Dr. Sand argues that the idea of a Jewish nation – whose need for a safe haven was originally used to justify the founding of the state of Israel – is a myth invented little more than a century ago.

...

In addition, he argues that the Jews were never exiled from the Holy Land, that most of today's Jews have no historical connection to the land called Israel and that the only political solution to the country's conflict with the Palestinians is to abolish the Jewish state.

...

Dr. Sand's main argument is that until little more than a century ago, Jews thought of themselves as Jews only because they shared a common religion. At the turn of the 20th century, he said, Zionist Jews challenged this idea and started creating a national history by inventing the idea that Jews existed as a people separate from their religion.

Equally, the modern Zionist idea of Jews being obligated to return from exile to the Promised Land was entirely alien to Judaism, he added.

"Zionism changed the idea of Jerusalem. Before, the holy places were seen as places to long for, not to be lived in. For 2,000 years Jews stayed away from Jerusalem not because they could not return but because their religion forbade them from returning until the messiah came."

...

"I was not raised as a Zionist, but like all other Israelis I took it for granted that the Jews were a people living in Judea and that they were exiled by the Romans in 70AD.

...

"Similarly with the exile. In fact, you can't explain Jewishness without exile. But when I started to look for history books describing the events of this exile, I couldn't find any. Not one.

"That was because the Romans did not exile people. In fact, Jews in Palestine were overwhelming peasants and all the evidence suggests they stayed on their lands."

...

"It is not taught in Israeli schools but most of the early Zionist leaders, including David Ben Gurion [Israel's first prime minister], believed that the Palestinians were the descendants of the area's original Jews. They believed the Jews had later converted to Islam."

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=13569

2. Wouldn't that be a shame:

"With the U.S. economy in crisis and military spending at its highest level since World War II, military officials and experts are worrying that America may have to start reining in defense spending."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/53674.html

3. "More importantly, as Business Week wrote on May 23, 2006:

"President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations."

Negroponte was a key figure in the illegal Iran-Contra scheme. Yet he and his successors - in the name of "national security" - could tell companies such as AIG, Lehman, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, etc. that they could use phony accounting and keep the SEC in the dark."

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/10/did-john-negroponte-help-create.html

4. This is about as scary as anything I've ever read. Naomi Wolf on current shock doctrine:

"Members of Congress were told they could face martial law if they didn't pass the bailout bill. This will not be the last time.

Background: the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of October 1. Their stated mission is the form of crowd control they practiced in Iraq, subduing "unruly individuals," and the management of a national emergency. I am in Seattle and heard from the brother of one of the soldiers that they are engaged in exercises now. Amy Goodman reported that an Army spokesperson confirmed that they will have access to lethal and non lethal crowd control technologies and tanks.

...

I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and patriot David Antoon for clarification:

"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?"

"Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress would be at the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them not to obey illegal orders."

"But these orders are now legal?'"

"Correct."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?"

"Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?"

"Nothing."

"What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?"

"Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq -- send a tank down a street in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they did into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else."

"What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?"

"They'd probably be treated as deserters as in Iraq: arrested, detained and facing five years in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann Wright shows that deserters -- reservists who refused to go back to Iraq -- got longer sentences than war criminals."

"Does Congress have any military of their own?"

"No. Congress has no direct control of any military units. The Governors have the National Guard but they report to the President in an emergency that he declares."

"Who can arrest the President?"

"The Attorney General can arrest the President after he leaves or after impeachment."

[Note: Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has asserted it is possible for District Attorneys around the country to charge President Bush with murder if they represent districts where one or more military members who have been killed in Iraq formerly resided.]

"Given the danger do you advocate impeachment?"

"Yes. President Bush struck down Posse Comitatus -- which has prevented, with a penalty of two years in prison, U.S. leaders since after the Civil War from sending military forces into our streets -- with a 'signing statement.' He should be impeached immediately in a bipartisan process to prevent the use of military forces and mercenary forces against U.S. citizens"

"Should Americans call on senior leaders in the Military to break publicly with this action and call on their own men and women to disobey these orders?"

"Every senior military officer's loyalty should ultimately be to the Constitution. Every officer should publicly break with any illegal order, even from the President."

"But if these are now legal. If they say, 'Don't obey the Commander in Chief,' what happens to the military?"

"Perhaps they would be arrested and prosecuted as those who refuse to participate in the current illegal war. That's what would be considered a coup."

"But it's a coup already."

"Yes."

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10492

5. "In the CIA's basic interrogation manual declassified in 1963, for example, a window of opportunity is highlighted in which torture reduces its victim to a state of traumatized disorientation and childlike regression, creating an opening for the interrogator to be transformed into a protective father figure. This is one of the classic tactics of tyrants across the planet. In the view of Klein and others, it was used after the shock of 9/11 to create a national lens of perception within the overall control matrix, a kind of template to be used by the mind to reflexively process all relevant concepts in terms of the 'war on terror'.

• "If we understand how our states of shock are exploited, if we can recognize the signs, then the next time there is a crisis (and it can be an economic crisis)...then when the next shock hits we can prepare."
  

• "I have a quote...from Milton Friedman, who says that only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change, and...when the crisis hits, the change depends on the ideas that are lying around. So it's not just about recognizing a pattern; it's also about having your [reformist] ideas lying around when the next shock hits." 7

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10493

6. "

In its latest power play, on October 3, 2008, the Fed acquired the ability to pay interest to its member banks on the reserves the banks maintain at the Fed. Reuters reported on October 3:

"The U.S. Federal Reserve gained a key tactical tool from the $700 billion financial rescue package signed into law on Friday that will help it channel funds into parched credit markets. Tucked into the 451-page bill is a provision that lets the Fed pay interest on the reserves banks are required to hold at the central bank."³

If the Fed’s money comes ultimately from the taxpayers, that means we the taxpayers are paying interest to the banks on the banks’ own reserves – reserves maintained for their own private profit."

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10489

7. "Just look at the videotapes of the angry, hateful hordes attending these rallies — screaming that Obama is a socialist; that he’s both a Muslim and a terrorist as proven by his “bloodline” and his name; that his supporters are “commie faggots”; that he’s guilty of treason; underscored by increasing racial invective and even punctuated in one case by a call from an audience member for someone to be killed. These aren’t just isolated individuals; these sentiments are common at these rallies and becoming increasingly virulent and enraged — at the rallies and otherwise
...
And worst of all, all of this rage and this innuendo is taking place in the most volatile climate of all — one of severe economic distress and anxiety — and these mobs are increasingly becoming convinced, because the Right and the McCain/Palin campaign is leading them to believe it, that this economic crisis is the fault of the black candidate — Obama — for making banks give mortgages to racial minorities. As an email printed just now by Jonah Goldberg put it — defending someone at a McCain/Palin rally today who screamed he was “very angry” at Obama the “socialist”
...
By obvious contrast —as Balz himself says — “McCain’s code is to suggest something sinister about Obama, to say there is something lurking in his past that Americans should fear.” Those accusations exist in different universes. Beyond that, 100% — 100% — of all McCain ads are now negative attacks on Obama, while only 1/3 of Obama ads entail negative attacks on McCain.
Everyone can see with their own eyes: over the last two weeks, we have witnessed some of the ugliest and most dangerous attacks by any presidential campaign that one can recall — not from surrogates or from shadowy groups but from the candidates themselves and their campaign. The most hated, despised thing one can be in the U.S. is a “terrorist,” followed closely by ”traitor” and, in many circles, “Muslim.” The McCain/Palin ticket’s prime strategy now is to win by scaring Americans into believing that Obama — the first black candidate with a viable change to become President in our country’s history — is all of those things. There just is nothing comparable to that."
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

Post desenvolvido no Atlântico, onde passarei também a escrever...

