Schneier Makes Uncorroborated Claims About Google Hack

Bruce Schneier has built a successful career as a computer security guru – one who gets it right most of the time and has a wonderful ability to translate security concerns to the layman. But sometimes an author's great reputation makes him less likely to criticize his own work, and the editorial staff of whatever media organization he happens to be writing for, in this case CNN, lazy.

So when Bruce Schneier asserts that Chinese hackers exploited a government-mandated backdoor to abscond with information on human rights activists, you kind of take it for granted that there is, in fact, a back door that they exploited. Except when there's not. Or there might be, but Schneier unfortunately offers few facts and cites no sources, and I haven't found any other report to corroborate his assertion.

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- Schneier Makes Uncorroborated Claims About Google Hack (view on Google Sidewiki)

Crazy Google Kids at it Again with Chrome OS

Google kicked off the launch of its Chromium OS project today with a presentation on Chrome OS. The first thing you'll notice is that the name of Google's consumer product will be Chrome OS, while the open source project is named Chromium OS. My guess: Google will bless the usage of the Chrome OS name by granting trademark rights to those who comply with Google's standards. Google didn't say that, but that's what I would do.

The next thing I noticed is that Chrome OS will be completely "cloud-based". As in, no local data. As in, all web apps all the time. As in, it's only useful to the extent that there's an internet connection. This will likely prove to be a Google Rohrschach test. Those already predisposed to disliking anything Google does will find this horrifying. Those who think Google is the bee's knees will conclude that it's not completely evil and, indeed, is the next logical evolution of desktops-in-the-cloud technology.

in reference to: Crazy Google Kids at it Again with Chrome OS (view on Google Sidewiki)

OStatic: Is the Symbian Foundation DOA?

When Nokia announced that it was launching the Symbian Foundation to great fanfare, it had within its grasp that rarest of opportunities to move swiftly and become the dominant open source mobile platform. Alas, just one and a half years later, they have seemingly ceded that position to Android. Instead of recognizing the threat from Android and making strategic changes to counter, they instead criticized Google's closed-door development of Android before releasing a line of code themselves. When criticizing competitors, it helps to have your own house in order first.

in reference to: Is the Symbian Foundation DOA? (view on Google Sidewiki)

The Google Open Source Program Office - A Model to Emulate?

At a recent SDForum event, I was doing my usual schtick about communities, when I happened to mention one of my recent thoughts: that Google's Open Source Program Office kicks major ass. I can think of no other company that has merged marketing, PR, real code, real community events, and real *stuff* that geeks find enthralling as cohesively as Google. It seems to me, as an outsider, to be an almost perfect blend of how you develop community and derive real value from it. And as I always like to point out - in order to do that, you must first give your community real value. Google seems particularly good at both giving and getting value. Better, in fact, than anyone else.

And yet, you would have thought that the audience were a collection of cows staring at a newly-installed gate. Crickets chirped. And then I heard some push-back:

They do it for recruiting!

Well, yes, this is true. But then, I didn't say they were altruistic, but rather that they knew what they were doing with respect to community development. They invest in communities, many of them related to Open Source, and this devotion to community helps them tremendously. It helps them when they launch a new set of services, because the communities they target will no doubt be the early adopters. It helps when Google launches a new platform, such as Android, because their communities will be the source of a great number of hackers who will enjoy bending Android to their will.

As is often the case, whenever I say something that meets with any sort of vehement disagreement, I obsess over why my view differs so greatly from those whose opinions I normally agree with. So, expect to see more posts as I dive more deeply into this issue. It also helps that this happens to coincide with the latest installment of the Google Summer of Code.