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Metalab Changes Its Name (Again) 97

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-the-money-matters-more dept.
Simon Spero writes: "Metalab, the site formerly known as SunSITE, is now www.ibiblio.org . This change has been made in response to a donation by Bob Young and Mark Ewing of Redhat of $4 million; this grant will be used to apply the techniques and philosophies of the Open Source Movement to more traditional kinds of information, creating the first of a new kind of digital library. " Metalab URLs will continue to work. Here's the FAQ and some more press coverage. Really the name change is secondary (I still hadn't stopped using sunsite bookmarks) but this could be really cool.
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Metalab Changes its Name (Again) More

Metalab Changes its Name (Again)

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  • I've always been fascinated by the idea of applying the concepts of a movement to a medium for which they were not originally intended.

    Sort of like Al Gore's famed "Open Source Web Page" idea? *ducks and runs for cover*


    --
  • My username is PD. For the right donation, I will change my username to whatever you desire. Thank you for your support.

  • This "join venture" will house newer stuff, and not the old stuff that is housed on wiretap.

    Unlike wiretaps, which is there mostly because copyright has expired, these works will be produced 'in the spirit of open-source' -- much like research papers are in the world of academia I guess.

  • value of redhat, bob, and marc (amongst others).

    prosthetic-monkey.com [prosthetic-monkey.com]

    nice to see they continue to give back to the community.

    donfede

  • Wow, haven't heard rhetoric this good since the Junior High lunchroom.

    Votes do count, and this is a government based and dependant on participation. If corporations fill a large part of that participation, it is becuase of a lack of yours.
  • Considering SourceForge's Terms Of Service agreement, you'de be insane to host your project there. Youre essentially giving up your right to own that what you've created.


    Naive question: where in the TOS does SourceForge get the rights to your creation? I just skimmed throught the "Content" section, and the only relevant section was the 6th paragraph, which applies only to "text or data entered into and stored by publicly-accessible site features such as message boards and bug trackers" and "publicly-availabe statistical content. . .generated by the site to monitor and display project activity".


    I take this to mean that you can't claim patches submitted via Sourceforge to be your own property; and since whatever work in question is presumably under an Open Source license, SourceForge's ability to "turn around and sell your work without giving you a cent" is the same as any other group's (Red Hat, for example).


    It does seem that the TOS is intended for pieces of code rather than artistic content, so I'm not entirely clear how the TOS would work with a project such as propaganda. Even so, there doesn't seem to be anything that would give SF ownership of your work.


    So, what am I missing in the TOS?

  • in the spirit of open-source' -- much like research papers are in the world of academia I guess.

    If that were only true. Research papers published in respected journals are much less free than you might think. Pick up a random journal and find the "Information for Authors" section and read it. If you are an open source advocate, what you see will make your stomach flip.

  • ...to a "dot everything" obsession.

    And there are other days when I think it's only a matter of time before the domain squatting starts to wind down as more gTLDs are opened up

    NOT. Witness Google.net [microsoft.net] and Google.org [google.org]. Microsoft.com [microsoft.com] is the same site as Microsoft..net [microsoft.net]. Squatters will squat on every available TLD. Even Slashdot.org [slashdot.org] has its own .com [slashdot.com].


    <O
    ( \
    XGNOME vs. KDE: the game! [8m.com]
  • A lot of those articles would've done quite nicely over at Rusty's K5 site, and I know I would've voted for a few of 'em...

    Some of them are quite interesting. What's this about X.Org and Sun teaming up? And Linux binaries? And "Linux under attack"?

    Man, I wanna see those stories... slashdot should make them available for reading regardless, just not turn on the feedback forum for each one ...

  • Search for the word "royalties". Its embedded in legalese, but its right there in black and white, along with the clause that allows them to change the wording in the TOS at any time without notification.

    Bowie J. Poag
  • Actually, the TOS doesn't say that, it says:

    In each such case, the submitting user grants SourceForge the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later develope all subject to the terms of any applicable Open Source Initiative-approved license.

    Which means that you choose the license, and we will continue to use your code or whatever under the license you chose., The point of this is so that people can't pretend thier code isn't under a licences that they released it under previously. You're familiar with the OSI right? The GPL maybe? Well, if you aren't there are a lot of resources on the web for you, you probably shoudl start with them.