Con algo de lo que he aprendido les puedo contar que se trata de la versión nº 13 del TISE (Taller Internacional de Software Educativo), organizado por el Centro de Computación y Comunicación para la Construcción del Conocimiento, C5, del Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación de la Universidad de Chile, institución para la cual trabajo hace un poco más de tres años.

En ediciones anteriores me ha tocado participar de actividades paralelas que se realizan en torno a las charlas principales del taller, como el año pasado que me perdí la exposición de Negroponte. En todo caso las actividades en las que he trabajado son igual o más importantes, ya que son las muestras de colegios en relación a sus experiencias con Informática Educativa.

Volviendo al taller y su versión 2008 les puedo contar que reúne a importantes personalidades mundiales de la informática Educativa (Ya les conté que el año pasado paso Negroponte) a compartir experiencias, además de la posibilidad de acercarnos a actividades realizadas en colegios y escuelas de Chile.

Comparto con ustedes los temas del taller.

Temas del Taller

El Taller es de carácter multidisciplinario, donde concurren disciplinas como ingeniería de software, educación, interacción persona-computador, psicología educacional, diseño gráfico y telecomunicaciones. Están en el ámbito del Taller trabajos que impliquen la presentación de resultados de investigación en las siguientes áreas y líneas de trabajo (pero no limitados a ellas) :

1. Nuevas Tendencias
- m-Learning
- 1:1 Learning
- m-Gaming
- Technology-enhanced learning
- Recursos y herramientas educativas Web 2.0
- Game-based learning
- u-Learning
- t-Learning

2. e-Learning y e-Inclusión
- Plataformas y herramientas
- Modelos técnicos y pedagógicos
- Proyectos y experiencias
- Impacto y efectividad

3. Interacción Persona-Computador
- Diseño de la interacción persona-computador
- Modelos de interfaces interactivas
- Entornos interactivos para aprender
- Interfaces para personas con discapacidad
- Usabilidad de software y entornos interactivos

4. Software y Webs Educativos
- Productos de software educativo
- Modelos de producción de software multimedial
- Metodologías de diseño, desarrollo y evaluación de software
- Evaluación de herramientas de desarrollo de software
- Metodologías de uso de software de apoyo al aprender
- Experiencias de aprendizaje con el apoyo de Internet

Espero poder contarles del desarrollo “Interno del Taller”, de cualquier forma siempre llega algo a mis manos (aunque sea un Lápiz), aunque espero que en un tiempo no muy lejano me inviten a dar un temita. Saludos a todos.

Visitar la web del TISE

El Futuro es Ahora

Texto y Fotos Alonso Vera Cantú

Ya lo dijo Proust mejor que nadie. “El verdadero viaje de descubrimiento no consiste sólo en ver lugares nuevos, sino en mirar con nuevos ojos”. Viajar no es más que estimular nuestra imaginación y nuestra razón y, aunque por muchos años lo he sostenido, hoy lo entiendo más que nunca. Lo entiendo porque una nueva era del turismo se acerca. Una era en la que desde la comodidad o incomodidad de nuestras casas podremos realizar los viajes que jamás imaginamos o pudimos concretar por cuestiones económicas o físicas.

Estando aquí no estoy

Un gran ejemplo de los anterior es la cartografía tridimensional, ya que muy pronto estarán a nuestra disposición recorridos tridimensionales alrededor del mundo. Una tecnología que nos permitirán ejercer uno de los conceptos ochentenos más intrigantes de la revolución industrial: viajar virtualmente por las calles de cualquier ciudad, visitar atractivos turísticos como plazas, templos y monumentos, pasear junto a las grandes migraciones de África o hacer compras al interior de cualquiera tienda.

Tenían que ser los dos gigantes de la era digital, Google y Microsoft, quienes se encuentran en medio de esta carrera para ver quién es capaz de ofrecer primero los mapas tridimensionales en su sistema. Y no es de extrañarse, ya que son las empresas privadas, y no los gobiernos, quienes más inversión han realizado para desarrollar las tecnologías que hoy día tomamos como dadas.

Ambas empresas han invertido ya millones de dólares para “tridimensionalizar” sus registros cartográficos y los nuevos mapas se están elaborando a partir de las actuales tecnologías GoogleEarth y VirtualEarth, así como de información satelital provista por la NASA.

Comunidades viajeras

La especie humana se encuentra diferenciada por cuestiones políticas, sociales y culturales. Y, a pesar de pertenecer a la misma raza, es inconcebible que todos podríamos o deberíamos aspirar a vivir de una misma forma. Y son tal vez las fronteras pautadas por el triunvirato anterior las que por siglos nos han mantenido “alejados” los unos de los otros. Pero el fenómeno de la globalización, soportado por el desarrollo tecnológico, ha replanteado el paradigma.

Por un lado podemos apreciar que las diferencias entre los ricos y los pobres son aún mayores, y no se observa una posibilidad cercana de abreviar lo anterior. Sin duda las tecnologías más sofisticadas que han sido integradas a la vida cotidiana de, digamos, los suecos, no tendrían cabida en una aldea de Sierra Leona donde una lámpara se convierte en el centro de atención de todos sus habitantes. Al menos hasta que se le terminen las baterías. Y luego todo vuelve a ser igual que antes. La tecnología, ni siquiera las computadoras portátiles de 100 dólares que promueve Negroponte en los países “subdesarrollados”, cambiará lo anterior. Simplemente las cosas son como son, pero no por mucho tiempo.

Por ello, el tipo de viajes y comunidades a las que me referiré a continuación no son del todo incluyentes, pero sin duda son un paso a conformar una alianza ideológica que ya no depende de las fronteras, ni mucho menos de la distancia.

Son las comunidades virtuales, cristalizadas en sitios de Internet como myspace.com y flickr.com, las que están propiciando que todos y cada uno de nosotros realicemos una infinidad de viajes día con día. Lo anterior debido a que, retomando mi introducción, el verdadero arte de viajar no es más que mirar con ojos nuevos.

Países virtuales

Myspace, la comunidad social más grande del mundo, tenía más de 106 millones de usuarios registrados a nivel mundial en el 2006. Y al día de hoy tiene más de 150,000 perfiles nuevos al día, y cada perfil recibe un promedio de 30 visitas cada día. Digamos que este sitio fuese un país. Pues sería el onceavo más grande del mundo, sólo entre México y Japón.

