Daily Archives: Sunday, February 24, 2013

  • ORR fails open standards test

    Steve WoodsOpen Data, Open Standards, Tech

    As a regular rail user, I sometimes use real-time train information and was intrigued to learn that the Office of Rail Regulation is currently holding a consultation on real-time train information until 28th February.

    However, the ORR is clearly confused as to what open standards (such as web standards. Ed.) really are, as shown by the following sentence from the consultation page:

    So that we are able to apply web standards to content on our website, we would prefer that you email us your response in Microsoft Word format.

    Firstly, MS Office formats are closed, proprietary formats, unlike the Open Document Format (ODF) used by more sensible office suites.

    Secondly, does the above statement imply that the ORR uses MS Word to edit its web content? MS Word has a hard time behaving like a word processor. 🙂 When used for HTML it produces some of the sloppiest mark-up known. As Homer Simpson would say: “Doh!”

  • Croatia: President supports open source

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

    image of Ivo Josipović
    Croatian President Ivo Josipović. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
    What Croatian President Ivo Josipović has done would be akin to Elizabeth II supporting the work of the UK LUGs, according to a report on Joinup, the EU’s public sector open source news site.

    Ivo Josipović is providing support to a conference organised by Croatia’s 2 free and open source advocacy groups, the Croatian Linux User Group (Hrvatska Udruga Linux Korisnika, HULK) and the Croatian Association for Open Systems (HrOpen) and has accepted the groups’ invitation to become honorary patron of the the event – the 2013 Croatian Linux Users’ Convention (CLUC) to be held in Zagreb from 15th to 17th May.

    HULK and HrOpen met the president in Zagreb on 21 January. “We briefed President Josipović on the benefits of using open standards and the use of free and open source software”, explains Ivan Gustin, HULK’s chairman. “He appreciates our activities and efforts, especially in getting this type of software accepted by Croatia’s public sector.”

    HULK is an association promoting the use of open standards and open source solutions. It represents both professional and amateur users and developers of free and open source software. HrOpen, whose members include several of Croatia’s universities, promotes and encourages the development of open IT systems and an open internet in Croatia.