    People, whenever you read a bowie post you should go back in the /. archives and read the previous responses as we've all heard his rants before and already addressed them.

    Chris DiBona
    VA Linux Systems


    --
    Grant Chair, Linux Int.
    Pres, SVLUG

  • Hiya Wong. :) Theyre backgrounds, not foregrounds..And considering there are >800 of them, i'm puzzled that you can't find at least one you like. Thats more a reflection of your monitor's quality than it is a reflection of my work ethic. :) If an image appears "blurry", its probably time to look into getting a new display.

    Anyway, I was referring to VA ripping off our work during System 12's run, not Propaganda. Its too late to do anything about S12 except learn from it. Like hell I would let them do the same thing to me twice.

    Ciao,


    Bowie J. Poag
  • Project Gutenberg accepts only public domain texts. This means that even if PG manages to OCR everything published on or before December 31, 1922, there's that pesky perpetual copyright [8m.com] problem due in part to a loophole in the Constitution.
    <O
    ( \
    XGNOME vs. KDE: the game! [8m.com]
  • Bowie J. Poag [slashdot.org] (uid=16898) is not a troll. Bowie J. Paog [slashdot.org] (uid=229002), on the other hand... Check the user bio's.
    <O
    ( \
    XGNOME vs. KDE: the game! [8m.com]
  • yeah, this guy [ibiblio.org] and his elite team of hackers, who keep metalab up and running.

    and, oh yeah, moderators, mod this one up.

  • Why does every company getting involved in the web (and even some of them that always have been) insist on sticking either an 'i' or an 'e' at the begginning of their name?

    It's simple... because all the good .com names where taken.

    Some "brilliant" person came up with the idea of sticking a letter in front of the name they initially wanted and thus where able to register it.

  • Ah, I get it.

    It's kind of like why all those morons want to get pierced bodies. They want to be different, just like everybody else.

    I guess I'll never understand that mentality. It's like when the word 'alternative' suddenly meant 'popular' in music circles.

    //begin old man rant from a 26 year old
    Back in my day when you wanted to do something 'different' you actually used your brain and came up with something (gasp) *original*. Why must we all assume that the last person to come up with a good idea must be the last person to ever come up with a good idea? Doesn't anybody realize we are all acting like cattle (and believe me I'm talking from experience here. When I worked on a farm if one cow took off in another direction, or even looked with her ears perked in another direction, every damn cow in the herd would go running in that direction trying to see what was so damn interesting over there.). Originality counts for nothing anymore. The morons that come afterwards get far more credit than the person that came up with the idea. Oh god the humanity of it all.
    //end old man rant...

    Please file this post under:
    FIRST iPost from a disgruntled ePoster
  • You ever tried voting?
  • What makes this a 'new kind'?

    Of course it a new kind. The old kind didn't get $4 million donations from open source companies.

    ----------

  • Are you kidding me. Do you really think the current setup cares about the common voter? Once in seat, they follow the direction of special interest and big business.

    Don't we have the technology to go with a true democracy? Why not let everyone vote on all legislation and have your rep/sen vote the way of his constituent majority. Or just do away with Congress all together.

    chaswell
    --this is the most fun I have ever had on /.

  • The Last Best Place (Score:3)

    by Bowie J. Poag ( 16898 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @08:23AM (#782242) Homepage

    After VA Linux Systems decided to rip us off and left us bleeding from the ass, (*cough*SOURCEFORGE*cough*) we opted to leave and do it on our own rather than stay and continue to take it. One of the first places to offer us a new home after we cut our ties with VA was MetaLab. They've been extremely helpful to us from the very beginning, going out of their way to make the transition as painless as possible. And, i'm quite happy to say that since April we've managed to regain our audience to the point where we are pulling in more people and more traffic now than at any point during our time with VA..

    MetaLab is one of the last places i've ever seen that's willing to lend a hand and not really expect anything in return...So today, i've regained a little faith in Red Hat. Kudos to them for supporting an honest-to-God good thing. There needs to be an alternative to the VA resource monopoly, and SunSITE/MetaLab/iBiblio represents that ideal perfectly. Considering SourceForge's Terms Of Service [sourceforge.net] agreement, you'de be insane to host your project there. Youre essentially giving up your right to own that what you've created. When you move your project to SourceForge, VA now owns your project..It says so clearly in their TOS Agreement. They can turn around and sell your work without giving you a cent, or co-opt your work like they did with us, and leave you holding the bag. They're opportunists. The guys at MetaLab just want to provide a home for developers..they have no vested interests in what goes on there.