Y a pesar de que es un destino al cual sus habitantes visitan durante sólo un período de su día, en promedio dos de las veinticuatro horas, es en sitios así donde se están gestando las nuevas relaciones interculturales y donde se está llevando a cabo la exploración de sitios aún desconocidos: las costumbres, gustos y pensamientos del otro; el tema que me resulta más interesante descubrir al viajar.

No nos resulte extraño pues que hoy en día casi la mitad de los matrimonios estadounidenses se llevan a cabo entre personas que se conocieron por estos medios. Y no es que prefiera, al menos no por ahora, conocer lo que desconozco o aprenderlo por medio de una pantalla y una línea de fibra óptica. Pero para muchos es y será su única forma de hacerlo.

Abriendo los ojos

Desde el día en que recibí como regalo de vida la posibilidad de escribir esta columna mi intención a sido participarle, querido lector, las experiencias y fotografías de los lugares más recónditos del planeta, así como las historias de vida de aquellos a quienes por azar o designio he conocido. Pero la experiencia ha sido y es un tanto unidireccional desde el momento en que no puedo yo recibir de su viva voz las experiencias y recuerdos que han compilado en sus viajes. 

Es por ello que, por motivo del tema de este mes, lo invito a disfrutar este mes las que, dentro del fólder que muestra algunas de las fotos preferidas que he recogido a lo largo de mis viajes, han sido reconocidas dentro de sus favoritas. Y si quiere ver el resto, pero sobre todo compartirme las propias, visite la página Flick.com y escriba en el buscador “Alonso Vera”. Mucho agradeceré sus comentarios y sugerencias, pero sobre todo su tiempo para enseñarme los ojos nuevos con los que usted mira el mundo.

Muchas han sido las experiencias dentro y fuera de la Red, la red que los chamanes vikingos concebían cubriendo al mundo entero y enlazando a todo ser animado o inanimado que dentro del mismo existiese. La red que ahora llamamos Internet, y que dibuja aún más claramente este concepto en el que todos estamos unidos, compartiendo y sufriendo juntos una misma realidad y sus diferentes desdoblamientos. Gracias, y hasta la próxima.

Here in English

Richard M. Stallman, il fondatore del progetto GNU, è in questi giorni in Italia. Ne ho approfittato per porgli un po' domande, alcune delle quali di "attualità", altre "personali".

Ne è venuta fuori un'intervista secondo me interessante, con alcune novità, anche al di là dei suoi "classici".

Eccola.

Mr. Stallman, il progetto GNU ha 25 anni. I nostri lettori generalmente conoscono bene la sua storia. Hai detto: "Il mondo libero è un nuovo continente nel cyberspazio" [qui]. Nel 1983, avresti immaginato che questo continente sarebbe cresciuto così tanto? Quali sono gli obiettivi più importanti nel movimento del software libero oggi?

Nel 1983 non ho cercato di prevedere cosa sarebbe successo dopo il completamento del sistema GNU.

Ho pensato attentamente sulle principali difficoltà nello sviluppo del sistema, ma non ho tentato di anticipare cosa sarebbe successo dopo, come gli ostacoli che le compagnie del software proprietario avrebbero posto sul nostro cammino, o che avremmo incominciato ad influenzare la legislazione in alcuni paesi. E così non ho mai immaginato che qualcun'altro avrebbe aggiunto l'ultimo pezzo e la maggior parte delle persone avrebbe dato a lui il merito per il tutto. (Stallman si riferisce al kernel Linux e al fatto che la maggioranza delle persone crede che l'intero sistema sia opera di Linus Torvalds, ndr).

Oggi GNU/Linux è un sistema operativo libero completo, ma ci sono migliaia di "distribuzioni" differenti, la maggior parte delle quali non sono libere: esse includono o indirizzano la gente verso i programmi non liberi. Di conseguenza, la maggior parte degli utenti di GNU/Linux non ha raggiunto del tutto il mondo libero. La maggior parte di loro non stanno cercando di raggiungere il mondo libero e non conoscono nemmeno la sua esistenza: nessuno ha mai suggerito loro che c'è una questione di libertà in gioco.

Questo perché la maggior parte della discussione sul sistema GNU/Linux non parla di libertà. Le società coinvolte in GNU/Linux preferiscono parlare di vantaggi pratici, piuttosto che di etica. Molte di loro usano il termine "open source", che è stato promosso come un modo di evitare il tema della libertà degli utenti. Leggete qui: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.it.html

Alcuni "fan" di GNU/Linux e del software libero pensano che le copie non autorizzate del software proprietario (largamente diffuse nel nostro Paese) sono un freno alla diffusione del software libero. Quando la polizia colpisce chi usa tali copie non autorizzate, questi fan sono contenti. Pensano: "Bene, ora questi utenti di Windows 'crackato' installeranno software libero". Questi fan hanno ragione o no?

A livello tattico la loro conclusione è logica: se ci fosse maggiore difficoltà a copiare Windows, sarebbe più costoso da usare, e il prezzo dirotterebbe alcuni utenti verso GNU/Linux e altri sistemi liberi.

Se il mero incremento dell'uso di questi sistemi fosse il nostro scopo finale, sarebbe razionale applaudire la repressione della condivisione del software non libero.

Ma questo modo di pensare è amorale. Noi non dobbiamo applaudire un atto di repressione, anche se pensiamo che sia controproducente e indirizzi le persone verso la ribellione.

L'idea basilare del movimento per il software libero è che impedire alla gente di condividere e cambiare il software sia un'ingiustizia.

Quando la polizia colpisce qualcuno a causa della condivisione, commette un'ingiustizia. Non dobbiamo dire che è una cosa buona!

Se riesci a copiare Windows, ciò non significa che è effettivamente software libero. Non hai anche il codice sorgente, quindi non puoi cambiarlo. Non puoi eliminare le sue caratteristiche malevoli (sorveglianza, restrizioni per l'utente, nonché back doors, e ce ne possono essere altre che non conosciamo).

Non dobbiamo applaudire la repressione, ma possiamo parlarne. Quando la polizia colpisce qualcuno a causa della condivisione, noi dovremmo dire: "Attento, se usi copie proibite di Windows, i bulli della Microsoft ti possono prendere e attaccare. Fuggi da Windows, fuggi da Mac OS, fuggi dal software non libero e unisciti a noi nel Mondo Libero!"

Alcuni giorni fa Google ha rilasciato un web browser, Google Chrome. Il suo codice sorgente è software libero (qui la licenza), ma i binari sono sotto una licenza restrittiva. L'Electronic Frontier Foundation ha parlato dei pericoli per la privacy per chi usa Chrome. Qual è la tua opinione?

La licenza di quei binari è inaccettabile per diverse ragioni. Per esempio dice che dai a Google il diritto di cambiare il tuo software e richiede che accetti qualsiasi cambiamento Google decida di imporre. Proibisce il reverse engineering. E inoltre usa il termine "proprietà intellettuale", propagandistico, tendenzioso e confondente. (Si veda http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.it.html sul perché questo termine non dovrebbe essere usato).

