Jan Coomans in Ghana

Today a remarkable man, and my beloved uncle, Jan Coomans died of the effects of pneumonia. He will be missed. Rest in peace.

[youtube width="640" height="385"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zd_khk6zXo[/youtube]

This brings an end to a 20 month period during which Xoops Foundation LLC made false accusations, legal threats, used aggressive slander campaigns and harassed me and my family. This had direct consequences for my friends and employers, as my reputation was actively being attacked by Xoops Foundation LLC.
The Court dismissed all claims Michael Beck (aka Mamba) made in the name of Xoops Foundation LLC, using nothing more than logic and common sense.

Not created to represent the XOOPS community

Xoops Foundation LLC claimed that in this case, they (legally) represented the XOOPS community. To back this claim, they produced three (yes, 3) signed letters from people claiming they’re active in the XOOPS community (which means they’re volunteers), and that they support Xoops Foundation LLC’s lawsuit. The online petition was dismissed altogether by the Court as irrelevant -anyone can produce a list of names.

Xoops Foundation LLC further claimed that their representation of the XOOPS community is similar to that of the Dutch Consumentenbond (Consumer Union), who had success in other legal disputes with legally representing its members (people who pay for a membership). Xoops Foundation LLC claimed this suit was a Class Action suit by the whole XOOPS community.
The Court dismissed the Class Action suit claim. Legally, a class action suit can only be started by an organization that actually represents its representee’s interests, both in its statutes and articles of incorporation, and in practice. The three letters of support do not impress the Court. In fact, the Court can’t find any claim of Xoops Foundation LLC’s representing the interests of the XOOPS community in its own Articles of Incorporation. In other words: Xoops Foundation LLC was not created to represent the XOOPS community.

I personally think that legal representation of ‘the XOOPS community’ is a farce. First of all, who are ‘the XOOPS community’? All registered accounts on the xoops.org website? Then what about the Spanish, Russian, French, Japanese, Chinese, German and Dutch XOOPS support websites? All registered accounts on those websites as well? If you go by the open and inclusive spirit in the open source world, anyone who uses, has used, developed anything on or with, or derived anything on the software labelled XOOPS and licensed under the GPL, is part of ‘the XOOPS community’. ‘The XOOPS Community’ must be huge, spread over the entire globe, completely undefined and certainly unorganized.
Fact is that only three (yes, 3) members of that enormous international XOOPS community- actively agreed to having Xoops Foundation LLC legally represent their interests. The rest of the international community did not sign for that mandate when they signed up, nor when they already were members of that community.

And what are that XOOPS Community’s interests anyway? Normally, where representation of interests in any form or shape is required, a form of democracy is created to facilitate the difficult process of consensus and shaping of collective interests. ‘The collective’ is not the same as ‘the sum of all’ or ‘the voice that cries loudest’, but embodies ‘the Greater Good’, that which is best for the group. A collective is not necessarily the same as an open source software community.
The way I see it, Xoops Foundation LLC seems to be created to put pressure on myself and Stichting XOOPS to get to the funds I helped organize for the Stichting, and loudly proclaiming that this is in the best interest of the XOOPS Community. Where is the democratic process that decides on what is best for ‘the XOOPS Community’ in its entirety? How is Xoops Foundation LLC governed and controlled by that XOOPS Community?
When I asked Xoops Foundation LLC for that information, I got no answer.

Stichting XOOPS was created in 2004 to support the open source use and development of the XOOPS software, under the terms of the GNU GPL. Nowhere in the Statutes of the Stichting XOOPS will you find any exclusive relationship to any specific part of the XOOPS community. This is done on purpose, as the Stichting was not created to govern any part of the XOOPS community, but to support the open source use and development of the software. This is further explained in the XOOPS Foundation Manifesto, written by the board members of Stichting XOOPS in 2008, where the English development project hosted on the xoops.org websites and the undefinable international community of volunteers, users, developers and supporters, and the Stichting itself, each have a specific role and place.
It is a sad thing that Xoops Foundation LLC tried to claim the XOOPS Foundation Manifesto as one of its own works -so much for openness and sharing- in the case productions. But Xoops Foundation LLC was created in 2009, a full year after the publication of the draft of the Manifesto (it never was finalized as a common governance model for XOOPS). To add to the confusion, later on in Xoops Foundation LLC’s Conclusion of Reply they claim the Manifesto is written by the Stichting and shows that there is a relationship between the project and the foundation. They clearly failed to grasp the concept written down so well in the Manifesto.

