Aaron Roe(bot) Fulkerson Open source entrepreneur and digital viking.

Timed for OSCON07, Deki Wiki v1.8.1, release “Hayes”, is now stabalized and available to the public. Find out more at the official “Hayes” release page, the new Deki Wiki page, or peruse the new Install and Upgrade Guide.

I just about laughed myself out of my chair this morning. I visited Sourceforge.net, only to be proven wrong on a comment I made here. When lo and behold…who do I see? I see Ethan’s handsome visage staring longingly back out me! WHOA! I did a double take. I then proceeded to LMFAO. The advertisement in question is to the right. I guess Ethan is now a software model! I always told him he was the most handsome open source programmer I’ve ever met. I guess this was a Splunk ad. Ethan, will you do ads for MindTouch? Please?

Ethan is awesome. When I lived in MN he and I lectured on open source at the University and we also made an ill-fated attempt to get an open source community lab off the ground. I should mention PeteE was also instrumental in our failed attempt. In our defense, we only had about a year before I bailed for warmer climes.

I still stand by my claim that PeteE is an open source developer poster child and I have photographic evidence of it here.

I would be remiss if I didn’t share what little link-love my blog can muster with Vivek at StartupSquad.

While I had expected the usual addition of widgets into the wiki platform, I was in for a surprise. The new build, which is branded as MindTouch Hayes, comes with a powerful new service-oriented extension model. Instead of being mere content consumers, MindTouch customers can now have access to composite applications by federating applications or data across without bothering about the OS, code language,… –StartupSquad | MindTouch Hayes – Wikis become services enabled

I noted Mashable has Roy’s Tabulas listed as networks you can add to your profile. Roy’s site gets about 1M views a month and has over 100,000 registered members. It’s one of Roy’s many side projects outside MindTouch. It’s had slow and steady growth. Aside from writing the app and adding a feature once in a blue moon the only thing growing the community is the quality of the application. Although, Roy might laugh at that statement. Anyway, I was curious. How does Tabulas, a quiet little organic community stack up against something like Pownce. According to the graphic you see here, surprisingly well. Of course, these are totally different apps, but I thought it was interesting. Perhaps Pownce will now have an organic growth curve. Then again uncov, my new favorite blog, has this:

Pownce is a web service that lets you “share stuff with your friends”. Translated into non-retard speak, this means “a website where you can go to put notes and files and shit up for other users”. What was that? You remember FTP too? Yeah, from nineteen seventy-fucking one? Now it has pastel colors, and it’s invite-only. – uncov / pownce

Uncov rules.

The Wiki has become the collaborative writing tool of Web 2.0. Wikipedia and its related properties have lead the charge, and behind them have come a slew of competing and complementary products. Unfortunately for most, very few of these products had enough innovative new features to live up to MediaWiki’s (the engine behind Wikipedia) fame.

Recently, I have come across what I feel is the next big step in Wiki. Instead of relying exclusively on text, Steve Bjorg and Aaron Fulkerson are turning the Wiki into a web services platform. I had a chance to chat with both of them and they explained the newest iteration on their Deki Wiki platform, “Hayes”. — Steve Spalding | How To Learn About Deki Wiki

Very cool.

I *love* community publishing. One of my core beliefs is that newspaper web sites need to be much more of a dialogue. But building a site with essentially just community-publishing tools and calling it “hyper-local” seems a little lazy/crazy to us. – Rob Curley: LoudonExtra.com Launches

Rob Curley is a bad ass mofo.

In a previous post inspired by Pulver’s I stated: “Goodbye LinkedIn. Hello Facebook.” Some folks, such as Matt Sponer, fear their true self being exposed. I understand this. Matt says:

Hi Aaron,

I agree that Facebook is a wonderful way to keep up with people.

However, I feel that using it for both business and personal online social play can degrade one or both uses. It forces one to choose:

1) A less playful and more distant online tone with your friends and family. No slinging virtual poo with your little cousin. Your personal use of the site suffers.
–or–
2) Potentially inappropriate personal information being mixed into your professional online presense. Your coworkers can read both your blog and see your little cousins feces icons on the same page.

What do you think? How will you handle this?

Matt

My response to this is:

I think you are absolutely correct. Most people will not feel comfortable exposing their playful side to their business network. Personally, this is a concern that I do not share. I’m very open with who I am. My professional record speaks for itself. If someone dislikes my personality we probably wouldn’t make a good professional fit.

There is an even more important point hidden in this post. I’m reposting comments that were made in Facebook. Platform or not, Facebook will fall if it does not open.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouR59Inxb8U]

This is hysterically funny. No, it is not a joke. This is a real app. “Feed your spam to sharks!” Yeeeaaahhh!!

Software Freedom Day 2007 – Bigger than ever!

September 15th marks Software Freedom Day, the world’s largest celebration and outreach effort about why transparent and sustainable technologies like Free & Open Source Software are so important. Community groups in more than 80 countries organise local activities and programs on Software Freedom Day to educate the wider public about free software: what it is, how it works and its relationship to human rights and sustainability. We already have over 140 teams around the world registered: join them in spreading the word! Registrations for Software Freedom Day teams that want to receive a free SFD team pack close in two weeks, so register now!

“Software Freedom is about creating a digital platform for trust and longevity, particularly in a future where more and more of our lives are dependent upon technology” explains Pia Waugh, President of Software Freedom International, the organisation behind Software Freedom Day. “It is important we can participate in and trust the software we use in the same way we need to be able to participate and trust in a political system. Ultimately our basic freedoms are only as free as the tools we use, and thus our commitment to Software Freedom.”

Support for this year’s Software Freedom Day event is fantastic with Google, Mindtouch and the Free Software Foundation coming on board as sponsors as well as long term sponsors the Danish Unix User Group and Canonical. The event also has support from The Open CD, OsCommRes and the International Open Source Network.

“Software Freedom Day is a fantastic event that demonstrates the global reach of open source software.” says Jane Silber, COO of Canonical. “We at Canonical are proud to sponsor the event and encourage everyone in the Ubuntu community, as well as the open source community writ large, to participate in this important global event.”

Registrations of teams participating in SFD will continue right up to the event however teams who wish to receive a free SFD team pack, including stickers, tshirts, CDs and balloons must register before the 31st July! So get in quick! There is also an online shop where anyone can purchase tshirts and packs of The Open CD. Teams get a 50% discount on all prices marked. Teams that have difficult circumstances can write to the Software Freedom International Board with special requests for additional goodies.

Already this years event is looking bigger and better than ever before, so what will you do to help take Software Freedom to the world. After all, freedom isn’t just for geeks

Contact officer: Pia Waugh pia @softwarefreedomday.org

This new video is a more concise version of the previous “Live Data Services” video. We’re now referring to this as extensions. This more accurately describes the new feature. Enjoy!