Non si dovrebbero accettare questi vincoli.

Google sta seguendo i passi di Firefox. Firefox ha fatto questo sin dalla sua prima apparizione: il codice sorgente è libero, ma i binari rilasciati dalla Mozilla Foundation sono forniti con una licenza per l'utente finale (EULA) inaccettabile.

(Nota mia: nella prossima versione di Ubuntu, per rispettare i termini della Mozilla Foundation, gli utenti potrebbero essere costretti a clickare per accettare l'EULA di Mozilla. Ma sarà possibile comunque installare una versione de-brandizzata di Firefox che non richiede questa cosa francamente ridicola).

Il progetto GNU rilascierà un browser completamente libero basato sul sorgente di chromium.org, così come GNU IceCat è basato sul codice di Firefox? Se no, pensi che una versione completamente libera di Chrome sarebbe una buona cosa?

Spero che qualcuno distribuirà dei binari liberi fatti con il codice sorgente di Chrome. C'è chi lo ha fatto con Firefox per anni. Non c'è bisogno che a farlo sia il progetto GNU.

La ragione per la quale abbiamo sviluppato GNU IceCat da Firefox è più specifica. Le varianti libere di Firefox rilasciate da altri, con nomi come IceWeasel e BurningDog, già evitano l'EULA dei binari di Firefox. Ma Firefox ha un altro problema: offre l'installazione di plug-in non liberi. I nostri principi dicono che non possiamo offrire o raccomandare software non libero. Abbiamo sviluppato IceCat per offrire solo plug-in liberi e non menzionare quelli non liberi. Non so se Chrome abbia questo tipo di problemi.

Google sembra essere una società dalla "doppia faccia". Aiuta la comunità e gli sviluppatori di software libero (attraverso donazioni o strumenti come Google code) ma non accetta la GNU Affero GPL e utilizza EULA problematiche per la privacy. Qual è il tuo punto di vista su Google?

Google fa cose buone, neutrali e cattive. Distribuisce programmi non liberi, incluso il client Google Earth e i Javascript usati per Google Docs ed altri servizi. Questo è senz'altro negativo.

Penso sia utile giudicare queste attività separatamente, nel caso di Google o altre società le cui attività includono cose buone e cattive.

Alcuni produttori di hardware si stanno spostando su driver liberi (ad esempio Atheros adesso ha un suo driver libero "ufficiale"). E' una vittoria per il movimento del software libero?

E' un importante passo in avanti. Non so in che misura il movimento possa pretenderne i meriti.

Cosa pensi del "Position Statement on Linux Kernel Modules" firmato da alcuni sviluppatori del kernel Linux?

Non ne so nulla.

E rispetto agli accordi di non divulgazione sull'hardware (NDA)? Uno sviluppatore di driver potrebbe sottoscrivere un NDA sulle specifiche hardware se esso gli permettesse di scrivere un driver libero?

Nel caso specifico, penso sia un male minore giustificabile, poiché il rilascio del driver libero rende pubbliche le informazioni sull'hardware di cui abbiamo davvero bisogno. In effetti, il male minore è usato per fare qualcosa di buono che in gran parte cancella le conseguenze di questo male.

Alcuni produttori di pc vendono i loro computer con un sistema GNU/Linux preinstallato sul mercato di massa. E' un bene?

E' un passo nella direzione giusta, ma questi sistemi preinstallati non sono liberi. Contengono programmi proprietari. Alcuni di questi sistemi non partono finché l'utente non accetta l'EULA per il software non libero. Non accettate l'EULA.

E' meglio prendere una macchina con un sistema GNU/Linux non libero preinstallato, piuttosto che una con Windows o Mac OS. Ma non dovreste usare effettivamente questi sistemi non liberi. Installate un sistema GNU/Linux interamente libero sulla macchina e utilizzatela in questo modo.

So che hai un OLPC XO.

L'XO era sconveniente per diversi motivi, ma sono passato ad esso lo stesso perché ha un BIOS libero. Al momento della mia decisione ogni altro laptop aveva un BIOS proprietario ed ero disposto ad accettare alcuni problemi pratici per sfuggire ad essi.

Ma appena ho finito di migrare all'XO, Negroponte ha annunciato che le future versioni sarebbero state progettate per Windows. Così mi sono sentito obbligato a spiegare a tutti quelli che vedevano l'XO che io non appoggiavo il progetto OLPC.

Il mese seguente ho trovato una società cinese, Lemote, che costruisce macchine che non hanno software non libero, almeno per ciò che ne sappiamo, e che non supportano Windows.

Così adesso uso una macchina Lemote. E' un prototipo ed ha alcuni inconvenienti ma non mi vergogno di promuoverla.

Alcuni di questi produttori, come Dell e Asus, invitano gli utenti ad "aggiornare" a Windows XP...

Davvero dicono questo? Che tristezza. Anche per l'OLPC sarà facile l' "upgrade" a Windows. Mi attendo che Microsoft renderà semplice per i bambini ottenere copie di Windows da mettere nei loro XO.

L'ultima domanda. E' tecnica ma anche un po' filosofica. Ho provato a rimuovere alcune componenti GNU dal mio sistema GNU/Linux. E' stata una pessima idea! Per esempio, se rimuovo glibc (detta anche libc6) ciò è distruttivo come un "rm -rf /".

E' un po' un'esagerazione. Se cancelli tutti i file sulla tua macchina, uno di questi è glibc.

Sì, ma se rimuovo glibc con il mio gestore pacchetti (APT) tutti gli altri pacchetti (tranne quelli non-software) verranno rimossi, poiché glibc è la libreria fondamentale di GNU/Linux come altre libc sono le librerie fondamentali degli altri sistemi Unix-like. Poiché glibc è un componente principale di un sistema GNU/Linux, e glibc è software GNU, credo che "GNU/Linux" sia il nome corretto per ragione tecniche, oltre che storiche. Ho ragione?

Sono d'accordo con questa affermazione, ma non vorrei basare l'intero argomento su glibc. Ci sono molti pacchetti GNU importanti in un sistema GNU/Linux.

In altre parole, un sistema GNU/Linux è un sistema GNU che gira sul kernel Linux?

Questo è fondamentalmente ciò che è. Naturalmente al giorno d'oggi ci sono migliaia di altri programmi a cui contribuiscono migliaia di sviluppatori e non voglio mancare di riconoscere l'importanza dei loro contributi.

Quindi la domanda è: nonostante l'evidenza, perché alcune persone non sono d'accordo quando chiami l'intero sistema "GNU/Linux"?

Non è razionale. La gente impara a chiamare il sistema "Linux" e costruisce una propria immagine del sistema e della sua storia a partire da questo. E' un'immagine sbagliata, ma la gente si aggrappa ad essa e inventa delle ragioni per giustificarla. Leggete http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html per avere una lista di tali ragioni e le risposte.