    Thanks, Bob. :)

    My $0.02,


    Bowie J. Poag
  • It's the sound you make when you flip your finger up and down over your lips ... that or Porky Pig's astrological sign...

    I'm a ib-ib-ib-ib-leo!

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000

  • This Just In.... (Score:3)

    by xianzombie ( 123633 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @08:24AM (#782244)

    The company known as Ibiblio, formerly known as Metalab, formerly known as SunSITE, has now issued a press release stating that their new name will be F**kedCompany, as soon as they complete the purchase of the domain FuckedCompany.com [fuckedcompany.com]

  • Oh yeah, like that hasn't been done [metababy.com]...

  • Ok, so you were trying for the (+1, Funny), I'll respond anyway. . .

    It would make sense:

    • i- the oh-so-common (well, e- has taken over) prefix denoting something to do with the Internet
    • biblio Books. Libraries. Latin root.

    'eye-bib-lee-o' does make the most sense.

  • biblio is library, the i probably stands for Internet. Bob Young said he wants this to be the "the public library of the Internet." The name makes perfect sense.

    Personally, I'm amazed at how much Red Hat continues to give back to the community. Not only do they pay the upper kernel hackers (ala Alan Cox), but they hold true to the Open Source ideals. Some said that once they became public, they would become greedy and evil to meet shareholder's demands. Instead it has given them more money to expand Linux and give back to the community. Keep up the good work, Red Hat.

  • either set up your /etc/hosts or hosts.sam(I think that's the windows file???) to point sunsite.unc.edu to 152.2.210.81, as well as metalab.unc.edu. That should fix any links you encounter on older web pages, as well that sentimental feeling we all get typing up the old address.
  • Can I easily get to Dr Fun pages?
    Why yes, there's a link to it on the front page. Doesn't really bug me, if they want to call it my.i.e.dotcom.b2b.org , cool with me.

    On a side note, Is it just me or all the iBeHeader.com MyEviscerator.com eImpaler.com domain names already seem dated?

  • No Way! I have always loved SunSite. It's probably the best site on the net for this sort of thing.
  • In recent news, iBiblio (formerly known as Bruce Perens) was quoted as saying, "Heck, I'll change my name to Slashdot, if VA will cough up the right amount of change." The Technocrat formerly known as Bruce later retracted the statement, claiming it to be a hoax perpetrated by a "Bruce Perens.", not the real iBiblio. Other comments to reporters about a low "user-id" got lost in the mix, as the storied guru was repeatedly harassed to explain about "eunuchs" and other obscure topics. No word yet on how this will affect Bruce 2.0.

    (sorry Bruce, it's been a long day)
    --
  • first it was sunsite/metalab.unc.edu which changed
    then Walnut Creek changed from ftp.cdrom.com to ftp.freesoftware.com
    time to go back to gatekeeper.dec.com or wuarchive.wustl.edu
  • What's wrong with their terms of serivce?

    The agreement [sourceforge.net] basically says:
    1) You agree that by agreeing, you are agreeing.
    And by agreeing, you are bound by this contract.
    2) We host the code, we don't give you dialup/WAN access.
    3) Give us your real name. Mike Hunt is not a valid name.
    4) You're responsible for your content. If you're going to host code, it has to be open source (as defined by OSI guidlines) as that's the focus of our site.
    5) Don't resell this service.
    6) We reserve the right to limit the service if need be (i.e.: bandwidth cap, file sizes cap).
    7) Violation of our TOS, abuse of the site, a request for removal, and court order are valid reasons for removing a hosted site.
    8) This is the web, we have links. If you link to DeCSS, we're not responsible
    9) We're not liable for what we can't control.
    10) Our trademarks are ours, and your are yours
    11) Ditto for copyrights. Tell us if people violate this and #10.
    12) This contract is the only thing you have to sign for us (sourceforge admins). Nothing more is required for hosting, etc.
    13) Violations of this should be reported.

    Hardly the totalitarian dictatorship conspiracy by ESR, RMS, VA, etc.. In fact, grepping for "sell," the only occurance of it is in point #5 about not reselling service!

    If you're so afraid of people selling code you've worked on, don't make it opensource!

