology in education, brought to our attention by way of a paper by Professor Gary Hepburn in the latest FirstMonday:

Schools are hindered by cost and flexibility problems as they try to obtain resources such as software and textbooks. Open source development processes are producing products that can address many of these problems and, as importantly, provide a better alignment with core educational values. Indeed, open source products potentially encourage the development of an educational commons.

Mind you, concepts like any alignments to core educational values are going to fly directly into the face of those Ministry of Education stewarts who have licensed the whole of K-12 edu-unawares from Disney, not to mention how this may also grate with those who'd rather use the classroom for sponsored indoctrinating of our children with copyright disinformation but nonetheless, at least Professor Hepburn is ringing the bell, even if administration is too busy fiddling to notice the alarm.

[ Source: Seeking an educational commons ]

You can start your countdown to breaking free from MsExchange: NewsForge reports today on a LinuxWorld announcement that NetLine's Open-Xchange Server, the engine behind Novell/SUSE's Openexchange Server, will be released under the GPL by the end of August. So why would a top-selling Linux-based collaboration kit choose to give it all away?

"The main reason for GPLing Open-Xchange Server is the speed of innovation we expect to get back from the community"

For example, while there are no connectors to bridge Open-XChange to other free-software office ware such as the KDE Kontact, this is free software -- someone with that itch to scratch is bound to cobble a bridge. Netline CEO Frank Hoberg tells us more than 1,600 developers have already signed up to work with Open-Xchange Server to help create an open source replacement for Microsoft Exchange.

[ Source: Open-Xchange Server goes open source ]

Let this be a refresher lesson for everyone depressed at the deplorable state of where the IT world has wandered of late: Open may yet win the Browser Wars!

Noted today on the Mozilla press page, the Mozilla Foundation has joined forces with, dig this, a who's who of old old-school lock-in masters such as with Adobe, Apple, and Macromedia, together with competitor Opera and free-software sugar-daddy Sun Microsystems, and together they have a plan to create a new generation of open web browser plugins with an aim to "allow web developers to offer richer web browsing experiences, helping to maintain innovation and standards on the Net."

Without these improvements, enhanced interactivity could remain tied to a single, proprietary browser solution, which reduces choice and leads to monoculture on the web.

Hmmm ... oh, really? Sound like anybody we know?

This new initiative makes enhanced interactivity available without locking users in to a specific computing platform or web browser. This will allow users to choose among a range of browsers without sacrificing interactivity.

Somebody, I say, somebody say Amen.

[ Source: Mozilla Foundation Announces More Open, Scriptable Plugins ]