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(C) 2008 Guido Iodice - http://guiodic.wordpress.com
La copia letterale e la distribuzione di questo articolo nella sua integrità sono permesse con qualsiasi mezzo senza royalty a condizione che questa nota sia riprodotta.

Quest'intervista è pubblicata anche su punto-informatico.it

Nicholas Negroponte es un científico de la computación estadounidense. De origen griego y nacido en 1943, es conocido por ser el fundador y director del Media Lab, un laboratorio y think tank de diseño y nuevos medios del Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT y en el cual es profesor desde 1966.

Es el impulsor del proyecto OLPC que pretende producir computadoras portátiles de bajo coste ( 100 dólares) para disminuir la brecha digital en los países menos desarrollados, proyecto que presentó en 2005 en el Foro económico mundial de Davos. De este modo, la fundación "Un ordenador para cada niño" (OLPC por sus siglas en inglés), iniciada por Negroponte y otros miembros de la facultad del Media Lab, pretende desarrollar el uso de la informática e Internet en países poco desarrollados.

Es hermano de John Negroponte y Laura Negroponte, miembros del Consejo de Inteligencia Nacional de Estados Unidos, y autor del libro Being digital (1995), traducido al español como Ser digital o Mundo digital, en el cual hace un paralelismo entre el mundo real compuesto de átomos y el mundo informático compuesto de bits.

En este proyecto también ha colaborado Yves Behar, un diseñador industrial y fundador del fuseproject nacido en la antigua Alemania del Este.

*Think Tank (“tanque de pensamiento” o “depósito de ideas”): es una institución investigadora u otro tipo de organización que ofrece consejos e ideas sobre asuntos de política, comercio e intereses militares. Algunos medios en español utilizan la expresión "fábrica de ideas" para referirse a los think tank. ¿Desea saber más?

Según informa la ‘BBC News’, Amazon ha anunciado un acuerdo con OLPC por el cual la tienda online venderá los ordenadores de bajo coste de la fundación dentro del programa 'Give 1 Get 1' (G1G1) que empezará en noviembre.

(Contenido basado en datos obtenidos de la Wikipedia)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, STILL THE PRIVATE PROPERTY OF RACISTS?

Without holding any brief for United States’ UN ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, or for that matter for Asif Ali Zardari, a New York story on how State Department officials, like Richard Boucher and others had ganged up on a US citizen of Afghan origin, does show up the racial and ethnic divide that rules in Bush administration. The Anglo-Saxons, Europeans and Jews hold first class citizenship, while Asians and Africans are treated like dirt. Even though laws on US books are very stringent on any such discrimination, this real life story will bring out how even a Newspaper of the status of New York Times, does not feel any qualms in reporting open discrimination in Administration ranks.

The story also shows up; in comparison, how blatantly American Jewish officials keep their private communications open with Israelis authorities and nobody gets any wiser.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com

www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/washington/26diplo.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

U.N. Envoy’s Ties to Pakistani Are Questioned

By HELENE COOPER and MARK MAZZETTI

Published: August 25, 2008

WASHINGTON — Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to the United Nations, is facing angry questions from other senior Bush administration officials over what they describe as unauthorized contacts with Asif Ali Zardari, a contender to succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, a longtime friend of a leading Pakistani politician.

Mr. Khalilzad had spoken by telephone with Mr. Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, several times a week for the past month until he was confronted about the unauthorized contacts, a senior United States official said. Other officials said Mr. Khalilzad had planned to meet with Mr. Zardari privately next Tuesday while on vacation in Dubai, in a session that was canceled only after Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, learned from Mr. Zardari himself that the ambassador was providing “advice and help.”

“Can I ask what sort of ‘advice and help’ you are providing?” Mr. Boucher wrote in an angry e-mail message to Mr. Khalilzad. “What sort of channel is this? Governmental, private, personnel?” Copies of the message were sent to others at the highest levels of the State Department; the message was provided to The New York Times by an administration official who had received a copy.

Officially, the United States has remained neutral in the contest to succeed Mr. Musharraf, and there is concern within the State Department that the discussions between Mr. Khalilzad and Mr. Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, could leave the impression that the United States is taking sides in Pakistan’s already chaotic internal politics.

Mr. Khalilzad also had a close relationship with Ms. Bhutto; flying with her last summer on a private jet to a policy gathering in Aspen, Colo. Ms. Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan in December.

The conduct by Mr. Khalilzad, who is Afghan by birth, has also raised hackles because of speculation that he might seek to succeed Hamid Karzai as president of Afghanistan. Mr. Khalilzad, who was the Bush administration’s first ambassador to Afghanistan, has also kept in close contact with Afghan officials, angering William Wood, the current American ambassador, said officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter of Mr. Khalilzad’s contacts. Mr. Khalilzad has said he has no plans to seek the Afghan presidency.

Through his spokesman, he said he had been friends with Mr. Zardari for years. “Ambassador Khalilzad had planned to meet socially with Zardari during his personal vacation,” said Richard A. Grenell, the spokesman for the United States Mission to the United Nations. “But because Zardari is now a presidential candidate, Ambassador Khalilzad postponed the meeting, after consulting with senior State Department officials and Zardari himself.”

A senior American official said that Mr. Khalilzad had been advised to “stop speaking freely” to Mr. Zardari, and that it was not clear whether he would face any disciplinary action.

In 1979, Andrew Young was forced to resign as the American ambassador to the United Nations over his unauthorized contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Administration officials described John D. Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, and Mr. Boucher as angry over the conduct of Mr. Khalilzad because as United Nations ambassador he has no direct responsibility for American relations with Pakistan. Those dealings have been handled principally by Mr. Negroponte, Mr. Boucher and Anne W. Patterson, the American ambassador to Pakistan. Mr. Negroponte previously was the United Nations ambassador, and Ms. Patterson the acting ambassador.

“Why do I have to learn about this from Asif after it’s all set up?” Mr. Boucher wrote in the Aug. 18 message, referring to the planned Dubai meeting with Mr. Zardari. “We have maintained a public line that we are not involved in the politics or the details. We are merely keeping in touch with the parties. Can I say that honestly if you’re providing ‘advice and help’? Please advise and help me so that I understand what’s going on here.”

This is not the first time Mr. Khalilzad has gotten into trouble for unauthorized contacts. In January, White House officials expressed anger about an unauthorized appearance in which Mr. Khalilzad sat beside the Iranian foreign minister at a panel of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The United States does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, and a request from Mr. Khalilzad to be part of the United States delegation to Davos had been turned down by officials at the State Department and the White House, a senior administration official said.

Richard C. Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations under President Clinton, said the administration was sending conflicting signals. “It is not possible to conduct coherent foreign policy if senior officials are freelancing,” he said.

It has long been known that Mr. Zardari, who has been locked in a power struggle with Mr. Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister whose party left the governing coalition on Monday, planned to run for president, administration officials and foreign policy experts said.

“I know that Zardari’s interest in becoming president has been clear for quite some time,” said Teresita C. Schaffer, a Pakistan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The Bush administration has long been uneasy with the idea of Mr. Sharif as a potential leader of Pakistan, and now that Mr. Musharraf is out of the picture, the administration, despite public protestation of neutrality, is seeking another ally.