    Otherwise, you're just being a troll.
    --

  • Ok, here we go - the site formerly known as Metalab's history:

    1. SunSITE - Commercially funded educational project, eventually receiving many volunteers.
    2. MetaLab - The volunteers decided to move so as to sever all ties with such a commercial entity.
    3. ibiblio - establish a once again privately funded project.

    Does anybody see where this next one might be headed? I can see it now:

    • FUTURE COMPANY - The people of the project, formerly ibiblio, formerly MetaLab, formerly SunSITE, have chosen to commercialize their existence.

    --The formation of yet another company with its own interests .. When it happens .. remember you saw it here first!


  • They say nothing about your project contents and code. Only text entered into bug tracking forums and the like, and mostly - the statistical information derived therefrom.

    So step away from the crack pipe and re-read that TOS.

    P.S. It wasn't "royalties" but rather "royalty-free"

  • actually metalab/ibiblio has been one of the major distribution sites for Project Gutenberg for quite some time. we've enjoyed working with michael hart and we always learn from him
  • Big hug ! Really nice way to spend the money !
  • How about getting the 300 000 or so Library of Congress Subject Classification Categories down from the server of the Library of Congress and sort the internet content scientifically ? How about a google search on each of the subject categories in addition search books according to their subject classification schedule ?
    A nice big/huge searchable "ilibrary" category tree ? It's almost there, but not really as it
    could be.
  • Imagine an Open Source religion!

    I think there already is one, isn't there? The Church of EMACS [stallman.org] Or is that open source as a religion?

  • more like this:
    1. sunsite - 4 years of working with sun, but trying to maintain our academic and non-commercial identity
    2. metalab - 4 years of scrambling for support and getting nice but smaller gifts of support from a variety of commercial entities
    3. ibiblio - 5 year committment from a private foundation to extend the ideas and projects for the past 8 years
    after that i am close to retirement ;->
  • i strongly support this effort ;->

  • Hmmm (Score:1)

    by mholve ( 1101 )
    So we're buying and dropping and changing names now, eh?

    That's cool - whatever. Metalab/Sunsite/whatever has always been there, since the WAAAAY early days. A place that seems to be overlooked in this day and age of Freshmeat and Slapdot.

    Long live... Err... Ibiblio!

  • ibiblio (Score:3)

    by wishus ( 174405 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @07:51AM (#782263) Journal
    i'm assuming that's pronounced "eye-bib-lee-o" and not "ib-ib-lee-o" or "ibby-blee-o" or "i-buy-bly-o" or somethign else.. the word just looks mangled..

    wish
    Vote for freedom! [harrybrowne2000.org]
    ---

  • Good use of stock options (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Welcome back people, I haven't seen this many earnest young bespectacled men since
    my last Star Trek convention. How many here like old Trek versus new Trek?

    Yeah, I thought so.

    Remember to click on the banner ads, that's what keep the power flowing to the Geek
    Compound.

    Did I tell I tell you I visited the Geek Compound a while ago? A nice place, bigger than
    you expect, with an amazing intense air about it. Kind of like the Vatican, but with fewer
    releases of the libido.

    Anyhow, I was in the bathroom their, a big place, when I heard two members of the Slashdot
    staff in adjacent stalls.

    CT: "Hey H, that bean dip did a number on me, and this stall is out of toilet paper,
    do you have any on that side?"

    H: "Sorry CT, this side is out too."

    CT: "Bummer, ... hey, do you have any shares of VA Linux handy?"

    Thank you, thank you , you've been a wonderful audience.
  • So, they get a $4million donation, a definate plus for the Open (as in my fly) source community, and yet the thrust of the post here is about a name change?
    Maybe I should change my name, I could use 15 minutes of fame.

  • Interesting (Score:3)

    by zpengo ( 99887 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @07:48AM (#782266) Homepage
    I've always been fascinated by the idea of applying the concepts of a movement to a medium for which they were not originally intended. The Open Source idea could be applied in useful ways not only to software, but also to politics, education, etc.; Imagine an Open Source religion!

    I wonder what would happen, though, if Zen programming were created. Or perhaps Expressionist network design. Or Republican computer repair....

  • Finally a place to post all of my own wiritings with characters from The Hobit... er... wait...

    ----

  • From the FAQ, in answer to "What do you guys do" is rather funny...

