scholarly journals Communicating with (Some) Canadians: Communication Rights and Government Online in Canada

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Felczak ◽  
Richard Smith ◽  
Geoffrey Glass

Abstract: A communication rights framework is used to evaluate recent government online initiatives in Canada. Through an analysis of policy documents, government websites, user experiences, and the existing and evolving computing environment, the authors argue that government online programs fail to adequately ensure the communication rights of Canadians who use free and open source software, including Canadians who seek alternatives to proprietary software, Canadians who require low-cost computing, and Canadians who access the Internet via public libraries and community centres that use free and open source software. Existing government programs also fail to ensure the communication rights of Canadians without access to the Internet, including Canadians who do not use or plan to use the Internet. The authors identify specific problem areas in the provision of government information, services, and consultations and suggest policy recommendations that address the identified shortcomings.Résumé : Dans cet article, les auteurs utilisent une perspective fondée sur le droit à la communication pour évaluer des initiatives en ligne de la part du gouvernement canadien. Au moyen de l’analyse de documents de politique générale, de sites gouvernementaux, d’expériences d’utilisateurs et de l’environnement informatique actuel dans son évolution constante, les auteurs soutiennent que les programmes gouvernementaux en ligne ne réussissent pas à protéger de manière adéquate les droits de communication des Canadiens qui utilisent des logiciels libres gratuits, y compris ceux qui désirent une alternative aux logiciels propriétaires, ceux qui dépendent de services informatiques à bas prix et ceux qui accèdent à Internet dans les bibliothèques et centres communautaires équipés de logiciels libres gratuits. En outre, les programmes gouvernementaux actuels sont incapables de protéger les droits de communication de ces Canadiens qui n’ont pas accès à Internet, c’est-à-dire ceux qui ne l’utilisent pas présentement ainsi que ceux qui n’ont pas l’intention de l’utiliser. Les auteurs identifient des problèmes spécifiques reliés à la fourniture d’informations, de services et de consultations de la part du gouvernement et recommandent des politiques qui s’adressent aux défauts identifiés.

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Buxton

PurposeTo review the variety of software solutions available for putting CDS/ISIS databases on the internet. To help anyone considering which route to take.Design/methodology/approachBriefly describes the characteristics, history, origin and availability of each package. Identifies the type of skills required to implement the package and the kind of application it is suited to. Covers CDS/ISIS Unix version, JavaISIS, IsisWWW, WWWISIS Versions 3 and 5, Genisis, IAH, WWW‐ISIS, and OpenIsis.FindingsThere is no obvious single “best” solution. Several are free but may require more investment in acquiring the skills to install and configure them. The choice will depend on the user's experience with CDS/ISIS formatting language, HTML, programming languages, operating systems, open source software, and so on.Originality/valueThere is detailed documentation available for most of these packages, but little previous guidance to help potential users to distinguish and choose between them.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (04) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Porto Antonio ◽  
João Paulo Lima ◽  
João Bosco Alves ◽  
Juarez Bento Silva ◽  
José Pedro Simão

This paper presents an educational tool based on open source software and low cost hardware to supplement science teaching, merging concepts of remote experiment, virtual worlds and virtual learning environment. Using an avatar, students can move around in an enriched environment and access a remote microscope that enables visualization of plant parts and interaction with the available samples.


2012 ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
Bhasker Mukerji ◽  
Ramaraj Palanisamy

The popularity of Open Source Software (OSS) in developing countries is quiet evident from its widespread adoption across government departments and public sector organizations. The use of OSS saves economic resources of cash starved countries, provides an opportunity to promote e-government, and to utilize their resources in other sectors. Many developing countries have a large pool of skilled developers who can modify the source code of the OSS at a very low cost. Many governments in developing and developed countries have switched to OSS which probably encourages others to follow the trend. It was not possible to follow the adoption trend in all the developing countries but the usage of OSS in countries like India, Brazil, and Venezuela provides us an insight. The successful adoption of OSS requires thorough analysis of its advantages as well as the issues associated with it. This chapter will provide an overview of OSS, characteristics of OSS developers, and their motivation to volunteer by contributing in OSS projects, followed by the advantages and issues associated with OSS.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 8939-8961
Author(s):  
Adel Khelifi ◽  
Manar Abu Talib ◽  
Douae Nouichi ◽  
Mohamed Salah Eltawil

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Kazuo Katoh

As conventional fluorescence microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy generally produce images with blurring at the upper and lower planes along the z-axis due to non-focal plane image information, the observation of biological images requires “deconvolution.” Therefore, a microscope system’s individual blur function (point spread function) is determined theoretically or by actual measurement of microbeads and processed mathematically to reduce noise and eliminate blurring as much as possible. Here the author describes the use of open-source software and open hardware design to build a deconvolution microscope at low cost, using readily available software and hardware. The advantage of this method is its cost-effectiveness and ability to construct a microscope system using commercially available optical components and open-source software. Although this system does not utilize expensive equipment, such as confocal and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopes, decent images can be obtained even without previous experience in electronics and optics.


Author(s):  
Dinesh Rathi

This study presents findings of research conducted in the Open Source Software (OSS) domain in a Canadian public libraries context. The findings from the survey will provide insight into various facets such as use, benefits and challenges of OSS from Canadian libraries’ perspective, OSS evaluation criteria, use of resources to learn about OSS, and decision-making associated with OSS in Canadian libraries context.Cette étude présente les résultats de recherches menées dans le domaine des logiciels libres (Open Source Software - OSS) dans le contexte des bibliothèques publiques canadiennes. Les résultats du sondage fourniront un aperçu de diverses facettes telles que l'utilisation, les avantages et les défis des logiciels libres, du point de vue des bibliothèques canadiennes, des critères d'évaluation des logiciels libres, de l'utilisation des ressources pour en apprendre davantage sur les logiciels libres, et la prise de décision associée aux logiciels libres dans le contexte des bibliothèques canadiennes.


First Monday ◽  
2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Pykalainen

Linux has received significant attention worldwide, but differences in its adoption across countries has gained less interest. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the proportion of Linux among SSL servers in the Internet. The findings of this research question earlier findings concerning the influence of culture on adoption of technology. Findings of this research could be useful for both proprietary and open source software companies. Likewise, by understanding the influence of culture on Linux adoption, OSS communities can adjust their activities to gain optimum international operations.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (01) ◽  
pp. 0102
Author(s):  
Terry Bollinger

This report documents the results of a study by The MITRE Corporation on the use of free and open-source software (FOSS) in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). FOSS gives users the right to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve it as they see fit, without asking permission or making fiscal payments to any external group or person. The study showed that FOSS provides substantial benefits to DoD security, infrastructure support, software development, and research. Given the openness of its source code, the finding that FOSS profoundly benefits security was both counterintuitive and instructive. Banning FOSS in DoD would remove access to exceptionally well-verified infrastructure components such as OpenBSD and robust network and software analysis tools needed to detect and respond to cyber-attacks. Finally, losing the hands-on source code accessibility of FOSS source code would reduce DoD’s ability to respond rapidly to cyberattacks. In short, banning FOSS would have immediate, broad, and strongly negative impacts on the DoD’s ability to defend the U.S. against cyberattacks. For infrastructure support, the deep historical ties between FOSS and the emergence of the Internet mean that removing FOSS applications would strongly negatively impact the DoD’s ability to support web and Internet-based applications. Software development would be hit especially hard due to many leading-edge and broadly used tools being FOSS. Finally, the loss of access to low-cost data processing tools and the inability to share results in the more potent form of executable FOSS software would seriously and negatively impact nearly all forms of scientific and data-driven research.


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