The XOOPS Community are intelligent people

Next, the Court dismissed Xoops Foundation LLC’s claim that they are the exclusive not-for-profit organization for XOOPS -and that because of that all assets belonging to Stichting XOOPS should be transferred to Xoops Foundation LLC.
The Court deems the XOOPS Community intelligent people, who can decide for themselves which non-profit organization they will donate their money (or anything else, for that matter) to. Furthermore, it is up to each individual organization to decide how to spend the donations, as it sees fit.

Stichting XOOPS was created to support the open source use and development of the XOOPS system under the terms of the GNU GPL. The license that dictates the terms of the distribution of the code of the XOOPS system states that nobody can put any limitations on how anyone (re)uses that code, including changing the terms of the license. This is the spirit of open source: do not limit how anyone uses the collective work. The GPL does not transfer all copyrights of the (code) author to any central organization. All it does -and its power is in its simplicity- is give everyone a non-revocable, everlasting right to use the code as you see fit. That is what open source means.
So I do not see how any organization can claim property rights of anything created by anyone else in the spirit of open source. I feel that that just goes against the spirit of true openness, one of the foundations (no pun intended) of the open source movement. So if Xoops Foundation LLC claims to work in the spirit of open source, they are proving themselves wrong in this case. It may even be in direct violation of their Articles of Incorporation -and as such, should be held accountable. But by whom? Who has the authority to hold the board of Xoops Foundation LLC accountable for their actions?
Again, when I asked Xoops Foundation LLC this very question, they refused to answer.

This whole claim of a legal commitment from Stichting XOOPS to Xoops Foundation LLC defies logic. First of all, Stichting XOOPS was founded in 2004. Xoops Foundation LLC in 2009. There simply was no Xoops Foundation LLC to commit any rights of ownership to when Stichting XOOPS’ statutes were written.
Secondly, how would creating a legal entity such as Xoops Foundation LLC in another country, with similar goals, mean that legal ownership of assets is automatically transferred to that newly created organization? If I created a ‘Planet Wildlife Foundation’ here in the Netherlands, and give it similar goals as the WWF, would that entitle my newly formed organization to any and all assets of the WWF? Of course not! Anyone can understand that by that example. Why would it be any different in the case of Stichting XOOPS and Xoops Foundation LLC? The Court saw right through the claim and dismissed it.
It gets stranger still: Xoops Foundation LLC claimed that because I researched if it were possible and sensible to create a US-based Foundation before we founded it here in The Netherlands, Xoops Foundation LLC, being actually based in the United States, is the One True Foundation. All this strikes me as extremely far-fetched, illogical and just plain dumb.

Free as in Freedom

Finally, the Court dismissed Xoops Foundation LLC’s claim that by selling the xoops.com domain -which they claim is not even my personal property- to Stichting XOOPS for 4.000 euro means that I embezzled money -which they claim is theirs anyway- from Stichting XOOPS for private use.
The Court states that I clearly proved that I acquired the xoops.com domain as a personal asset and not as a representative of the XOOPS community. Xoops Foundation LLC failed to prove that they are legally entitled to the xoops.com domain. Stichting XOOPS is in its right to acquire the domain for any sum it deems fit, so the Court did not see any legal obligations for this transaction. So it dismissed the claim.

