python

I’m happy to announce the Version 3 release of Froide, the open source, Python-based platform for running Freedom of Information portals: allowing you to make requests to public entities by email and track responses, as well as, customize your instance to fit your campaign for government transparency.

Froide has been in development for nearly two years. It has powered the FOI portal in Germany for over a year and a half and has recently been used to launch an Austrian FoI site.

Full instructions for getting started with Froide can be found here, and the source code is on Github here. This latest release comes with the latest version of the Python web framework Django 1.5 and Bootstrap 2.3. All other dependencies have also been upgraded.

Some of the major features include:

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The true potential of collaborative initiatives around the world is yet to be known. However, a sneak preview will take place on March 20, when hundreds of communities, networks, and institutions from widely diverse backgrounds and hailing from over 20 countries get together and take part in a global Wikisprint.

The goal of this one-day sprint, sponsored by the P2P Foundation, is to gather as many people as possible from different backgrounds and geographic areas, to map open projects and initiatives that are related to the commons and new paradigms of organization happening all over the world. 

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UPDATE: In a March 22 press release, the PSF announced that the parties have reached an amicable resolution. According to the PSF, "Veber has withdrawn its trademark filing and has agreed to support the [PSF's] use of the term". Veber will rebrand its Python cloud server and backup services. For its part, Veber stated that its agreement with the PSF will "remove potential confusion between the Python software language and [Veber's] cloud services business".

The PSF's successful and efficient efforts to mobilize the Python community in its support undoubtedly had a significant effect on convincing Veber to settle the matter quickly.  

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By now, active observers of the open source world will have heard of the trademark dispute between the Python Software Foundation (PSF) and Veber, a small hosting company in the UK. As reported by the PSF, Veber recently decided it wished to use "Python" in certain branding of its products and services. Veber filed an EU community trademark application, claiming the exclusive right to use the "Python" mark for software, servers, and web services throughout the EU. The PSF (which obtained a registered trademark for "Python" in the US in 2004) is opposing Veber's trademark application.

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Computer programming can be a fun hobby, as I learned when I programmed Apple II computers last century. Back then, I'd lie on my bed and dream up some educational game, then run over to my Apple //c to bring the game to life. Sometimes in less than two hours I could go from raw idea to working prototype. The most fun part was sharing the programs I created with friends and having them suggest improvements.

Far from being a solitary activity, programming for me was always a very social activity. It's been about 20 years since then and I've gotten a hankering to get back into it. And the computer programming language Python seems like the best route for me to do so.

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Over the last months, I became more and more aware of the "open" movement. "Open" as in open access, open source, open data, open science. » Read more

A brief tweet from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) recently invited you to see her newly-decorated apartment and head-to-toe fashions. The problem? It wasn't her apartment. The link led to the website of a staffer in her press office and was promptly deleted from Twitter fifty-seven seconds later. Looks like someone got their social media accounts mixed up.

That might be the end of the story, except the gaffe lives on through Politwoops, an archive of deleted tweets from U.S. politicians hosted by the Sunlight Foundation. » Read more

This month Santa Clara, CA, hosted the largest snake charmer gathering in history—but not the mass of individuals holding flutes, wearing turbans, and playing seductively at wicker baskets you might be imagining. Rather, this crowd was more likely to be found staring at laptops than a venomous snake at the other end of a pungi. This was PyCon, a conference dedicated to charmers of the python programming language. » Read more

Here at PyCon2011, there are quite a few open source rock stars in attendance. Software hackers of various stripes, developers from the corporate and community realms, and many other technically savvy and interested folks. » Read more

This is an old story--two years old, to be specific. But it was new to me when I heard it at LinuxCon, and it was new to a lot of others in the room too. And it was a great story, so I wanted to share it further.

In 2008, the Dutch Ministry of Finance held a competition to design a coin that would honor the country's architecture.

To briefly describe the coin, on one side is a portrait of » Read more