Transformational Government is intended to be an intensive, structural and fundamental change in the operational processes of Government bodies and to deliver major efficiency savings for the public sector.

Gavin has been a central figure in Bristol City Council’s use of open source and open standards since 2002 and is a founder of the Open Source Academy. He also works actively with a variety of EU interest groups and government bodies on the adoption of ODF.

The talk takes place at the The Hawthorns, Woodland Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1UQ (map here), starting at 7 pm and ending at 9 pm. More details are available from Bristol BCS.

FACIL alleges that the provincial government has refused to consider competitive bids from all software providers, but has misused a legal loophole to buy software exclusively from proprietary vendors such as Microsoft and Oracle.

In addition, FACIL claims government buyers are sidestepping laws requiring competitive bidding and local source preferences by misusing an exception that allows direct purchases from proprietary vendors where no other options are available and estimates the Quebec government is wasting $80 mn./year on Windows Vista licences alone.

The Inquirer carries a full report, whilst French speakers may like to read the report on FACIL’s website.

Hat tip: MJ Ray

In the video, Fry explains why free software (as used by Bristol Wireless. Ed.) is important, both to him and for society in general, like good science. Indeed he believes proprietary software licensing is akin to bad science, i.e. bad for science specifically and the wider community too.

Twenty-five years ago, the GNU Project started with a specific overall goal: to create a free software operating system, the GNU System. The scope of GNU is far-reaching: any job that computer users want to do should be feasible with free software.

Here at Bristol Wireless, we too would like to join Stephen in wishing GNU a many happy returns for its 25th birthday. Without the efforts of GNU and other members of the free software community, we would not have been able to achieve all that we have so far.

Stephen’s video can be watched at or downloaded from GNU.

We’ll be out in the foyer, keeping company with the bookfair itself, the Kebele Cafe and a constantly running background of silent film and image projections. More specifically, we’ll be there providing information about the free software movement and our work in providing free wireless internet connections. You’ll also have a chance to use free PC’s and get to know Linux, with hands-on practical support, plus live CDs to try and an opportunity to buy one of our refurbished £50 PCs.

The full event timetable is available on the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair website.

According to the ONS’s 2008 Internet Access report, 65% of homes - some 16.46 mn. households - have internet access, an increase of 1.23 million households since 2007. While 35% of UK homes still have no internet access, this figure is down from 43% two years ago.

It appears that the digital divide/deficit is alive and well.

Read the original article, or read the original ONS press release (pdf).

We were able to provide the camp with a suite of recycled low-energy usage computers running on 12VDC kindly provided by the combined renewable energy powers of Coltek and Ray-Mundo’s Renewables, as well as the knee-busting efforts of fellow climate campers who pedal-powered public access terminals courtesy of bicycle generators provided by Magnificent Revolution.

On the day of mass action on the 9th August we were able to provide facilities for a fully-fledged Field Alternative Media Centre, providing facilities for the camp and grass-roots media crew, such as Indymedia, Undercurrents and Dissident Island, who provided the Climate Camp’s very own radio station.

And if that wasn’t enough, the space offered workshops on Free Software, alternative media and renewable energy. More information about the planning behind the space.

We had some great feedback from the folks at Magnificent Revolution: “Hey Bristol Wireless. Thought you might like to know we linked to your site in our blog http://www.magnificentrevolution.org/2008/08/climate-camp/. We had a great time bike-powering your laptops. At 20w each they were a breeze!”

A rewarding and productive, and even fun, time was had by all.

Bristol Wireless was in attendance, providing kit and tech support for the Be The Media centre, including Camp Radio (archive here).

As usual, the event was powered by renewable energy: indeed, as can be seen below, the Bristol Wireless suite of veteran laptops was powered at times by its users, with 5 minutes cycling giving pedallers 10 minutes on the laptop!

The kit arrived back at the lab on Tuesday. Cunningly accompanied by a plea to help unload the van, Mike wrote the following en route:

Hi all,

survived climate camp, didn’t get arrested, didn’t get got at by the trotskyists, corporate moles, undercovers, socialist workers, nor pinko-greeno-conspiracy theorists! All went very well, the suite and the space performed well as usual, the party tent took a battering though, and I’m pretty knackered. Sam’s windmill worked and helped to save the day power-wise……will be driving back later and hope to get to Werbs around 5ish to drop the stuff off.

Hopefully, we’ll have a fuller report in the next few days.

Figures from market researcher Context show that, based on sales of PCs shipped with a pre-installed operating system in the UK over the past 18 months through traditional distribution channels, Linux could only claim a 0.1 per cent market share in January 2007. However, Linux’s share had grown steadily to 2.8 per cent of sales last month - a factor of almost 30.

Numerous factors may be responsible: Dell starting to sell Ubuntu laptop and desktop machines, plus the rise of net notebooks and mini-notebooks.

Read the original article at ITPro.

In addition, news of this market research was also carried by The Inquirer and Austria’s Der Standard (in German).

One noticeable change is how much cooler it is in the lab now compared with previous summers: is this due to our switching over to running on vservers? (news passim)

At the end of last week, Rich made a trip down to Williton in West Somerset and installed wireless access in the Foresters Arms Hotel, so you’ll be able to get online while enjoying a pint and some fine food. Rich has also been working down in Easton, where a small mesh network has now been established around Shaw Close.

Andy, our LTSP project manager, has been hard at work, keeping our mobile suites in tip-top condition and making sure all the kit is ready for its next outing: the old very low-powered hardware will shortly be making its way to this year’s Climate Camp, where it will be running on renewable energy (wind and solar) for the duration of the event.

Talking of renewables, Mike, one of our longest-serving supporters, has written some fair use guidelines for renewables for the Climate Camp, which could be of use or be adapted to other events aiming at a low environmental impact, whilst maintaining full access to 21st century technology.

Bails is currently getting CCTV (affectionately termed ‘Labcam’) installed in the lab and recycling room. All the equipment will, of course, be running on Linux and free software.

Our library of technical reference material has been augmented by a kind donation of shelf-loads of O’Reilly and other prestige tech publishers by a donor who prefers to remain anonymous. The library now has good reference works on Perl, C++, Unix, security, Python and Java, to name but a few.

Of course, while all this is taking place, the regular work of Bristol Wireless continues, including refurbishing computers and making internet-ready, virus and spyware free machines with full software available for just £50.

Bristol Wireless took its new revised LTSP suite for 2 days to the Substance Conference in Manchester. The Dell server laptop has been newly installed and the Evo T20 thin clients have been configured on the server, 7 flat screens and 3 laptops made up a suite of 10 machines: it all looks very professional.

After arriving at the venue, the suite went together in about 40 minutes and after a slight delay getting a network cable made and installed; we were running at 9am. The computers were for the delegates to use at break times and they were popular too, with a few people waiting for a machine to become vacant. Delegates used the Linux terminals to log on to Citrix and Novell systems or just checking websites and email through the browser.

The set up gathered a fair amount of interest and I ended up explaining the advantages of thin clients to a few organisations. In particular, the low power use and fan-less silent workstations making saving on air conditioning seemed to strike a chord, as did the fact that only the server needed occasional administration leaving time for ICT improvements instead of the usual constant maintenance cycle of multiple desktops.

Substance are Linux friendly. They make the most of the free tools available to make the most of web functionality. We discussed Drupal, Dapper, CiviCRM and plings, among other technologies.