This claim hurt me the most. Practically, as this was the main argument to have my personal and the Stichting bank accounts (including the household account my wife and I use) frozen and seized for the amount of 25.000 euro’s. This means a whole lot of reorganization, plus a huge amount of hassle. But maybe more so emotionally, as now my wife was a victim of this suit too. And the accusation itself is harsh too: I would have stolen money from them! And this accusation was made in public too, something being picked up by popular media here in The Netherlands. My reputation was under attack, and my defense was only in court. I don’t know if you know what it means to be accused of something you didn’t do in public, but it hurts. A lot. I had sleepless nights because of this. So did my wife. And I has to inform my employers, as it was my full name they published everywhere. Suddenly it wasn’t just me fighting a battle in the virtual world -how sad and bad it may be in its own right- now it was my family, friends, my employer and my reputation that was under attack.
And for what?
I bought the xoops.com domain before Stichting XOOPS was created. So I couldn’t have bought it on its behalf. At the time, I was an active volunteer on the xoops.org website, managing some aspects of the community there. I called myself the XOOPS.org project manager. But all I was -all everyone who donates time and other resources on xoops.org is, is a volunteer. Should that mean that everything I do goes to the community (and as Xoops Foundation LLC claims, its legal representative)?
Of course not. The Open Source business model is built around the concept of Free Software. Apparently Xoops Foundation LLC thinks that it means that I am legally bound to give all my resources away for free, as in gratis. But as most of you know, the ‘free’ in Free Software stands for Freedom. As in Freedom of Speech. As in Freedom to do with my resources what I want to do with them. Be it make them available for use in a common pool -such as a community- or not. This Freedom is what powers Open Source Software development. It is what makes it great: open and free. Who are Xoops Foundation LLC to take away that freedom?

One last thing. What Xoops Foundation LLC fails to communicate about the (legally valid) transaction of the xoops.com domain from my personal to the Stichting’s assets, is that I had the domain valued by three (yes, 3) different independent domain valuating services. The lowest value of xoops.com was $6.500, the highest $14.000. The 4.000 euro -which translates to about $5.500 is below xoops.com’s market value. And now the xoops.com domain can be used by Stichting XOOPS to support the open source use and development of the XOOPS system under the terms of the GNU GPL.
One way to look at it, is that I donated $1.000 to $8.500 to the Stichting. If it now decides to sell it for its real market value, it’d have made a hell of a deal for the support of the open source use and development of the XOOPS system. And isn’t that what the XOOPS Community is all about?

Met dit vonnis is een einde gekomen aan een nare zaak, waarin ik door Michael Beck (alias Mamba) valselijk ben beschuldigd van diefstal, heling en fraude. De zaken waarvan hij mij beschuldigde, en vooral de motivatie en de manier waarop dit hele proces zicht heeft afgespeeld, druist zo in tegen de geest van het open source ontwikkelen van software, dat het een nare, agressieve smaak heeft gekregen.

Belangenbehartiging

Zo claimt Xoops Foundation LLC dat zij de hele (internationale, wereldwijde) XOOPS gemeenschap juridisch vertegenwoordigt. Ze vergelijken zichzelf met de Consumentenbond, om zo helder te maken dat zij namens alle XOOPS gebruikers, ontwikkelaars, testers, ondersteuners, enzovoorts spreken. Echter, in de articles of incorporation die zij de rechtbank stuurde staat nergens vermeld dat Xoops Foundation LLC belangen van wie dan ook behartigt. De rechtbank heeft die claim dan ook verworpen, waardoor Xoops Foundation LLC ontmaskerd is als een partij die alleen haar eigen belang behartigt.

Het is sowieso vreemd dat een partij die door een paar mensen is opgericht ergens begin 2009, zomaar stelt de juridische belangen te behartigen van meer dan 75.000 mensen die zich over de hele wereld verspreid als vrijwilligers en gebruikers bezig houden met XOOPS. Ik ben nog steeds lid van meerdere XOOPS websites, en dus lid van de ‘XOOPS Community’, maar ik heb nergens mijn akkoord gegeven voor het feit dat zij  mijn belang behartigen.
Het is sowieso erg lastig om het belang van de XOOPS gemeenschap te definiëren -laat staan deze juridisch te vertegenwoordigen. De banden die iedereen heeft met het product XOOPS zijn zo divers, dat er nauwelijks een eenduidig belang te vinden zal zijn.
Sterker nog, omdat XOOPS onder de voorwaarden van de GPL licentie is vrijgegeven, wordt iedereen juist belangeloos lid van de XOOPS gemeenschap. Een ieder mag immers voor elk doel alles met het product doen -zonder toestemming vooraf van wie dan ook.

Xoops Foundation LLC is hierin dan ook zijn boekje te buiten gegaan, en heeft zich veel meer macht toegekend dan dat zij eigenlijk in de praktijk -en volgens de rechtbank ook juridisch- mogen veroorloven.

