For more information please visit Mandriva’s announcement blog.

From time to time over the past year I’ve noted that events in the real world involving North Korea have been closely tracking the plot of my book, The Alexandria Project.  Among other events, North Korea has successfully launched a three stage rocket and threatened to use it to strike the U.S.; analysts have begun to speculate that the surprisingly low-yield nuclear weapons the North has tested may not be poor performing designs, but instead small devices purpose-built for missile launch aga...

 New to the Alexandria Project?  Find a plot synopsis and a guide to the characters here, and the earlier chapters here.  You can also follow the Further Adventures of Frank on Twitter

More information available on the Document Freedom website

Other links of interest:

• OpenDocument Format Information site (OASIS)
• LibreOffice
• PDFReaders

 New to the Alexandria Project?  Find the first and later chapters here.  You can also follow the Further Adventures of Frank on Twitter.

“Oh, good morning Agent Cummings! Mr. Marchand would like to speak to you.” The normally sullen receptioni...

Here’s something funny: Many people complain about Google shutting down Google Reader, and frankly I also happen to use it myself. True enough, I tend to use it less and less with social networks but sometimes I do use news reader. The real issue that nobody really picked up is not Google doing something evil (Google Reader is not even a paid service), it’s that it seems we are forgetting the importance of the RSS feed. Yes RSS is a very useful technology and following blogs or news site is only a tiny fraction of what it can do.

In a similar fashion the same people who are complaining about the demise of Google Reader do not seem to understand what RSS is about, and do not seem to realize that they can export their feeds very easily to other online news reader such as NetVibes and NewsBlur. And that’s just for the online services. There are actual news reader servers as well one can install for its personal use or  for an organization. Now the way the feeds can be exported out from Google Reader and imported to any of these services is simple: you can use a simple xml file or an OPML file. Yes, Google Reader lets you export an OPML file. And what’s OPML? It’s an open standard. It’s been developed aside other open standards for the web, such as the microformats, OpenID, RDF, XMPP, hcards and RSS, so you’re in good company. Ultimately these specifications revolve around the very interesting notion of data portability and everyone should have a look at it.  There you have, one more case to prove their importance has just appeared in front of everyone. But instead of that we’re witnessing a headless chicken dance. If you ask me, I have exported all of my feeds regularly over the years in an OPML file, and I don’t feel the slightest panic creeping my spine. I’ll use Open Standards.

 Our story so far:  Now under surveillance, Frank begins to plan his escape.  Read the first chapters here, and you can also follow the Further Adventures of Frank on Twitter.

“Moved by Freedom – Powered by Standards”. This blog has been going on under that title for quite some time; since September 2007 exactly. I ran an older blog without the same name and title.

These days, I’m still in the ODF development and promotion in various capacities, but I don’t  “do” standardization the way I did back in 2007, 2008 or even in 2011. This blog has been at times a tribune for me, a soapbox, and more often a public venue  for thinking and writing on digital matters in a deeper fashion. This is not changing, but as I was looking at its title and at its meaning the other day I wondered whether its name is still relevant. I went further and wondered whether it would stay relevant in the near or mid term.

My conclusion is that when it comes to Freedom (Software Freedom or otherwise) standards actually matter as much as rights. Standards, regardless of what they are about, industry specifications, public policies, conventions defining legal terms, even words and their meaning, are the fundamental building block on an open, inclusive and efficient system. While their use may be twisted -any tool can, for the hand that uses the tool is the one ultimately defining its intent- standards form the basis of innovation, be it technological or social, and even political. Standards are what we must agree on first in order to agree on principles, values, and on the way we live. Our world, our countries, our lives, the industries we are working in are thus powered by standards. But it would be a pale assertion to stand at that line; for the author of this blog does not just stick to standards. He believes in Freedom as the energy in everything good that’s been happening in his life and around him as far as he can witness; and if the truth about the “primum mobile” will forever remain a mystery to Man, at least part of its manifestation lies in our innate and universal potential and right to Freedom. Software is no different in that respect. This blog will thus continue to be not just powered by standards. It will always be moved by Freedom.

Fernando Pessoa, an immense poet from Portugal has written texts and poems I deeply enjoy reading. I thought I would be paying a small hommage today. In his poem “O Bandarra” which is part of the famous suite “Mensagem” (Messages) he writes about a Portuguese national figure, Bandarra. But oddly enough, this poem could just be about himself.

He dreamed, anonymous and dispersed,
The Empire by God Himself seen,
Confused as the Universe
And plebeian as Jesus Christ.

He was neither saint nor hero,
But God made sacred with His sign
This man, whose heart was
Not Portuguese, but Portugal!

Santo Lisboa from MattBen on Vimeo.

North Korea threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear strike on its “aggressors,” including the U.S., ahead of a United Nations vote on tougher sanctions against the totalitarian state for last month’s atomic test. - Bloomberg News, March 7, 2013

Excerpt from ...