    We're all about freedom, man! Free Tibet, free Burma, Free Love, you get the picture. We offer a free platform for the exchange of free thought. We host tons of cultural sites like the DocSouth Project, Zen@iBiblio, and North Carolina Raves (all of which can be seen from our collections index). We are also one of the first servers to mirror the original Linux kernel, so you can tell we're big on free software, too.

    Hehehehe. :)

  • first of a new kind of digital library

    What about wiretap? [area.com]

    What makes this a 'new kind'?

    --

  • I have been so interested in opening a sourceforge for OpenGov.

    I say we try and have a v1.0 release before the 2004 elections.

    Who is with me?

    Chaswell

  • the donation did not come from RedHat (Score:5)

    by option8 ( 16509 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @08:27AM (#782271) Homepage
    (consider i'm a little miffed that, once again, i submit a story in a timely manner, holding off on posting until the day of the press conference, and several days later another poster gets the same story posted where mine was rejected. silly me, i thought i had the inside track - being one of the designers of the new ibilio site.. oh well)

    the donation did not come from RedHat, as many readers assume. the headline even says the money came from individual investors, which is closer to the mark. reading the full story will reveal that the $4 million donation came from the Red Hat Center [rhcenter.org] (center of what?) which is a "non-profit organization that supports, promotes, and engages in a wide range of initiatives to advance the principles of transparent technology [rhcenter.org]" (Bob Young's term for open source)

    the guys from Red Hat started the Center with their own money (acquired from.. duh!) to use in promoting open source projects, even those in competition with RedHat.

    RHC has also given big chunks of change [rhcenter.com] (tho none in the $4 million range) to the EFF (electronic fronteirs foundation), probono.net, and the Center for Media Education in Washington, DC

    something folks haven't said much about is the plan to make ibiblio more slashdot-like in its sense of community, discussions, and ranking of the content. silly me, i would have thought cmdrtaco would have mentioned that :)
  • I'm curious how much effort it took them to come up with a name that was available. I have this vision of some poor guy at UNC with a pot of coffee spending hours with 'whois' trying to find something unregistered that fit into their new theme.

    There are days when I cynically think that it can only get worse, as more people get on the Net and register their own domains. And there are other days when I think it's only a matter of time before the domain squatting starts to wind down as more gTLDs are opened up and people get away from the magic "dot com" obsession.

  • 1. We don't live in a true democracy, and never have.

    2. If we had more than %30 of the populace voting, they would care (That's just national, the numbers are less for local elections).

  • Just so long as sunsite.unc.edu still works to get there.

    If they change that then I'm screwed. It's burned in.

  • What do you mean metalab.unc.edu changed it's name to www.ibiblio.org. Does sunsite.unc.edu still work? I'd hate to have to go through & change all of my FTP links.

  • Re:Interesting (Score:3)

    by Samrobb ( 12731 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @08:34AM (#782276) Journal
    • Republican computer repair: The manufacturer of your computer is not liable, and furthermore, will be suing your under the DMCA for attempting to bypass their "System Down (tm)"security features.
    • Democrat computer repair: Hmm, yes, your system's down... now, we'll take your money and use it to buy new computers for the needy. You think that's wrong? Oh, sorry - you're right. I forgot to add in the sales tax on that.
    • Far Right computer repair: It's it's own damn fault. If the lazy subsidized-electicity-sucking scum would just get up the motivation to work, it could pull itself out of this hole.
    • Far Left computer repair: Don't worry, we'll just pass a law making it a crime for a computer to be down. There! Now, your computer is OK. What do you mean, it's still down? If it were down, you'd be breaking the law, and you don't want me to have to call the police now, do you... good! See, I knew that would fix it.
    • Libertarian computer repair: I'll fix it if you admit that you screwed it up in the first place.
    • FSF computer repair: Hmm. Yeah, I can fix it. Before I do that, though, you'll have to GPL your computer, your brainwaves, your dog, and then beg for forgiveness.
    • Open Source computer repair: today on /. - Microsoft software can cause overclocked CPUs without cooling fans or heat sinks to burst into flame and email the contents of your hard drive to Redmond.
  • Well, I guess that is the end of the conversation, because I agree with you here.