Mi casa es su casa

De tweede eis van Xoops Foundation LLC gaat nog veel verder, en toont de ware aard van het beest. Zij stellen namelijk dat alles dat door het werk van de Stichting XOOPS en mijzelf in de loop der jaren is verzameld als eigendommen van de Stichting en mijn privébezit dat met XOOPS te maken heeft, aan hen toe komt.

Met andere woorden: alles dat iedereen (bedrijven, vrijwilligers en leden van ‘de XOOPS gemeenschap’) aan waarde genereert voor de XOOPS gemeenschap, wordt automatisch juridisch eigendom van Xoops Foundation LLC. En op dat moment verliest de vorige eigenaar alle zeggenschap over wat daar mee gebeurt, en heeft Xoops Foundation LLC het alleenrecht.

Die claim is een frontale aanval op open source software ontwikkeling. Dat is namelijk gebaseerd op vrij(willig) delen. Maar het auteursrecht op alles dat in de gemeenschap gemaakt en gedeeld wordt blijft bij de originele auteur. De GPL licentie zorgt er juist voor dat er een eeuwigdurend, niet in te trekken gebruiksrecht gegeven wordt door de originele auteur. Het auteursrecht wordt niet overgedragen -althans zeker niet bij XOOPS.

Xoops Foundation LLC handelt daarmee direct in strijd met de GPL. En niemand lijkt dat door te hebben.

De rechter heeft het echter wel door. Hij stelt dat Xoops Foundation LLC niet heeft gemotiveerd dat er afspraken zijn waaruit voort zou vloeien dat de bezittingen van Stichting XOOPS en mijn privébezit aan hen toe zou moeten komen. Die eis is dus ook afgewezen.

Géén zelfverrijking

Tenslotte de meest nare beschuldiging die Xoops Foundation LLC aan mij persoonlijk heeft gericht: dat ik geld uit Stichting XOOPS heb gehaald voor privédoeleinden. De rechtbank maakt korte metten met die beschuldiging, daar elk bewijs ontbreekt. Het gaat hier om de xoops.com domeinnaam die ik (aantoonbaar) als privébezit heb aangekocht, en aan de Stichting XOOPS heb verkocht, zodat deze in de inboedel van de Stichting terecht zou komen. De beschuldigingen vloeien voort uit het feit dat ik enig bestuurder was van Stichting XOOPS ten tijde van de transactie, waardoor ik de domeinnaam ogenschijnlijk aan mijzelf verkocht. De rechtbank acht die transactie rechtmatig, gemotiveerd en legaal. En daarmee is ook die kous af.

Eind aan bizarre periode

Ik hoop dat hiermee een eind is gekomen aan een bizarre periode in mijn leven. De impact op je leven als je valselijk beschuldigd wordt van wat dan ook is enorm, zeker als daar beslagleggingen, bodemprocedures, mediacampagnes en laster aan vast zitten. Je kunt je er nauwelijks tegen verdedigen, de publieke opinie lijkt zich snel en makkelijk tegen je te keren.

Gelukkig gaat de rechtbank hier niet in mee, en houdt die haar hoofd koel. Daarmee zijn de beschuldigingen zo makkelijk te weerleggen, dat ze bijna belachelijk lijken.

En ik hoop dat Xoops Foundation LLC de wijsheid krijgt om haar fouten in te zien, en haar verontschuldigingen aanbiedt. Ik denk dat de XOOPS gemeenschap dat wel heeft verdiend.

Henny stelt in zijn bericht:

Ik ben 15 jaar dagbladjournalist geweest bij het Leidsch en Haarlems Dagblad. In de jaren 80 werd er in Leiden een stevig politiek debat gevoerd over de vraag of er op een fietspad naar zo’n fout aangelegde nieuwbouwwijk – een beetje de Leidse Bijlmer – een videocamera mocht worden opgehangen. Vrouwen op dat fietspad werden met enige regelmaat lastiggevallen. Het antwoord van de politiek toen was nee. De privacy van de burger was belangrijker. Er werd gekozen voor stevig snoeien van de struiken, een betere surveillance van de politie en meer straatverlichting.

Nu zouden we in schamper lachen uitbarsten als de politiek een dergelijk besluit zou nemen. Maar het resultaat was verrassend positief. Gedurende vele jaren werd op die plek in Leiden niemand lastiggevallen.

