PhD jury in Paris

Just came back from a quick trip to Paris where I was a member of a PhD jury for Jan Eilhard. A great exprience. In many ways the Finns could learn from the process.

I arrived on Friday afternoon flight and took a RER to the hotel. The thesis was waiting in the lobby. Picked it up and headed to the university defense hall. It started curiously at 4:30PM, on a day which was a public holiday as well.

Upon arrival, I had no idea what was expected from me. I had submitted a 2-page report on the thesis one month beforehand. It turns our I am “rapporteur” together with Marc. Two Erics go with the title “examinateur.” So the Erics are the main opponents, I ask? No, you and Eric are what is needed, Francois responds. So you have a 10-15 minutes prepared speech, and you go first, ok? Okay…

Jan went off with a half an hour presentation of what he had done. The set went great and my commentary fit well with the others. The thesis was very good so the task was easy, and the whole event relaxed. Every jury member commented in turn. Supervisor Francois was the last one, and his comments were nice and personal. After two hours the candidate and audience left the room, the the jury discussed a final statement and signed PhD approval papers. People were called in. We went all to the stage and Marc gave the final asseesment. The candidate walked out as a PhD and served champagne to everyone. No Finnish post-process is expected.

We need a Ralph Nader for IP

I visited Rovaniemi over the weekend for another academic seminar. James Love — who started already in the 1970s as Ralph Nader’s aide — gave an energetic keynote on global intellectual property policy. Love knew practically everything about his subject…. thus I was left just wondering why the message does not sink in. Why there is so little if any impact on policy makers. Not from academics calling for balance or user rights, granted. But not even from experienced lobbyists like Love – except for a few hacks, as he called them. He remains a critic, an underdog. Why?

Perhaps the root of the problem is the ignorance of the general public. While the issues are there, they are not taken seriously because nobody knows about them.

Consumer rights were there but became real only after championed by Nader. Unsafe at Any Speed. Same goes for global warming. Al Gore and Inconvenient Truth. Who would take the role of star speaker for consumer interest IP? Love offered Stallman and Lessig but I had reservations for both.

A problem wih the current talks is always that the substance is broken into pieces. A separate hack here or there. You need good examples, but who would nail down the red line?

Biznes, part II

I wrote about my business ventures three months ago. Things move quickly. The list looks now as follows:

  • NTFS-3G, an innovative open source start-up providing plug & play Windows file system interoperability for consumer electronics and other embedded systems.
  • DJ Online, the online music distribution system that last month closed a round from private investors and is now selling like bananas.

Other plans are more or less on hold.

Microsoft talks open source

It used to be that Microsoft and open source did not fit in the same sentence. Or they were the opposites.

I’m posting this from a Microsoft sponsored open source event. One Microsoft manager just said that positive feedback is what they need. They want positive feedback from open source developers. They want to change their image. They have open source partnerships and interoperability programs running.

Why the change? Larry Augustin provided an interesting thought. In the 1980s the safe bet was IBM. Nobody got fired for buying IBM. In the 1990s it was Microsoft. Nobody got fired for buying Microsoft. And now the safe bet is open source. Nobody gets fired for buying open source. And according to Augustin, Microsoft would like to still claim the same…

Biznes

Here’s a list of startup-things I’m pretty much involved in at the moment, in no particular order:

  • Open Source License Checker — something started already years ago at our university, now we are trying to turn it into a company
  • DJ Online — a patented online music distribution system, which is a complete product used already by tens of bars and restaurants, and now needs just sales, sales and sales!
  • “Grill Barbeque” — a project without a real name; we try to launch a new fast-food chain

There are also some other ongoing things that could turn into a start-up or me joining them in the near future.