LWN.net has a report on the GUADEC Gnome conference recently. Here’s the executive summary: “GUADEC was fun. GNOME Office is now real. It would be nice to
release a whole suite for GNOME 2.0. This will be lots of work. So
start.”

From LinuxSecurity.com: New netscape packages are availabe to fix a problem with the handling of
JavaScript in certain situations. By exploiting this flaw, a remote site
could gain access to the browser history, and possibly other data.

EET.com reports that telecom application development for digital signal processors
(DSPs) took “a step forward this week when companies announced
shrink-wrapped tools and newly opened platforms” at the Embedded Systems
Conference in San Francisco.

Wired.com reports (although with several other news sources) that Yahoo has quietly begun selling “thousands” of porn video tapes and DVDs.

The Register has a short item saying a new version of a clone of BeOS,
AtheOS, slipped out last week. “Be Inc. itself still hasn’t given any indication that it
will release the source code to its much loved but moribund desktop OS, although
ten days ago we reported that the company registered domain names
openbeos.com, openbeos.org and openbeos.net last fall. Be’s current cash squeeze
makes it less likely to want to devote staff resources to keep placing fresh mothballs
around the desktop OS code base, which last received a major update a year ago.”

Research Policy (an academic journal on
technology and management)is calling for papers for a special issue on open source
software development to be published in 2003. The phenomenon of open-source
software (OSS) and free software development is attracting increasing
interest from practitioners and academics alike. The aim of this special
issue is to both stimulate research on OSS and to provide a progress report
for the field.

Guest Editors: Eric von Hippel, Sloan School of Management, MIT and and Georg von Krogh , Institute of Management, University of St.Gallen. Submission deadline: December 31, 2001.

Both empirical and theoretical submissions are invited.
Examples of topics include:

• What software architecture is suitable to open source software
  development?
• How is module-writing coordinated, and how are bugs identified and fixed
  in the open source software development process?
• What is the nature and effectiveness of mechanisms employed in OSS
  versus conventional software development projects?
• What are the implications of the open source model for the process of
  innovation in software development and other fields?
• How does the efficiency of open source software projects compare with
  those of projects developed by traditional methods?
• How are innovators rewarded for participation in open source projects?
• How do open source communities evolve and what is the nature of the
  governance structure of open source communities?

We encourage authors rooted in disciplines including sociology, economics,
social psychology, as well as technology, innovation and strategic
management, to consider a submission of their OSS related work. We welcome
conceptual contributions, quantitative data analyses using a variety of
methodological designs (e.g. simulations, field studies, archival studies,
laboratory experiments), as well as case studies, participant-observations,
ethnographies, and other research strategies that help shed light on OSS
development.

Submission details

Authors should submit their papers to: Professor Georg von Krogh, Institute
of Management, University of St.Gallen, Dufourstrasse 48, CH-9000 St.Gallen,
Switzerland. E-mail: georg.vonkrogh@unisg.ch. Authors should prepare their
manuscripts according to Research Policy’s instructions to authors. Please
find these instructions at Research Policy’s homepage at
http://www.elsevier.nl/homepage/sae/econbase/respol/menu.sht. Every
submission will be reviewed according to the double-blind review process of
Research Policy.

A special issue conference will be held at MIT or in St.Gallen in September
2002. Updates and additional information on the special issue, suggested
topics and the special issue conference might be found at
http://opensource.mit.edu.

CNet reports IBM’s Linux efforts in the Asia-Pacific
region.
“In September, the computer-services giant said it would invest more than $200 million over four
years to speed up the development of Linux-based products in Asia. IBM also had planned to
invest in seven Linux development and competency centers in the region, as well as hire 300
consultants, researchers and product developers.

Today IBM is well on its way with those plans, yet says it still has some ground to cover.”

From LinuxDevices.com: “According to the results of a subscriber study recently conducted
by Embedded Systems Programming magazine, developer interest in
using Embedded Linux appears to be growing at an astronomical
pace. Emerging from virtually nil in 1998 and 1999, the percent
of developers considering using Embedded Linux for new projects
has zoomed to the number two spot (38%) — second only to market
leader Wind River’s VxWorks.”

An anonymous reader writes, “The judge isn’t happy with Napster’s filtering progress and the service is on notice to shape up or be closed down.”

MP3newswire.net has a story.

LinuxPlanet has a commentary on recent lawsuits filed against Red Hat and VA Linux because of the companies’ IPOs. “Last week a pack of lawyers (a term to which they gained rights as part of the tobacco settlement) set upon Red Hat,
Inc., as earlier they had infested and continue to infest VA Linux. They will soon be seeking other publicly traded Linux
companies. What to think?

Let me state up front that I carry no water for Red Hat, which I think has done some pretty silly things, or for VA Linux,
with whom I’ve had few contacts, or for any other Linux company, most of whom have yet to provide any rational
explanation of how they plan to make money on free software. Let me further note that the wider variety of plaintiff’s
lawyers would look mighty good to me covered with honey and staked over an ant hill.”