Minggu, 17 Agustus 2008

f Google’s initial $350,000 pledge to Oregon State University’s Open Source Lab wasn’t enough, take note. Numerous news sources of Oregonian relation, and now the Associated Press, have relayed information from Oregon State University to the effect that the Web giant donated an additional $300,000 to the incubator.

Of course, Google is known most for its seven-, eight-, nine-, and 10-figure-plus financial movements. But this transfer is particularly noteworthy in that it enhances OSL’s ability to continue supporting projects of open design. One need only look at examples of past projects given space to develop within the lab to see the value in such a contribution. Mozilla Firefox, OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), Apache Web server, the Linux Foundation infrastructure, are all names which have either passed through or been cultivated there. It is currently headed by six full-time employees and 12 student employees.

Open source has for years been a label experiencing a continual ebb and flow of lesser and greater notability. Yet it keeps on keeping on, as it were. Indeed, the most famous title in the land of the digitally free is Firefox. That is due to its extensibility, quickly and well-refined security parameters, and a concerted grassroots effort to challenge the dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, an arguably inferior product, through populist campaigns to grow its install base. The record-breaking success affixed to the debut of Version 3 of the browser only emphasizes the point.

Linux, in its various forms and flavors, endures as a result of a similar people-powered push for attention, development, and, thus, progress.

Apache, while not an everyday term for the everyday Web user, it is employed by the connected class in droves. It is leading Web server technology employed today, serving 49.12% of all websites presently online (circa June 2008).

So if history serves as a model for what may well emerge from its doors somewhere in the future, the Open Source Lab proves important to sustain. Google’s renewed investment makes that possible. The last grant issued by Google was given in 2005.

Recognize the name Goldmic? It carries a social network behind it, devoted exclusively to the world of hip-hop. And it’s something that has been around for several years now. Since 2002, according to Alexa, where it holds a 112k ranking. This past week it hoped to get more exposure still, when it was announced that the company, based in New York City, signed into a partnership with SpikeDDB, an advertising agency chaired by the film director and entrepreneur Spike Lee, who also acts as chief creative officer for the operation.

Lee is no novice to new media efforts. He lent himself to the Babelgum online film festival, and later joined Nokia for an film exclusive. The new effort with Goldmic seems to fit with Lee’s experimentalist perspective so far as interactive technology is concerned.

Goldmic claims itself, like most other social networks today, to be entirely user-generated and user-driven. That goes for videos uploaded, beats, MC battles, etc. All to “perpetuate the spirit of original hip-hop.” The site competes with Chuck Wilson Jr’s iHipHop and StreetCred, a network with ties to Warner Music Group, Sony, and which touts endorsements by the likes of Common and Snoop Dogg.