“It distresses me that the U.S. government has not learned yet that having ‘our guy’ is not a winning strategy in Pakistan,” Ms. Schaffer said. “Whoever ‘our guy’ is isn’t going to be the only guy in town, and if we go into it with that view, we’ll bump up against a lot of other guys in Pakistan.”

A senior Pakistani official said that the relationship between Mr. Khalilzad and Mr. Zardari went back several years, and that the men developed a friendship while Mr. Zardari was spending time in New York with Ms. Bhutto.

The Pakistani official said the consultations between the men were an open exchange of information, with each one giving insight into the political landscape in his capital.

“Mr. Khalilzad, being a political animal, understood the value of reaching out to Pakistan’s political leadership long before the bureaucrats at the State Department realized this would be useful at a future date,” the official said. The ambassador “did not make policy or change policy, he just became an alternate channel,” the official said.

Of Mr. Khalilzad’s Pakistan contacts, Sean I. McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said, “Our very clear policy is that the Pakistanis have to work out any domestic political questions for themselves.” Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said, “The Pakistani elections are an internal matter for the Pakistani people.”

Helene Cooper reported from Washington and Mark Mazzetti from New York.

Here are some interesting photos from the wiki of thier initial pilot in Khairat village, in Raigadh district, Maharashtra. It is on the OLPC wiki and makes for interesting reading.

One room school house at Khairat (from OLPC wiki)

School kids with their XO laptops. There are around 22 students from 5 to 10 years old studying in the 1st to 4th standards.

More recently there is an update on their activities in Mumbai on their wiki "Week of August 12"  that I have excerpted below.

India: Nicholas and David Cavallo spent Monday in Mumbai with Satish Jha, president of OLPC India, under the aegis of Reliance. The day's events included a national video conference, a meeting with Johny Joseph, chief secretary of the state of Maharashtra and a lecture to the Asia Society. Maharashtra is huge, with 100 million people, or about 10 percent of India's total population.

On Tuesday, Reliance and the Digital Bridge Foundation organized a one-day workshop for teachers, laptop donees and volunteers. The goal was to provide a basic understanding of the XO and the OLPC approach to learning in a saturated deployment. The program motivated many attendees to launch new XO deployments and also to improve existing XO sites in India.

On Wednesday a similar workshop was held in Goa, organized by Dr. Rita Paes, the director of a local teachers' college, and sponsored by the Goa Chamber of Commerce. Just as in Mumbai, more people and sites were engaged. With the support of local business and the teachers' college, they will pursue a statewide deployment initiative for Goa, which already is advanced in providing connectivity and computers to schools.

Nicholas, David, Satish, Manusheel Gupta and the Reliance team also visited the remote Vastishala Khairat-Dhangarvada School, 81 km from Mumbai, where Carla Gómez Monroy deployed XOs some months ago. The children sang for their visitors, and presented them with red roses. Sandeep Surve, Khairat's single teacher, believes deeply in the OLPC program. "Education through XOs has completely solved educational problems like child absenteeism, parent-teacher interaction, and lack of interest towards education," he said. "Children relish coming to school every day, and their interest towards education has risen dramatically."

The article is heavy on drama:

Microsoft, makers of most of the computer software in the world, tried to kill it with words, and Intel, maker of most computer chips, tried to kill it with dirty tricks. Of course, they don’t admit to being attempted murderers. And when I introduce you to Intel’s lovely spokesperson, Agnes Kwan, you’ll realise how far their denials go. But the truth is the two mightiest high-tech companies in the world looked on Negroponte’s philanthropic scheme and decided it had to die.

Well, of course Microsoft and Intel wouldn’t take the project sitting down. Are they the real reasons behind it’s inflated price tag and lagging orders? Or was it unrealistic expectations from Negroponte, with his millions of expected sales in the first year? Or was it simply the wrong audience? Negroponte courted Microsoft for a long time and repeatedly talked about Windows support on the XO, only to have Microsoft spokespeople say, “Sorry, not yet.”

Intel targeted communities in which some degree of infrastructure and a reasonable educational facilities already existed; Negroponte wanted everyone to have an XO, regardless of whether their basic needs were being met. Intel partnered with local OEMs to create jobs and customize their Classmates for specific regions. OLPC tried to compete with the Dells and HPs of the world.

Did Negroponte create an exploding market and inspire powerful companies to address unmet needs? You bet. Did the big boys really do him in or did the XO simply fall prey to bad management and a flawed strategy?

read more | digg story

Perbandingan ukuran fisik XO-1 dan XO-2 : (XO-2 sebelah kiri)

Versi XO-2 direncakan bisa dipasang sistem operasi selain Linux yakni Windows. Cukup menarik langkah ini karena pasti akan mengundang protes dan perpecahan baru di tubuh OLPC. Bagi pendukung Linux di dalam tubuh OLPC, membuka peluang mendidik anak-anak dengan Windows merupakan langkah kemunduran yang besar mengingat saat ini Linux sudah sangat user friendly dan merupakan sistem operasi gratis.

Meski bisa saja XO-2 dengan Windows dijual secara opsional, tak pelak kubu pendukung Linux-OLPC terutama dari negara yang telah resmi menggunakan OLPC-Linux seperti Peru, Uruguay, dll akan bergolak karena OLPC dianggap menyebabkan kebingungan di kalangan pendidik/tutor dan pengembang aplikasi. Namun Negroponte berkilah hanya akan menempatkan Windows sebagai langkah pemasaran OLPC ke negara yang telah resmi menggunakan Windows dalam kurikulumnya seperti Mesir.

Memang kontroversial si Negroponte ini. Tapi mungkin dia ada benarnya juga.

Mengenai XO-2 direncakan akan memiliki fitur dan wujud yang jauh lebih maju daripada XO-1 dengan harga yang jauh lebih murah. Hal ini tentu mengundang respon negatif dari pasar XO-1 karena 600.000 order telah dilakukan dan menanti pengiriman. Mereka tentu berpikir menghadapi situasi nasi telah menjadi bubur.

XO-2 didesain mengkonsumsi daya 1/3 lebih hemat, tanpa keyboard mekanis (diganti keyboard layar sentuh), dan berukuran lebih kecil dari XO-1. Direncanakan bisa berfungsi seperti e-book, laptop, dan meja sentuh/flat. Selain itu produk ini juga akan memliki layar lebih besar daripada pendahulunya karena posisi keyboard virtual bisa berubah sebagai layar juga. Ide bagus. Sedangkan fitur kamera dan MESH networking juga akan dipertahankan.

Bagaimana dengan Indonesia ? Saat ini pemerintah masih belum berada pada posisi membeli atau menolak OLPC. Mungkin masih ada masalah anggaran pendidikan. Jika tahun 2010 anggaran pendidikan sudah bisa 20 persen, mungkin bisa dipertimbangkan untuk XO-2 ?