Het antwoord vandaag zou echter meer camera’s zijn. Sterker nog, het antwoord van de laatste jaren is meer camera’s. In Londen word je gemiddeld per dag 3.500 keer gefilmd. In Nederland zal het niet anders zijn. Door je mobiele telefoon kan de overheid vrij simpel uitzoeken tot op vijf meter waar ik nu ben. Dankzij de OV-chipkaart weet de overheid exact welke routes ik per openbaar vervoer neem. En dat ik nooit de bus neem, omdat ik dat zo’n rotvervoermiddel vind.

Dankzij het vastleggen van telefoongegevens en het scannen van emailverkeer kan precies worden vastgesteld met wie ik communiceer en waarover. Om het allemaal compleet te maken worden binnenkort mijn vingerafdrukken genomen als ik mijn paspoort ga vernieuwen. En er zijn al mensen die pleiten voor het afnemen van DNA zodat bij misdrijven voortaan de daders vanachter de databank kunnen worden opgespoord.

En de politici die al deze maatregelen hebben bedacht, die politici  bezweren dat nooit iemand misbruik van al deze gegevens zullen maken.

Gelooft u het?

Ik ben het hier niet (helemaal) mee eens.

Privacy is geen objectief gegeven, maar subjectief, ervaren, gevoeld. Het heeft alles te maken met vertrouwen, en iets met risico’s. En eigenlijk ook niet zo heel veel meer met de overheid als Big Brother. Voorbeeld: in Scandinavië is het gebruiken van het persoonsnummer niet beperkt tot de overheid, maar mogen ook private partijen in binnen- en buitenland daar gebruik van maken. Zo wordt daar het écht zaakgericht werken ingevoerd, en wordt actief informatie gedeeld door allerlei partijen. Waarom zou de bank niet gebruik maken van het unieke nummer dat aan mij is gekoppeld? In Frankrijk en Engeland is dat anders: daar is het juridisch zelfs onmogelijk om tot een uniek nummer voor elke inwoner te komen. Vanwege de angst voor misbruik.

Maar tegelijkertijd laten we onze boodschappen registreren door AH met behulp van de Bonuskaart. En is de OV-chipkaart eigenlijk geen overheidsinitiatief, maar van de gezamenlijke vervoersbedrijven (vaak buitenlands!), om zo een eerlijker verdeling van hun private middelen te organiseren. En is het voor Google tegenwoordig een peulenschil om een heel uitgebreid profiel van al haar geregistreerde gebruikers op te stellen, dankzij iGoogle (alle zoekopdrachten worden 9 maanden bewaard en uitgebreid geanalyseerd!), Google Analytics (van honderduizenden websites weet Google precies wie waar op klikt), en gmail (alle berichten worden zogenaamd anoniem geanalyseerd). De telco’s bewaren de lokatiegegevens al lang, en verkoopt die weer aan derden (TomTom gebruikt Vodafone lokatiedata voor fileinformatie).

En daar vertrouwen we met zijn allen blindelings op, terwijl er geen (democratisch of anderszins) mechanisme is om te controleren of zelfs te beinvloeden hoe die gegevens gebruikt gaan worden. Of waar ze opgeslagen worden. Of dat ik er zelf nog iets mee kan doen. Of zelfs toegang krijg tot mijn data. Er mag dan wel een kloof zijn tussen burgers en overheid, maar dat is voornamelijk een belevingskloof. Want feitelijk is de afstand tussen ons burgers en Google bijvoorbeeld vele malen groter.

Big Brother leeft. Maar hij is geen ambtenaar.

Apple has a nice track record for shaking up entire industries by introducing new devices. It changed the way we buy and consume music with the iPod (arguably not the best music player in the field, and not the first either), it changed the mobile phone industry with the introduction of the iPhone (same here, probably not the best smartphone out there, nor the first). The core of the success of these devices wasn’t the device itself, but the way it made accessing and using content easier and more enjoyable. I think we will see a repetition of this strategy later today.

My prediction: the Apple Tablet will shake the media publishing industry to its roots. And that is what the device will be aimed at: consuming rich content.

