What Google Wants

Google’s operating system project is probably the search giant’s most forceful attempt to hasten the end of the operating system era | IslamOnline.net

Technology rumor sites, and probably everybody else, were caught off guard. Google, which is the subject of an ever-revolving rumor mill, announced last Tuesday that it’s working on an operating system, dubbed Chrome OS.

And that was a surprise. After all, it’s no secret that Google has been working to elevate the web browser to be the center of users’ interaction with information. Whether you wanted to compose a formal letter or share your photos with family, Google made sure that a web browser (and a Google account) would suffice.

Web 2.0 Can Benefit the Poor

New web applications can benefit the world's poor, argue Waleed al-Shobakky and Jack Imsdahl | Science and Development Network

The term 'Web 2.0' captures the transition of the worldwide web from flat websites offering static information to a new computing platform independent of earlier shackles.

The applications available include web-based word processors and spreadsheets such as gOffice or ThinkFree, online calendars like Kiko and backup services such as that provided by Mozy. Most of these also offer free storage space, acting as a kind of virtual hard disk for saving files.

PCs for the Poor: As Good As Their Hype?

Technologists are at odds over how to bridge the digital divide.  What one group calls the ultimate solution, another dismisses as "the scam of the century," reports Waleed al-Shobakky | SciDev.Net

At the 2005 World Economic Forum in Switzerland a soft-spoken academic made an announcement that sent seismic waves across the computer industry. Nicholas Negroponte, then director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, spoke of making laptops available at US$100 for schoolchildren in developing nations.

The price was not the only big news. Negroponte named companies that had agreed to collaborate on what would become the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.

Maths for the masses

A partnership between UNESCO and a leading software company is introducing a new and affordable approach to mathematics teaching in Arab states, reports Waleed al-Shobakky | Science and Development Network

Teaching mathematics is a problem in both the developing and developed worlds. In North America, educators complain that even high-achieving students lack a good grasp of some basic mathematical concepts. The situation is even worse in the Arab region, according to the Arab Human Development Report 2003. 

The report, Building a Knowledge Society, emphasised the need for quality education, particularly in science and maths — areas that could help the lagging region move forward and catch up with developed nations.

But apparently, when it comes to maths, people lose their enthusiasm for learning. 

The puzzling success of open source

Against many economic, production and social norms, open-source software has emerged as a serious challenger to proprietary software products. Steven Weber’s new book comprehensively tells the story | IslamOnline.net

You perhaps consider, as I do, Titanic and Lord of the Rings as cinematic marvels. The special effects of both movies were made on machines running the Linux operating system; the most famous of open-source software products. And, notably, some of the world’s most celebrated commercial and non-commercial institutions are running their daily operations on Linux-mounted machines—including Google, Amazon, Reuters, Merrill Lynch, DreamWorks, the American Departments of Defense and Energy and the National Security Agency in the US. What is it in open-source software that has made it such a success?

Steven Weber’s book, “The Success of Open Source“, attempts to explain how the open-source software development process emerged, what factors make it work and what knowledge we can discern that can be applied in other, completely different arenas.