Gavin Newsom makes open source an official policy of the city: http://mashable.com/2010/01/22/open-source-san-francisco/ or his tweet: http://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/8083898764. We are definitely moving in the right direction by using open source tools like Drupal, Nagios, Linux, etc.

Thanks to Kevin O'Brien for this info.

  We will meet at SFSU Downtown Center from 10 am to 2pm on Jan 16. The agenda is wide open (other than the 2nd birthday, of course!). Anyone want to add to the agenda, please feel free to write to me (sverma@sfsu.edu) or post on the mailing list.

We'll also do the usual event updates.

This article discusses a slew of problems with Moonlight 3 and 4. Evidently its a covenant between Microsoft, producer of the Silverlight platform, and Novell.From the article:

"I reject the notion that Open Source-licensed software can remain Open Source if it is under extra-license conditions. The uncritical focus on the-only-thing-that -matters- is-the-license-Open-Source misses a very important point. In fact, the OSI OSD touches on this in Point 2 (Source Code) when it states that obfuscated source code is not allowed.

What is the difference between “Open Source” code restricted by obfuscation or encryption and “Open Source” code restricted by “covenant” requirements?

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Mark Shuttleworth's interview about where Lucid is headed. Lots of cloudspeak.

Just got my SheevaPlug today. If you are wondering what it is, its a rather large power plug/adapter that happens to house an entire ARM-based computer inside it. From their site:

The SheevaPlug is a development platform, targeted for use as a plug computer, and designed to run network-based software services. It features a Kirkwood Series SoC with an embedded Marvell Sheeva™ CPU core running at 1.2 GHz. This device connects to the network using GbE, offers desktop class performance, and can be used to replace a PC-based home server for many applications. Peripherals connect using the included USB 2.0 port.

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From their site:

"OLPC San Francisco Bay Area Summit 2009 is a OLPC-SF community event designed to primarily foster collaboration amongst deployment teams in the SF Bay Area. We also hope that the event will help in improving the visibility of OLPC and Sugar to a wider group around this area.

The event will be a "Birds of a Feather" type event but largely run as an unconference. Claim your session!

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OLPC President and COO, Charles Kane (http://laptop.org/en/utility/people/charles-kane.html) and Paul Commons (OLPCorps) will be in the SF Bay Area this week. There are two events: one on UC Berkeley campus on Thursday, and one on Stanford University campus on Friday. Both events are open. Details are posted online at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_San_Francisco_Bay_Area#Events

The US Department of Defense has released a memo stating that open source should be considered alongside commercial software when assessing department needs. The memo also debunks some myths regarding open source software. From the article:

 "Open source can be compared directly with commercial software and it offers unique advantages for rapid prototyping and sharing across the military. Those are the key takeaways in a new memorandum now circulating the Pentagon from deputy CIO David Wennergren (right). While it’s not a complete endorsement of open source, it does give people a green light to go get some."

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Note: This is an event open to all.

Come learn about how technology driven social entrepreneurship is changing the world – from the experts at SF State

The STEPS Initiative presents