developer

Open source critical to economic development, says Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth knows how to build communities and he knows how to make money. It turns out the two go hand in hand.

As he suggests in this article, the traditional software world forces customers and the countries that give them citizenship into a consumer, dependent status. Open source does the opposite, ennobling and enabling these same users. The result? Economic development:

...[T]he goal for any country, including South Africa, should be sustainable economic growth, part of which is derived from the contribution made from a technology perspective. "In this context it is wealth creation that matters, since the former will potentially generate high-quality jobs," [Mark Shuttleworth] adds.… Read more

No 'electronic hamburgers' for LinkedIn developer initiative

Business social network LinkedIn is following in Facebook's footsteps and opening up an application programming interface (API) to allow third-party developers to contribute to the site. But Dan Nye, the company's CEO, recently spoke with the New York Times' Saul Hansell and explained that it's going to be limited, in the interest of keeping things professional.

"We're not going to have people sending electronic hamburgers to each other," Nye told the Times, in a not-so-subtle reference to the utter ridiculousness of many Facebook developer applications.

Rather, LinkedIn's platform API will invite developers, who … Read more

Global IT spending @ 6% of GDP: Better spent on open source

Bernard Golden has an insightful commentary on recent reports that IT spending has topped 6% of global GDP. (Gartner Group has noted that IT spending should hit $3.1 trillion in 2007, with a forecast of $3.3 trillion in 2008.) His take? The numbers are high and, at best, reflect high spending in developed nations while not accounting for the relatively low IT spend in developing nations. (Note that this European Union paper pegged the information economy at ~10% of GDP for most developed nations.)

It's a good point. High or not, however, the real question is why so much money is thrown away on proprietary software when it could be spent on the gift that keeps on giving: open source.… Read more

Valleywag: Don't expect MySpace platform announcement

Tech gossip blog Valleywag is attempting to counter the TechCrunch-spawned rumor that MySpace.com will be following in Facebook's footsteps and opening up its site to developers.

Sources in touch with the Gawker Media-owned blog allegedly said that MySpace is indeed brewing a developer platform strategy and that the News Corp.-owned social networking site will be making an announcement at next week's Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco--but the two are unrelated.

The announcement, according to Valleywag blogger Megan McCarthy (no relation), will instead deal with MySpace's instant messaging client. Additionally, she wrote, MySpace will … Read more

Apple launches Web Apps listing; posts developer agreement

Apple has launched a repository of Web-based "apps" for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The site offers categorized listings, along with screenshots and descriptions of iPhone/iPod touch-optimized sites including games, productivity, social networking, sports, travel, utilities and more.

A statement on the site reads:

"Flick through lists of news articles on Digg. Play games like Sudoku and Bejeweled with the touch of a finger. View movie times, train schedules, and blogs. Web apps don't just extend the functionality of iPhone and iPod touch, they do it in style. Since web apps are websites designed specifically … Read more

Episode 579: New rule: All music on floppies

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Report: MySpace to launch developer platform

Have you gotten sick of the word "platform" yet? Sorry.

According to a post on TechCrunch, MySpace.com is planning to follow in Facebook's footsteps and open up a set of application program interfaces (APIs) so that developers can create "MySpace apps" in the vein of Facebook apps.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, who apparently got the details from developers who have been consulted on the project, wrote that we may be seeing this as early as next week--potentially at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

More specifically, this is allegedly going to be … Read more

Report: Facebook 'issues mulligan' on developer grant application process

According to an e-mail copied to the CenterNetworks blog, Facebook's much-touted developer grant program may be off to a rocky start. The FBFund initiative is apparently restructuring its application process and is asking that all previous applicants re-submit their materials. Initially, applications were to be submitted via e-mail; now, a submission form is available.

"To make sure that everyone understands the conditions of submitting a grant application, we will not review any materials you have sent via email, and any materials you may have sent have been deleted," the copy-pasted e-mail read. It's apparently to ensure … Read more

Microsoft's .Net gets the shared-source treatment

Microsoft has been notoriously anti-open source in the past, so today's announcement that it will be releasing the source code for its .Net Framework comes as a bit of a surprise.

The source code will be released under Microsoft's Reference License. This means that you can only use the source as a reference for debugging, maintaining or enhancing your applications. You cannot modify or distribute the code for any purpose. This happens to be the most restricted shared-source license that Microsoft has. This announcement confirms that .Net is going to be shared source, not to be confused with … Read more