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Our panel rocked! Check out the #copyrightatweet hashtag and I’m sure there will be video online soon.

Fred and I talked about how our panel actually is a good writing and/or definitive guide on the topic. We hopefully will get something further pulled together from our panel. Cheers!

Here are Fred’s slides:

And, the always awesome, Wendy Seltzer’s slides:

Today marks the official launch of the StatusNet Cloud Service (SCS) Beta.

SCS allows anyone to quickly and easily generate a status update site at status.net. Users have three types of plans to choose from, when setting up: single-user, community, or private. The recent StatusNet 0.9 server software release has provided the basis for this public Beta. Fabricatorz.com was involved in the development of StatusNet Cloud Service

More than 10,000 organizations rely on StatusNet’s software as their social networking solution, including software giant Mozilla, NBA competitors Sacramento Kings, and Creative Commons.

Creative Commons Vice President, Mike Linksvayer, says:

StatusNet has filled a communications gap for Creative Commons that we didn’t know we had. With a team distributed by time zone, travel, expertise, and use of various communications methods (email overload, IM, IRC, phone), StatusNet is accessible and usable by the whole staff and has become an invaluable tool for keeping us all in sync.

To learn more about how the StatusNet Cloud Service can help you, read the Official Press Release.

The Open Clip Art Library has grown, from humble beginnings in early 2004, into a massive collection of over 24,000 scalable vector images, all created by 1200+ artists from around the world.

OCAL is a powerful platform, through which, all work uploaded to the site is dedicated to the public through Creative Commons’ “Public Domain Dedication”. This means that anyone can download and use the entire SVG library for any purpose, including both free and commercial works!

OCAL now boasts an easily navigable collection, made possible by new thumbnail previews. It has now become much easier to search and download clip art that suits any situation. The new site layout includes an updated theme, from Andy Fitzsimon, that emphasizes user interaction by placing more importance on the portal to upload created work, as well as displaying selections from the ever-growing collection.

Behind the scenes, members of Fabricatorz, including, among others, Bassel Safadi, Michi, Ronaldo Barbachano, and Brad Phillips, have helped push The Open Clip Art Library onto the Aiki Framework. This new PHP + MYSQL platform allows programmers to easily create and work with content management systems from the web.

Please help support the new Open Clip Art site launch by registering (if you haven’t already) and uploading artwork of your own!.

Read the entire Announcement 2.0 here and at the Fabricatorz post.

StatusNet 0.9.0 is released and is available for immediate download from the status.net site.
This release includes the following new features and we invite the developer community to please try it and report back :

• Support for the new distributed status update standard OStatus, based on PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, and Activity Streams.
• Support for location using the Geolocation API. Notices are (optionally) marked with lat-long information with geo microformats, and can be shown on a map.
• No fixed content size. Notice size is configurable, from 1 to unlimited number of characters. Default is still 140!
• An authorization framework, allowing different levels of users.
• A Web-based administration panel.
• A moderation system that lets site moderators sandbox, silence, or delete uncooperative users.
• A flag system that lets users flag profiles for moderator review.
• Support for OAuth authentication in the Twitter API.
• User roles system that lets the owner of the site to assign administrator and moderator roles to other users.
• A pluggable authentication system.

see the full list of features here:
A full changelog is available at StatusNet 0.9.0/Changelog.

Also, the OStatus process is underway!

OStatus lets people on different social networks follow each other. It’s transparent to your friends, colleagues and family which software or service you use. They can get your status updates on their own sites and reply, like, or re-post your updates.

OStatus isn’t a new protocol; it applies some great protocols in a natural and reasonable way to make distributed social networking possible.

The OStatus spec is a first step in this direction. We’re eager to work with other implementers to make it better, to smooth the rough edges, and to improve the overall experience.

Everyone interested is invited to join the ostatus-discuss mailing list to get this discussion moving.

Thanks to everyone who’s made these protocols work so well together. We hope that OStatus can bring these efforts one more step forward.

Jon Cruz’s (from Inkscape and who named me REJON) son made me as a lego light saber yielding character. I feel quite honored now I guess I should get to the having kids project sometime

Thanks Jon and Tina! Your son is really cool! I feel now that I’ve reached a new level

Ok, after this post and my smiling avatar one, I’m lowering my narcissism level. You’ll see in a few hours when the bombs start dropping

March 10th is the deadline to send us a few words on the projects or the subject that you would like to present at Breizh Entropy Congress (Rennes, France, April 15-17 2010). After your submission, we will contact you before March 20th to tell you if it is going to be part of the schedule. The schedule with the timetable will be published on March 25th.

ANYONE can submit a proposal to Breizh Entropy Congress: students, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, artists, free software activists, tinkerers, hackers… on ANY subject related to free and open technologies. This congress
is about eclectism!

To participate, send a mail to cfp@breizh-entropy.org including the following
points:
- Format of the submission: lecture, workshop, installation, lightning talk, other…
- Title of the submission
- Name of speaker(s)/presenter(s)/artist(s)
- Language (if applicable): French/English
- Summary of the submission
- Short bio of the speaker
- Hardware/logistics requirements
- Contact e-mail and (if possible) mobile phone

The complete call for proposals is online:
http://www.breizh-entropy.org/cfp.html

StatusNet did a launch today of StatusNet Enterprise Network, their support program specifically tailored for corporate clients.

Enterprise Network members participate in StatusNet’s exclusive on-line enterprise community, where they can get advice from other enterprise users and interact directly with StatusNet architects and engineers.

For details on SEN plans, see http://status.net/enterprise network.

At FOSDEM2010 I finally met long time collaborator Nicu Buculei from Open Clip Art Library, Inkscape and CREATE in preparation meetings for Libre Graphics Meeting 2010.

It struck me like a bolt of lightning while we were at a meeting that I remembered Nicu created my original disembodied REJON head!

I love this head, but I always felt like the head looked a little bit dead or dumb. For those that know me, I usually have a pretty big smile or look like I’m about to laugh all the time (see Joi’s photo he took when I randomly ran into him and Sean Bonner in Venice this weekend).

So, I talked Nicu into making me a new one! Here is his first draft with and updated bling and teeth smile. What do you think?

Feedback came in that my avatar is a bit scary and maybe shows too much teeth. One friend said, “well, its a disembodied head!” Here is a slightly less smily rejon. Thoughts?

So, after more feedback, Nicu created me just an updated blingy REJON head icon. Simple and safe. Is it better?

Ok, now I’m done with my massive narcissistic post about which avatar I should use. Really, I’m hopeful that you fine readers will make some comments and help me select one to use moving forward in SHARISM2010

10by10by10: Support LGM2010!

The Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) is the annual working conference for free software graphics application users and developers. The fifth edition takes place 27-30 May 2010 in Brussels, Belgium. Teams from GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, Krita, Scribus, Hugin, Open Font Library and many other graphics projects gather to improve their software and discuss new ideas for interoperability and shared standards.
http://www.libregraphicsmeeting.org

LGM2010 has launched a fundraising campaign called 10by10by10 to raise $10,000 USD from grants, $10K from corporations and $10K from the community. The funds raised from granting organizations, public, and corporate partners will allow participants who have no other means of sponsoring their travel to Brussels to attend the event.

You can contribute to 10by10by10 at: http://pledgie.com/campaigns/8926

All donations are tax deductible for US taxpayers. For larger donations from corporations and individuals, please contact us directly at lgm@gnome.org

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