Not quite the last word on licensing.

I've been speaking to Mark Paschal about his choice of the BSD license for Stapler.  Mark's reasons for open sourcing Stapler may, fundamentally, be more altruistic than mine but having decided to do it (open source liveTopics) I want to do it properly.

They key difference as Mark explains it is that under the GPL liveTopics could not be integrated into Radio, because Radio is not itself GPL compatible.  Indeed Mark couldn't incorporate any functionality from liveTopics into Stapler (for example) without breaking the license.  Is that what I intended?  I'm actually wondering now whether whether it would be breaking my own license to distribute Radio & liveTopics to a customer?  Would I have to require a separate download & install step to comply?

Since I don't think I can go back and do this again I need to get it right.  Some stuff I need to understand:  Am I bound by my own license?  Can I re-issue liveTopics later with a different license?  Can I grant exceptions to the GPL?  If so, what happens when an exception is contradictory to the GPL?

Does anyone else want to weigh in on the best license to use?   [please!]

Lunch break: switching from work to reflection...

Curiouser and curiouser! in You cannot make people smarter:

My fear is that klogging will only thrive in organisations that are healthy, and that there may not be enough of them.  Or, worse, that klogging will thrive as a control mechanism imposed by insecure and fearful management.  I don't want to be a part of that.

I don't think that klogging could be imposed: in "no trust culture" even if someone asks me what I'm thinking about, I can always say something else. If imposed, klogs can only capture formal activities, that in many cases go to all kinds of reports in any case.

Klogs can turn in a new kind of reporting tool. This could be not so bad if it replaces all other reports. If we think about klogs as project management tool, why not to extent it to the reporting tool?

Finally, I would put it broader: I don't want to be a part of unhealthy (in cultural sense) organisation. I simply wouldn't be able to realise my ambitions in this case.

[Mathemagenic]

» I feel I should clarify my remark.

I agree that valuable klogging activity cannot be imposed, I am worried about the darker aspects of klogging techniques as they might be employed by weak and insecure management.

To paraphase a master of KM:

"Remember, a Klogger's strength flows from the Force. But beware. Anger, fear, agression. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever it will dominate your destiny."

My hope is that they're all too busy giving their employees random drug tests and installing spy cameras to figure out what we're doing.

I've not done anything Java wise for a couple of months but, partly to keep my hand in, and partly because I think it's easier I've been thinking about using an applet or Java WebStart application for managing the topic information in liveTopics.  This leads to some questions:

What's the best XML-RPC implementation for Java at the moment?

For a simple API is XML-RPC a better bet than SOAP?

Is it safe to use Swing in applets these days?

What are the relative advantages/disadvanages of JWS over Applets?  Maybe even thinlets?

And what IDE should I be using (I used to use JBuilder)

Can anyone help me out?

I've learned a few lessons along the way, with (I'm sure) many more to come. They are:

• Posting the information is a small problem. Organizing and retrieving it is a big problem. We're working on a shared ontology and RDF metadata.
  
• Most people don't like to write. We've had a difficult time designing interfaces that encourage adding information instead of just reading.
  
• There's no substitute for good, accessible writing. We have several people who write consistently for the system. The logs show that postings from one writer get far more attention and prompt far more linking than those from the other writers. "

[Seb's Open Research]

» These are really good points.  The second is a bit worrying.

"A K-log is a knowledge-management weblog, where you use weblogging tools (like Blogger, Manila, or Radio) to write about your work, what happens, and what you know about. Presumably everybody else does too -- or some reasonable portion of "everybody else". Then you might use RSS to aggregate all this content, and you have the core of a knowledge management system." writes Pete Harbeson.

[Seb's Open Research]

BBspot is a "satirical news and comedy source and meant to be funny. If you are easily offended, gullible or don't have a sense of humor we suggest you go elsewhere." [Scripting News]

Ford Testifies to Stop Ride Sharing

Washington DC - William Ford Jr., CEO of the Ford Motor Company testified before Congress about the nationwide problem of ride sharing. Ford cited ride swapping as the number one reason for the the company's declining revenue. "These 'pool pirates are depriving Ford of rightful income. Three sometimes four people are sharing rides. Less wear and tear on the cars means fewer new car purchases. That's revenue that's being robbed from Ford."

» Fantastic!

BlogBack: Hey!  BlogStreet's Starting to Be Very Cool.

I mentioned www.blogstreet.com recently and just thought to check back since my buddy Veer mentioned it to me.  Here's how it looks for my blog:

Click to zoom in to the full graphic.  I particularly like the way I can drill down into blogs that link to me and who's related to them.

Thanks Veer!  Nice work.

[The FuzzyBlog!]

» My blog returns "The blog http://radio.weblogs.com/0107808/ is present in our database but not yet processed." and has done for at least 3 weeks.   Did I do something wrong?  :(