Just look at this concept movie Time Inc. made last year, and see how this affects the way you consume your favorite magazines and newspapers. Heck, just based on that concept movie alone I’d be willing to pay for subscriptions for rich media content.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntyXvLnxyXk[/youtube]

Now, if Time Inc. makes the content of it’s flagship publications available to be consumed as shown on a device like that, and others (like McGraw Hill, The NYT, Washington Post) follow it’s example, now that would make a device interesting to use.

Sure, I have a MacBook and an Iphone, so why should I want such a device? The answer is in it’s main strength: accessing rich content. And why would publishers enrich their content, basically cannibalizing on their paper publications? Because in-app purchases and content subscriptions for this kind of rich media is the future. You need a MacBook to effectively edit and create content, and an iPhone to access it from your pocket. But to get the maximum (and optimized) rich experience, you’ll need the Mac Tablet.

Now on the iPhone you can get apps for watching missed episodes of TV shows, news channels, newspaper articles, etc. This device will be the platform to access the content I want, when I want, how I want. It’ll be a new revolution, as Time Inc. and McGraw-Hill and the NYT are just the beginning.

What if Amazon.com comes with an app for the Mac Tablet that does exactly what the Kindle does, and more? If this opens up the Amazon Store to a larger audience, with the ease of use we’ve come to expect from Apple’s user interface (as opposed to the Kindle’s UI), this will drive sales for Amazon, making the Kindle less important for them. But that’s what this revolution is all about: content content content.

And because this is an Apple device, it’ll look great, and it’ll be ultra-usable. But it’s not about the device itself, but about the platform it will represent: a new era for media publishing.

So what is this prediction worth? Absolutely nothing. I have no inside information, don’t read all the blogs all the time or just came back from the future. But to me, it makes sense. It fits Apple’s previous strategies to introduce a device with the great ways to use it for something special, not about the specs of the device itself. But this’ll stand or fall with the content publishers. But as you can see from mr. McGraw, they’re as excited as I am.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxXIrdN6Wsc[/youtube]

A resolution for 2010

I joined Project 52, which is a personal challenge geared toward getting fresh content on your website. The goal is to write at least 1 new article per week for 1 year. Because we all know what it‘s like to procrastinate on our content. A website is not just a fresh design that can be uploaded to the web and forgotten about!.

Writing once a week (at least) shouldn’t have to present a serious problem to me, I have a lot of ideas for topics to write about. The problem will be to convert hose ideas into readable and enjoyable posts. This post is the first for my project52 series so please let me know what you like and dislike about my writing style.

Anyways, back to the topic. 2010 is a few hours old and I thought it’d be a good start to give my wishlist for this year. And just to be clear, it’s not a list of things I want other people to do for me, but things I want to achieve myself (with or without help from everyone, of course).

People I want to meet in person

In 2010, I want to have a decent conversation with some of the most inspiring people I know. In real life, face to face. So, I have to find ways to meet them in person.

First of all, I’d like to finally have that talk with Moly Holzschlag, web standards guru extraordinaire. In 2009 I had a decent conversation over e-mail and an even better one over Skype, we Twittered a bit here and there. But 2009 was mainly the year of missed chances -where us meeting up is concerned. First was a date we had scheduled in April in London, where she was to talk at the FOWD conference, and my wife and I were enjoying a city trip together. We were supposed to meet over a genuine English High Tea at a classy hotel, but Molly sprained her ankle and sadly wasn’t able to join us.

Then, in november, Molly was headlining the 2009 Fronteers conference in Amsterdam. As a volunteer helping out at the conference, I was invited to join the speakers at the speakers dinner. And lo and behold, Molly was there too! We finally got to meet face to face. But because of some drama over at Opera (with a company called Opera, there’s bound to be drama, isn’t there?) she just had to sit on my seat next to David Storey and Andreas Bovens (and for the record, there wasn’t any real drama over at Opera, but with a company called Opera, that’s bound to be an exception, right?). So we didn’t get a chance to really speak. But  since the conference was the next two days, and she’d be in Amsterdam for another few days after that, we thought we’d get our chance. But Molly’s back hurt a lot after she tried to lift a laundry basket and epically failed, and she was bedridden for -you’ve guessed correctly- until her flight home. I was on my way to Amsterdam to meet her in her appartment when she cancelled. So that was the third time lucky.

