Main Topic: Open Data

Our speaker is: David J. Scholl

The software wars are not over, ...

but we are in the transition from GandhiCon 3 to GandhiCon 4, and the outcome is a forgone conclusion. Microsoft is flailing, desperately trying to patch the leaks that let more and more air out of its business model, and appears no longer even able to buy innovative companies. Oracle is battling with all the considerable energy that their CEO can bring to bear, but in buying Sun and MySQL they are merely building their own Maginot Line of relational databases, and new database technology is making an end run around it. Meanwhile, the cost per terabyte of data storage continues to drop, with no fundamental physical limits in sight. People all over the world are generating data of vast scope and considerable value, from Facebook pages, to questions and answers on StackOverflow, to forum postings, to internet searches, blogs, comments on blogs, wikis, tweets, and whatever comes next. In addition to these online conversations, there are coordinated efforts to build information storehouses online, such as Wikipedia, arxiv.org and Open Street Map. Who owns this information, who controls access to it, who can use it for what purposes?

The growing, highly decentralized, Open Data movement is hoping to do for data what RMS did for software. Data is the new software, Google is the new Microsoft, and we are back to GandhiCon 1.

Secondary Topic: OpenPandora

Our presenter is: Scott Smith

OpenPandora is a mixture between a PC and a gaming console. That's why it has gaming controls (Buttons, DPad and analogue nubs). It is fast enough to emulate many other systems, run a full desktop, access the internet via FireFox and play games such as Quake3. However, it is not as big as a netbook. Believe it or not, it will fit in your pocket. It's a bit bigger than the Nintendo DS. The screen is an impressive 800*480 resolution LCD and the battery life is a sensational 10+ hours.

Scott is involved with the project, porting applications, helping to develop the operating system and testing hardware. He'll be here to give us an overview of the project.

Command of the month: "nice"

Craig Maloney will be giving a quick presentation on the nice utility titled: Naughty or Nice. Craig has given us many awesome presentations and this one should be lots of fun.

Everything Else
As usual we'll discuss any current happenings in the Linux community, have our book giveaway, and plan on some dinner after the meeting where you can hammer our speakers with the hard hitting questions they deserve.

If you have topics for future meetings you would like us to cover please email the board, thanks.

Where:

The MUG meetings are held in the Auditorium on the second floor at:

Farmington Community Library - Main Branch
32737 W. 12 Mile Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48334-3302

Click here for a map of the area.

When:

the meetings are on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.

6:00pm	Doors open, registration
6:30pm	Meeting starts, Mug business
6:45pm	Main presentation
8:15pm	2nd Presentation
8:45pm	Meeting adjourns
9:00pm	Dinner at a local establishment