Beberapa inisiatif telah dllakukan untuk menterjemahkan OLPC interface ke bahasa Indonesia. Dan ada inisiatif juga untuk membuat distro linux Indonesia khusus OLPC berbasis distro blankon.

In 2001 Information Technology Minister Arun Shourie dismissed his [Negroponte's Media Lab] efforts as "pedagogically suspect" and wanted more accountability.

... in 2006, his project was again rebuffed by India's then-Education Secretary, Sudeep Banerjee

"Our primary school children need reading and writing habits, not expensive laptops," says Arun Kumar Rath, India's Education Secretary.

After being ignored by previous and current ministers, Negroponte has realized the way to get around India is thru the Ambanis.  A distinct departure from OLPC's typical distribution model that relied on partnerships with governments, the move is a lesson in the reality of Indian politics.

The Ambanis are not purely altruistic in their approach. Like that other mega-corporation, Microsoft, Reliance realizes that more consumers using digital appliances today will most likely mean more customers to sell their services in the future. This is just an investment to building their future customer base.

On the part of OLPC, this is a very astute move. It addresses two issues that have dogged the startup. Firstly, it provides a partner with a vested interest that is closely aligned to its intent of getting as many laptops out there as possible. Secondly, it provides access to the logistical and distribution strengths of Reliance to help it scale up to the challenge of getting hundreds of thousands of laptops out to rural areas. This second weakness was very apparent in OLPC's missteps as it was overwhelmed by orders around Xmas 2007 that resulted in month-long delays. Hopefully if OLPC can provide the laptops, Reliance can get them to the schools.

To add to the confusion, there are several comments to the BusinessWeek article that seem to infer that the Reliance/OLPC relationship is not a formal one but just the work of some interested individuals. Satish Jha (who was identified in the article as the ‘head of OLPC India) commented

"To the best of our understanding, Reliance has not even suggested that they are supporting the OLPC initiative in India. OLPC does not have any partnership with Reliance ADA either. Its is some interested folks working for Reliance who are supporting one project for OLPC in India."

Regardless, there is always the argument that India needs better basic school infrastructure and teachers who actually attend schools to teach instead of new technology.  If the OLPC laptops are truly targeted at the poor in rural schools and the lower middle class urban areas, then the bigger challenge is training teachers in those schools to use the laptops effectively. Teachers lack adequate training to support the existing curriculum. Adding a layer of technology - especially one that is most likely not readily found at home or at the nearest Internet café - will only make it harder to train them. In addition, the project needs to avoid falling in to the trap where hundreds of laptops wind up as a status symbol in the hands of more affluent students in urban schools.

Even as we speak, the OLPC folks in India are holding an OLPC India Day In addition to OLPC in India, there is news that other vendors and the government is also going after the low cost PC space. One hopes that in this technology race, that the needs of the poor student are not left unaddressed.

Click here, for an in-depth discussion thread on the OLPC project in India

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Undersecretary for Policy at the Department of Defense Eric Edelman spoke first. Edelman remarked, “we all agree that militarized foreign policy is not in our interest,” but said that in dangerous situations in which civilian institutions are unable to carry out their duties, “in many cases, the Department of Defense has had to act by default.”

Negroponte pointed to the Civilian Stabilization Initiative, which would coordinate civilian agencies' capabilities in a crisis, as an example of how the State Department is attempting to expand its ability to respond to emergencies. He said that $248.6 million has been allocated for the program in fiscal year 2009.

Both Negroponte and Edelman emphasized recent measures taken to increase cooperation and communication between the State Department and the Department of Defense. Edelman said that AFRICOM, the United States Africa Command, has been working to integrate civilian and military capabilities within the military’s command structure, and that the civilian presence at AFRICOM is intended to leverage the skills necessary to avert conflict in the region. Biden criticized AFRICOM for its emphasis on the military, and argued that there are not enough resources available to civilian agencies worldwide. “Not all of Africa is in conflict, but the whole model” is set up as if it were, he said.

The second panel included Reuben E. Brigety, II, Director of the Sustainable Security Program at the Center for American Progress Action Fund; Mary Locke, Former Senior Professional Staff for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; George Rupp, CEO and President of the International Rescue Committee; and Robert Perito, Senior Program Officer at the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations at the United States Institute of Peace.

Brigety, the author of the CAP report, “Humanity as a Weapon of War,” noted the difference between “fundamental” developmental activities, which focus on development for its own sake, and “instrumental” development activities, which foster development for a larger foreign policy goal. “The United States has an interest in both fundamental and instrumental development assistance,” he said.

Brigety emphasized the need to create metrics for development programs that would make agencies accountable to the government and allow the agencies to evaluate themselves. He said that the U.S. military should develop a methodology that would link development and security, and that the United States should develop a comprehensive development strategy.

To prevent civilian responsibilities “bleeding through” to the military, Brigety supports allocating more personnel to civilian development agencies and creating a cabinet-level development position. He argued that creating a comprehensive “3D” strategy—defense, diplomacy, and development—would require development to be elevated to an equal status with the other two components.

Testimony: Aid for the Future, by Reuben Brigety (CAPAF)

Report: Humanity as a Weapon of War, by Reuben Brigety

Kennen Sie Nikolas Negroponte? Das ist kein neuer Grieche aus der Innenstadt, sondern der ehemalige Leiter des MIT. Heute ist er vor allem bekannt, weil er den 100 Dollar Computer auf den Markt gebracht hat, um die Dritte Welt IT-mäßig an die erste Welt heranzuholen. Eben dieser NN hat vor über zehn Jahren ein Buch mit dem Titel „Total digital“ geschrieben. Und es hat die digitale Welt verändert. Die Kernaussage: „Don´t move atoms, move bytes!“ Auf gut Deutsch übersetzt: „Alles was du digital vertreiben kannst, wird künftig digital vertrieben.“ Was haben wir damals gelacht und den Kopf geschüttelt: Fotos, Filme, Musik durchs Netz senden und das mit der Geschwindigkeit meines 28.800-Modems. Gerade hatte ich den Akustikkoppler ausgemustert. WOW, Nikolas hatte Recht. Der Computer wurde zum digitalen Hub, wie Steve Jobs von Apple ihn bezeichnet. Rechner stehen heute überall im Hause, der Server kommt in den Keller. Das WLAN reicht in den Garten, um den Kindern im Sandkasten zuzuschauen. Heute kaufe ich meine Musik über Amazon oder gleich über iTunes, in iStockvideo verkaufe ich meine Videos und vertreibe über Fotolia und iStockphoto meine Fotos. Flickr und andere Web 2.0-Plattformen haben mein digitales Leben revolutioniert. Danke Nikolas für deine Idee und deine Inspiration. Du hast mich aus meinem Trott gerissen und wach gerüttelt.

Nine schools were chosen from the nine districts covering Sinhala and Tamil medium schools to conduct the pilot project where the World Bank would fund and monitor.

states this article on the launch of the XO laptop.