    1. I understand we don't have a true democ. I feel that with current technology we could support one.

    2. Have any suggestions on who I should vote for?

    Chaswell
    -- thank you and good day.
  • the name change, which is generating the same comments on /. as it was around the office (twiddling finger over lips, porky pig, etc) is something of a distraction, it seems, from the goal of ibiblio

    ibiblio (pronounced EYE bib lee oh, or by twiddling one's finger over one's lips) is "the public's library," a collaboration between UNC-CH (the home of metalab) and the RedHat center (the home of Bob Young's stock options) and has the goal of encompassing much more than just the metalab content, though that is the only thing under the ibiblio ubmbrella for now, and will likely continue to be the lion's share of what is there for a while to come.

    so, it isn't that SunSITE/metalab == ibiblio, but rather that ibiblio == metalab + (add bunch of open source projects and archives here)

    dig?

  • I'm curious if the community could scrape up enough cash to get a name that doesn't suck. "ibiblio"? Sounds like a Tolkein character that ended up rightfully in the trash. I know it's supposed to be a recerence to the "I"nternet and a library (biblio), but c'mon people. Uck!

  • You can't even get the link right . . .

  • contributor-run library, name change, etc (Score:3)

    by pjones ( 10800 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @10:34AM (#782281) Homepage
    not a catchy title, but here are a few things that i hope will clear a little air:


    first the gift/collaboration is with the red hat center, a private foundation founded by marc ewing and bob young. not from red hat inc.

    second, the new library idea is that we hope to use tools and experience familiar to those of us in open source development in other areas. we've done shared metadata, for example, for years in the LSMs and in the software archive on metalab/ibiblio/sunsite (you pick). This article in the Chronicle of High Education [chronicle.com] gets it pretty much right. i have an article forthcoming in CACM which tells more and can post to folks who are interested.

    we last changed our name, from sunsite.unc.edu, because sunsite was owned by sun. when we went to enter into a collaboration with red hat center, they thought that a new name that showed something of a larger direction would be appropriate. i agree. i can't type it yet either, but then i typed meatbal for metalab for the past three years too

    it's is our hope to create a library as noisy and democratic as slashdot [slashdot.org] itself. it will take us a while to combine, develop and implement the great ideas from the LSMs, slashdot, advogato, apache, sourceforge and the multitude of projects on sunsite/metalab/ibiblio. and we want your help.


    peace love and sharing

    Paul

  • actually we're trying to buy micr0soft
  • as you can see on our collection page [ibiblio.org], we chose the dewey system over the LC one
  • i know that if there were not already a case going on that we might try to see what we could to to accept it -- rather than to reject it out of hand.

  • Re:the donation did not come from RedHat (Score:3)

    by pjones ( 10800 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @10:54AM (#782285) Homepage
    here are a few things that i hope will clear a little air:


    first the gift/collaboration is with the red hat center, a private foundation founded by marc ewing and bob young. [rhcenter.org] not from red hat inc.

    second, the new library idea is that we hope to use tools and experience familiar to those of us in open source development in other areas. we've done shared metadata, for example, for years in the LSMs and in the software archive on metalab/ibiblio sunsite (you pick).

    This article in the Chronicle of High Education [chronicle.com] gets it pretty much right. i have an article forthcoming in CACM which tells more and can post to folks who are interested.

    we last changed our name, from sunsite.unc.edu, because sunsite was owned by sun. when we went to enter into a collaboration with red hat center [rhcenter.org], they thought that a new name that showed something of a larger direction would be appropriate. i agree. i can't type it yet either, but then i typed meatbal for metalab for the past three years too

    it's is our hope to create a library as noisy and democratic as slashdot itself. it will take us a while to combine, develop and implement the great ideas from the LSMs, slashdot, advogato, apache, sourceforge and the multitude of projects on sunsite/metalab/ibiblio. and we want your help.


    peace love and sharing



  • "that's the main function of the project -- to allow Linux developers to increase the quality of their work, and make ourselves an integral part of what it means to develop applications for Linux as a whole."

    Thank you. :) Bout time somebody posted it..You have no idea how glad I am that I did that interview back in November '99. Its the only piece of proof left of the screw job that VA cant ignore or disavow knowledge of.

    Cheers,
    Bowie J. Poag


  • SourceForge reserves the right to(...) reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display..(...)

    Thanks for clarifying everything i've been saying, Chris. Nothing prevents VA from co-opting your work and leaving you in the dust if they think they can turn a profit off you.

