September 10th, 2010
A Friday afternoon conundrum: Ubuntu Desktop or Server to host an alt-media #openvideo #opentech portal on a commercial server?
An alt-media project expanding within the constraints of very limited funding (which doesn’t provide for a paid sysadmin) aspires to offer a portal for a variety of ‘community’ managed video channels.
The previous iteration was self-hosted running on Ubuntu Desktop behind a DSL gateway in their office. They’ve since moved to commercial hosting on a non-dedicated server ( http://www.ovh.co.uk/products/rps3.xml ). Additionally but perhaps not a deal-breaker, it is envisaged that the project could eventually lead to a roll-your-own distro.
Their mission commits to open standards, open source, #openvideo, #opentech and thus to use a GUI wherever possible. For this reason they’d prefer to use Ubuntu Desktop to as far as possible limit any divide between geeks and video producers. This would then be administered using Remote Desktop. Any unavoidable use of the command line would be limited to very precisely documented short sessions. The portal is Liferay Community Edition – little known in the UK third sector but used more extensively by grassroots organisations in the US – https://www.liferay.com/ linking to a MySQL database. As an alt-media project security becomes an issue, some of the content on some of the channels is highly likely to come under attack from hackers. When/if hacked they envisage a scenario of an easy-ish restoration process of re-installing the OS and necessary MySQL, openJDK, etc and then loading up latest backups of the database and the portal directory (although in truth they really lust after a mirror to switch over to).
So is this a sensible strategy, or would they be better advised to abandon this degree of openness and go with Ubuntu Server with the administration restricted to yet-to-be-found geeks?
Tags: altmedia, foss, nptech, nptechuk, opensource, openstandards, opentech, ubuntu
Posted in news | 6 Comments »
August 8th, 2010
We had the new build of visionOnTV up and running – whilst still ‘Under Construction’ – in time for the dotActivist conference yesterday. Paula was one of the speakers. Hopefully full audio and video of the speakers will be published at http://turnfront.com/dotactivist soon. Here’s the interview we did with Paula in our mobile studio upstairs: Paula Graham on FOSS, the Cloud, SAAS (software as a service)
That same studio will soon be off to Edinburgh for Climate Camp
Tags: cloud, dotactivist, foss, miro, nptech, openvideo, saas, software, visionontv
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April 19th, 2010
Posted in from Tim's desk | Comments Off on No. 29: In memory of Chris Harman
March 24th, 2010
Earlier we had a post ‘What happened to Action Bob?’ wherein – besides introducing a fine comic artist – I bewailed the lack of any information as to his or her identity. Well, through the magic of the internet, step forward Spencer Klein, another fan of the artist who sent me a message to say that the artist’s name is Brian Wilcox or B.Wilcox as he signed himself.
The free San Fransisco and Bay Area magazine that Brian Wilcox’s work appeared in was Harpoon magazine which lasted 3 years in the beginning of the nineties. Spencer, whose brother worked on the magazine, told me that he has lost touch with Brian but that he was allowed to make up a comic book of his work from the magazine provided it remained not-for-profit.
As an extension of that permission, I offer another B.Wilcox strip featuring his most enduring character Ed. Here is “Ed explains it all for you”
p.s. the link is to a .jpg which you may need to magnify in your browser to see some of the finer detail. you can do that using CTRL + (or CMD + on Apple)
Tags: b.wilcox
Posted in news | Comments Off on Action Bob? Does Ed have the answer?
February 5th, 2010
One of the first – if not THE first – vegetarian restaurants in Tower Hamlets, the Wild Cherry, has just closed after 30 years. People in Bethnal Green know the Buddhist businesses that cluster around the temple in the Roman Road and this closure is the second in as many months, the other being Friends Foods – an organic health food grocer of almost an equal lifespan. But recession is only part of the reason they closed.
Common Knowledge’s office is in the next street and we’ll miss summer-time lunches in ‘the girls’ backyard under the multicoloured flags. Soup, quiche, baked potatoes, weird curries, shepherdess pie (no meat) and cakes – and for many years the only decent cup of coffee in the area.
These buddhist businesses have depended in the past on the concept of ‘right livelihood’ which brings ‘mindfulness’ to the art of providing a service to the community – their own and the greater one. They were usually single sex – hence our nickname of ‘the girls’ for the Cherry – and depended on part-time voluntary work-scheduling of members of the FWBO buddhist community. In return workers would get food, help with housing and access to meditation retreats in the country .
The difficulty proved to be sustaining a voluntary work-force with sufficient knowledge of the business day in, day out. The fact it lasted as long as it did is a credit to the collectives that worked there. Only in the last year did they succomb to a paid manageress and the odd bloke working there and the finances couldn’t support it.
Meanwhile Evolution, the gift-shop continues using the ‘right livelihood’ model. I can only hope that the demise of the Wild Cherry and Friends Foods is temporary whilst the FWBO re-group for a reincarnation.
Tags: local
Posted in news | 2 Comments »
January 28th, 2010
Posted in from Tim's desk | Comments Off on No. 28: Empires take Shape
January 28th, 2010
Posted in from Tim's desk | Comments Off on No. 27: Byzantium – the living fossil
January 28th, 2010
Posted in from Tim's desk | Comments Off on No. 26: China – Part 2
January 28th, 2010
Posted in from Tim's desk | Comments Off on No. 25: China – Not the Dark Ages
January 28th, 2010
Posted in from Tim's desk | Comments Off on No. 24: The Middle Ages