I look forward to the day that mainstream media in Sri Lanka produces a journalist capable of interrogating the very public failure of the XO to live up to its lofty ideals and steps out of the razzmatazz of launches at the Hilton Colombo to see how many XP laptops actually made it to the hands of children in the nine schools, how they use it and for what.

That may be a story worth reading.

La posibilidad de implementar el proyecto OLPC en la Argentina apareció a principios de 2005, como la gran oportunidad para incorporar la tecnología sistema educativo nacional. La incorporación de las XO, computadoras portátiles para cada alumno, le permitirían desarrollar sus capacidades relacionadas con la tecnología dentro del ámbito escolar.

Para Federico Heinz, presidente de la ONG Vía Libre, que defiende la utilización de software libre, la posibilidad real de aplicación en nuestro país no es muy alentadora y asegura que “la iniciativa local tuvo que ver con un proyecto de alto impacto mediático, porque al principio se presentó en una fecha muy cercana a las elecciones”. Ahora, que las campañas políticas se silenciaron, el proyecto parece haber quedado en el olvido.

“Realmente no sé si va a haber plata para esto. La mayoría de los proyectos en nuestro país están muy atados a los proveedores de tecnología. Por lo general esto pasa porque las iniciativas las promueven los mismos vendors. Los ministros no tienen un plan concreto que deseen poner en práctica”, sentencia Heinz.

Las variables económicas también afectan la decisión de apostar o no al proyecto. Las computadoras que se planearon con un valor de US$100 ahora lo duplican. Por otro lado, según Heinz, la incorporación de Microsoft al proyecto de Negroponte también puede poner trabas en el camino. “El tema es analizar ahora cuánto le va a costar a los ministerios repartir estas computadoras con Windows. Supongamos que se cobran US$ 3 por licencia y, se piden como en el caso de Uruguay 300 mil computadoras. Para distribuir las máquinas van a tener que desembolsar US$ 900 mil que no esperaban”, explica.

Heinz argumenta que Vía Libre intentó presentar varios proyectos en nuestro país para desarrollar las TICs en la educación, trabajando con software libre, pero la respuesta del Gobierno no fue la esperada. “Llevamos ideas al ministerio pero nos decían: `Traigan un plan para aplicar el proyecto y nosotros lo analizamos´. La idea es que el Gobierno elabore los planes”, dice Heinz. Para él las razones están claras: “Hay una desconexión entre los intereses políticos y lo que es efectivamente el interés de la sociedad”, sentencia.

Jun 3, 2008, 21:15 GMT

Medellin, Colombia - Venezuela and the United States clashed strongly Tuesday at the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in the Colombian city of Medellin.

Both countries accused each other of harbouring terrorists, and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro called US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte a 'petty official with a criminal record.'

Maduro accused Negroponte of being 'responsible for disappearances, for tortures and for deaths in Central America and in several parts of the world.'

He further called him a 'character of the worst kind.'

Maduro's remarks followed comments by Negroponte on Monday calling upon Venezuela to actively combat the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that 'have sought sanctuary' in its territory.

US ambassador to the OAS, Hector Morales, said Tuesday that he had not seen a Venezuelan condemnation of terrorism, and the Venezuelan minister immediately replied that the US should extradite Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela if it is so concerned about combatting terrorism.

Posada Carriles, 80, is accused by Havana and Caracas of the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner which killed 73 people, and other deadly attacks. He was convicted in Venezuela of being one of the masterminds of the bombing, but escaped from prison after eight years and joined US-directed covert counterinsurgency operations in Central America.

He entered the US illegally in 2005, and was detained by US officials. But the US refused extradition requests from Cuba and Venezuela, and in 2007 dropped charges against him on immigration fraud.

Washington has labelled FARC a terrorist group, and Morales had called upon Venezuela to comment on countries' obligation to cooperate with their neighbours in fighting terrorists.

'If the US government says it wants to combat terrorism, let it immediately capture Luis Posada Carriles and hand him over to Venezuelan Justice so that his trial can conclude,' Maduro said.

He asked OAS 'to watch the conduct of the US government as it protects a well-known, convicted and self-declared terrorist that has committed tremendous crimes' against Venezuela.

'OAS governments must know that this terrorist is free, protected by the United States government in Florida,' he insisted.

Earlier, Maduro accused Negroponte of seeking to 'drive the wedge of intrigue' at the Medellin gathering and to determine the agenda of the meeting.

The Venezuelan minister interpreted that the United States was upset about a meeting that Maduro held Monday with Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo, who sought to revamp bilateral ties between the neighbours following a severe diplomatic crisis prompted by a Colombian cross-border raid against a FARC camp in Ecuador.

'This petty official has no moral quality to talk about any issues in our continent, and neither does the United States,' Maduro complained.

He went as far as to say the US government is 'behind the political operation, the show that is being staged around the computers' found in the raid on March 1. Colombian officials have alleged the computers contain information tieing the Venezuelan government to FARC.

The raid has been a constant topic at the general assembly meeting, which started Sunday and was set to end Tuesday.

'We call on the conscience of the Colombian people, of the Colombian government, to realize that behind this campaign there is only one objective: to divide us, to confront us against each other, to create a conflict,' Maduro said.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/ar...

The book is part of an every growing pile of Web 2.0 literature that could be qualified as “popular science” – easily digestible titles, generally written by scholars or science journalists, which are generally declaring the advent of a new age where old concepts no longer apply and everything is profoundly transformed (knowledge, education, the economy, thinking, wisdom, organization, culture, journalism, etc.).

Bernhard fasst "seine Probleme" mit dieser Literaturgattung in sechs treffenden Thesen zusammen. Ich habe mich in letzter Zeit nicht sehr intensiv mit Web 2.0 Literatur beschäftigt, kann die Kritik (vielleicht gerade deshalb) aber sehr gut nachvollziehen. Beim browsen durch die Buchhandlungen ergibt sich auch bei mir zu oft der Eindruck bzw. die Erinnerung an Bücher wie Nicholas Negropontes Total Digital oder Esther Dysons Release 2.0 - Die Internet-Gesellschaft. Diese Bücher waren vieleicht in Management- und Entscheider- Kreisen wichtig, für ein wissenschaftliches Publikum aber weitgehend irrelevant.

Bernhards Literaturtipp: “Digital Formations” von Robert Latham und Saskia Sassen

Dia 20 de Maio em Cambridge, na oficina da OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) seu fundador, Nicholas Negroponte anunciou a nova versão do laptop OLPC XO, que será chamado de XO-2. O novo OX-2 terá 2 telas touch-screens (sensíveis ao toque). O tamanho também será reduzido, chegando quase a metade do seu antecessor. “O portátil da geração seguinte deve ser um livro.” disse Negroponte. Uma inovaçnão muito interessante, além da alimentação por energia solar e reduzindo seu consumo a 1W.

O sistema operacional instalado no OX-2 permitirá que crianças de diversas idades possam utilizá-lo de acordo com o nível de conhecimento, pois até mesmo o layout do teclado, que será numa das telas sensíveis ao toque, poderá ser configurado em níveis diferentes de conhecimento.