So, in 2010, I want to have that talk with her. She’s an expert, a guru, and an inspirational person, and very nice to boot -I think.

But this wouldn’t be a wishlist if I didn’t set the bar even higher. Having a meaningful conversation with one of the worlds leading standardista’s isn’t enough. I want to meet the Godfathers of Webstandards: Don Jeffrey Zeldman and Don Eric A. Meyer. I haven’t been in contact with them in 2009, so I have nothing to build on. But that’s what challenges are all about, aren’t they?

Books I hope to finish reading

I have a disability. It’s probably a mental one. I can’t just read one book and finish it. There’s always two or three books I’m reading at the same time. Some books I finish, but not all of them. So, my wishlist is about books I’d like to finish in 2010.

Designing with Web Standards, 3rd edition, by Jeffrey Zeldman and Ethan Marcotte. This book explains why any website designer should work with web standards.

The Smashing Book, by various authors. Smashing Magazine became one of the web’s most influential web design and -development magazines, and this book has chapters written by some of the emerging experts.

Developer Evangelism, by Christian Heilmann. Chris Heilmann is Yahoo’s developer evangelist, a gifted speaker and a passionate man about all things web. His book should be overflowing with inspiration for my own web standards evangelism goals (more on those in later posts).

And these aren’t books, but DVD’s, but I’ll add them here anyway: Designing with CSS and Designing Web Accessibility, by For A Beautiful Web’s Andy Clarke. I got ‘em both on DVD.

Skills I’d like to learn

Well, this is where it gets challenging for real. I don’t want to learn these skills, I want to master them, and skip the learning bit. At least, that’s what I think most of the time. I have a new hypothesis tho: that learning stuff is at least half the fun. If you get past the frustrating first bit of being confronted with lack of skills, that is. But these are the skills I’d like to develop in 2010.

For my work as an e-government consultant I need to be more structured and effective, so I’ll focus my professional development on mindmapping, the GTD method and tools, giving effective presentations to large groups of people, and facilitating creative and effective workshops.

I’d also like to learn more about Web Standards, and specifically by applying them myself. So, I’d like to learn about (x)HTML, CSS, the DOM, accessibility and semantics. And then their cutting edge representations, so HTML5, CSS3 and some basic scripting, as Javascript is a whole new territory for me, and not to be conquered in 2010.

Also, I’d like to learn more about web standards evangelism, and how I can bring across my message to a different and relatively new group of people. But, more on that topic in later posts as well.

Events I’d like to attend

Here’s where the wishful thinking kicks in. And probably some experimenting too. The event I’d like to attend will most likely not be sponsored by my employer, thus making it difficult to raise the funds necessary for me to actually go there. But if you look at my goals for 2010, one of the best places to reach them, is by going to a conference or meeting or workshop or something. So that’s a goal I’m adding as well.

I’d love to go to An Event Apart in 2010. There’ll be 4 of these events, but I hear they’re the best there is on web design and development, so I’d love to go to one of them. How, when, I don’t know yet.

I’d also like to go to @media London, Future of Web Design, SxSWi, or any other web design and development conference, but the AEA is at the top of my list.

And I have to mention Fronteers 2010, the excellent conference organized by the Dutch Fronteers society. I hope to play a small part in organizing it this year! So most likely, there’s more on that in future posts too!

Year of the Challenge

So, it’s quite a year that is ahead of me! So I hereby announce that 2010 will be the Year of the Challenge! Lets make it count.

Award shows on TV keep the best for last in order to keep their audience hostage and their advertisers happy, but the web apparently doesn’t work like that. So,lets get this show on the road!

Album of the Year 2009

The Crimson Wing OST, by TCO

This has got to be the album I’ve listened to most this year -and it is in fact the album I’m listening to as I write this post. It is the truly epic soundtrack to The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos film, a Disney Nature documentary. The music is by the ever awesome The Cinematic Orchestra. Take a look at the trailer to get an idea of what the movie is about.

[youtube width="560" height="340"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23j5r7cJQ5w[/youtube]

If you know of The Cinematic Orchestra, you’ll note that the trailer uses a song from their album Breathe. The song does not feature on the Soundtrack, but it does feature Louise Rhodes, a guest star on the Breathe album and of Lamb fame.