    Glad to see you're still following me around, by the way--I was beginning to miss you. It warms my heart to see you're still doing what VA pays you to do. Clean up their public image.

    I agree. Let them go back and read. Education is a wonderful thing -- I consider myself an authority on how your company is capable of screwing people over, and any knowledge of why they should avoid the company you work for is a good thing in my eyes.

    Have a swell day,

    Bowie J. Poag
  • hey, cut them some slack... a minimum dose of marketese is pretty much required on press releases. they're doing great stuff, and their actual site looks very usable; that's what counts.

  • Thanks for pointing that out, by the way.
    Bowie J. Poag
  • what we aim for is quite different from UofA, a place i was glad to help become a sunsite several years back. our goal is a contributor-run library using what we have learned from the linux archives (since 1992), the LSMs, advogato, even slashdot and sourceforge and of course successful projects like apache.

    this article in Chronicle of Higher Education [chronicle.com] mostly gets it right.
  • 1. Am I the only one who is totally pissed off by the first 20 or so posts on an open source issue talking about the yanks elelection (hint - slashdot is on the net so maybe it's not yanko-centric

    2. Why is it alll the the the adolescent prats (probly runnng KDE and slagging of RMS cos they have no clue!) seem to to feel that as soon as a RH story appears Red Hat just has to be slagged off

    Lets make this point again kiddies Red Hat have probably contributed ore to FREE (not OSS) software than anyone else (inc debian - just)

    The point of the story is that basically a site for free software controlled by a propriety s/w copany has to all intents and purposes been taken over by a company that note not BSD, QPL,MPL or any other "I can shaft you later but aren't I virtuous" license eg: QPL ala KDE)

    2. Note Has invested a not insignificant aount of money in making a proprietory site into a free sotware site

    'nuff said

  • This is /. we does not apply to anyone outside of USA
  • Yes, of course, it's the number you can use for digital searches easier. But in no way is the Dewey Decimal Schedule up to the task to categorize scientific and technical information.

    The LCCL Subject Classification Schedule and millions of books, the Library of Congress did
    classify, represent THE MODEL to classify internet content scientifically. One US book wholesalor includes in his books in print databases the LCCL number, but the format of these LCCL numbers make easily usable digitally. That's the problem. The Library of Congress also produces tapes and sells licenses for those data.

    The online site of the Library of Congress doesn't offer a searchable subject category tree.

    I don't know if this is because they haven't found a technical and solution to convert the LCCL number in a format usable for online searchspiders, or if they just didn't get enough money to launch such a project. It's a tragedy, IMHO.

    A category tree of around 300 000 subject categories, developed by the best cataloger's in the world, SHOULD be taken seriously into consideration to be the basis of classifying
    internet and book content. This is a big project and one which plays well together with a lot the Open Source community stands for, hopefully.
  • Why is this excellent news ?
    Yet again, we see here on /. a company near daily denegrated by submitters of posts (Linux 6.2),yet the donation of $4 causes hat throwing.
    Does not anyone else find it menacing that RedHat hold so much authority that in providing adonation, that they can force metalabs to redirect it's URL to something unpronouncable, and unmemorable ?
    .
    ..

  • ho hum (Score:1)

    by wardk ( 3037 )
    so was the name changed so it could be announced that money was donated by X and Y, or was it changed for a good reason?

    I think they left out some "i"'s

  • Huh? (Score:2)

    by jjr ( 6873 )
    Does anyone knows what ibiblio means?

  • Name changes.... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...in general tend to reflect a significant change. Although you stated that there was no real change in focus, something had to be at the root of changing a perfectly good name like 'Metalab' to a trendy-as-fuck 'iBiblio.com'. I personally think a name like that brands them with the rest of the 'i-Phonies' and i-Bandwagoneers with corporate interests. Peace, niggz.

    .sigpipe.

    Listening to Raekwon's "Sneakers"

  • So rather than say, "Redhat and Co. donate $4M to local university" all the play they get is "name change!"

    That's pretty weak, dudes.

  • If their all about freedom, has anyone uploaded a copy of deCSS yet? Would they fight to keep it?

    On the other hand, I'd hate to see them burn through the entire $4M donation in lawyer bills....

    foo to you and yours,
    -l

  • Yes (Score:1)

    by mholve ( 1101 )
    It means "Redhat bought some good PR and ruined a good name."
  • Locally, I don't know where you live. In the presidency I have been getting the word out for Nader, the only candidate who truly cares about the people.
  • >I still hadn't stopped using sunsite bookmarks

    Are those like Favorites?
  • Oh my god. You have a choice between corporate sponsored candidate # 1 and corporate sponsored candidate # 2.

    Or, for those that want the illusion of independent thought, there are the non-sponsored (but quickly spanked) odball party candidates.

    If the elections were open from the get go (in other words, real people got to be involved in the primaries, you know, like it used to be), then I wouldn't be speaking right now. But the fact is that without huge corporate sponsorship, there is no way a person can get enough coverage to be elected. An open source government would rule (if you could get enough people interested in it).

    Unfortunately, right now, even if you pulled it off, you would only interest the few people that haven't already shrugged off the stupidity that government 'votes' have become. I don't think you would gain any huge amount of interest. People are too jaded, and most would suspect some sort of trickery.
  • ...with a collection of muddy smudged and blurred background images anyhow.

    Damn those Va Linux guys for getting rich off of your ugly smudge work! Damn the man!

  • What? Sunsite changed its name? But everyone talks about putting their stuff on sunsite... and people tell me that I can use sunsite as a mirror for their distibution of choice... and I always *type* ftp sunsite.unc.edu...
  • Hey, for $4M I'd change my name to ibiblio :-)
  • I realize that this is probably a troll, but it does bring up an interesting point.

    Why does every company getting involved in the web (and even some of them that always have been) insist on sticking either an 'i' or an 'e' at the begginning of their name?

    A local editorial on a news program was done by a man that had a similar view to mine. He said, "If I see one more company try to get publicity by sticking an 'e' at the beginning of a common word I'm gonna shove a knife in my eye to prevent me from seeing another."

    The very next day I saw that PC Week had changed their name to eWeek. I never found out if the guy followed through with his threat, but I never saw him on the tube again.
  • There's one at SourceForge [sourceforge.net], but it seems pre-alpha. Demons not running, and all that.
    __
  • Ok, so you were trying for the (+1, Funny),

    no, not really..


    Vote for freedom! [harrybrowne2000.org]
    ---

  • You're wrong. "AO" is an IMPOSTOR -- both of them are trolls.
    --
  • ...and may-the-source-be-with-you-too.org

    vi
    i
    "Enter your comments here!"
    ESC
    :q!
  • "creating the first of a new kind of digital library."

    I think Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg [promo.net] had this "new kind of library" very much in mind in 1971 when he started PG [promo.net]. I think that ibiblbibiblbiblio is a great site, it's just that it is not quite as groundbreaking as an idea as that.

    -------------
  • ...to more traditional kinds of information, creating the first of a new kind of digital library.

    First? No. This has been done: UofA Sunsite [ualberta.ca]
    There are probably others too.

  • looks like more and more musicians are getting it (Score:3)

    by brokeninside ( 34168 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2000 @08:08AM (#782315)
    Musician Roger McGuinn, former leader of the Byrds, was part of the fanfare Monday morning. Once each month for the past several years, McGuinn has recorded his own performance of a traditional folk song and uploaded it to MetaLab for free distribution on the Web.

    I had no idea this was going on. This is just too cool for words. It is so rejeuvinating to hear about an artist that cares about music as art and is doing something about it instead of using music as a ticket to noteriety and money.

    Anybody else hear that the Smashing Pumpkins released their final album only as .mp3? Well, they did press 25 vinyl copies...

    Maybe Sunsite, er, Metalab, er, iBiblio can do for music what mp3.com and napster have claimed they were going to do and failed.

  • I am sure that if someone bids $8 million, they will change their name again to something like now-this-is-our-final-name.org or closed-source-is-evil.org or even may-the-source-be-with-you.org.
    As long as the old bookmarks will keep working, no one will care ;-)
  • I getting so sick of this RH bashing that some people think are cool here at slashdot. All the software RH writes is released under the GPL and they support lots of projects with men/machine/money . They are one of the biggest contributers to the open source community and they give money back to the community and this makes them bad???? I really dont understand this!!

    BUT! back to the story..

    If you just read the about this you will see that is Mark Ewing and Bob Young as persons that are giving away the money. I guess they are spending some of the money they earned when RH IPO:ed.


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
  • I would, but it really is a neat idea. How else could you create a governement for the people, BY THE PEOPLE.

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