The Crimson Wing soundtrack is written by J. Swincoe, lead man of TCO, who has the full use of the London Metropolitan Orchestra to create a melodramatic, subtle and at times epic soundtrack. The album starts small and fragile with harp, piano and guitar, but with the LMO’s strings and brass sections accompanying them, the tracks get a full body and character.

My favorite track is ‘Transformation‘. I haven’t seen the movie (is hasn’t been released here in the NL), but you can clearly imagine the sun rising, the world waking, and hope flooding the world. The central theme just breathes that ‘everything will be alright now’, culminating into a grand finale worthy of the biggest concert halls.

Tracklist:

1. Opening Titles (2:53)
2. Arrival of the Birds (2:38)
3. The Dance (3:21)
4. Soda (3:11)
5. Hatching (5:12)
6. Marabou (3:56)
7. Exodus (7:17)
8. Transformation (5:16)
9. Hyena (1:49)
10. Life of the Bird (3:33)
11. First Light (4:06)
12. Crimson Skies (Featuring Lou Rhodes) (3:24)

New Discovery of 2009

Please note that this category -this whole post for that matter- is extremely subjective and relative. There’s so much great music out there, this is just what I found and enjoyed. My discovery for 2009 is DJ/producer/singer Ben Westbeech. Mr. Westbeech is from Bristol, UK, a hotbed of creativity, or so I’m told. He’s trained as a cellist and vocalist, and he uses his soulful singing talents during his DJ sets.

Ben Westbeech

I first saw him perform live at the RAW Rhythm festival in Amsterdam, where he was truly giving the festival some needed flavor and spicing things up a bit. His DJ set -sometimes combined with the Jazzanova crew who were scheduled to perform next- was awesome. He played some of his own tracks too, from his album ‘Welcome to the best years of your life’. Ben gave a CD containing his first single “So good today” to a friend in London. Two months later she played it to Gilles Peterson who snapped it up. This led to Ben being signed to Gilles Peterson’s new label, Brownswood Recordings. His debut albumWelcome to the Best Years of Your Life was released in March 2007.

Later this year, he did a set at the Amsterdam Dance Event Strictly Defected (in da house) night over at Club Panama*. His talent is in both truly enjoying himself when spinning the decks, showing a passion for good music and different styles -funk, house, jazz, soul, and using his smooth voice to create an extra dimension to his sets.

For those of you who are into that sort of thing, you can follow him on Twitter as well: @benwestbeech. Keep an eye out for him, as he’s going to get bigger and bigger!

Best Podcast of 2009

Yes, I have an iPod, and an iPhone, and a Mac, so I do listen to podcasts. But choosing the one I liked best in 2009 is going to be difficult, as it’s a close call between 2 excellent podcasts, really. The first is @dennisruyer’s Radio 538 Dance Department podcast.

This is the online version of the leading Dutch radio station Radio 538′s dance music show. It’s been in the iTunes top 10 most downloaded podcasts for quite a while now, which should tell you something of the quality of the music featured on the show. Basically, it showcases some of the best new dance tracks and artists, and is a great show to listen to in just about any circumstance. Dennis has many friends among the world’s top DJ’s and producers, giving him access to many not-yet-released tunes and some of the hottest gossip. But it’s more then that, Dennis is also a gifted DJ and aspiring producer (with his mate Prinsjan), giving the show a great tension buildup and rhythm of its own. This makes almost every show a great show to listen to, with never a dull moment.

The other podcast is the Solid Steel podcast, which is a collaboration between Ninja Tunes‘ DK and Serato, producter of sofware for DJ gear (for anyone who feels the urge to buy me something expensive, please look for their Numark S7 solution -not that I’m any good at DJing, but you’ve got to start somewhere! ). The Solid Steel podcast has some true gems, and some where I go ‘meh’. But the gems make up for all the ‘meh’s. DK is an excellent DJ, who is able to combine hip-hop with drum-and-bass and warm soul and classic jazz. It’s this that makes the Solid Steel shows legendary. Plus, some of Ninja Tunes’ finest have featured on Solid Steel radio making it a great archive for progressive nu-jazz and whatnot.

So, subscribe to both podcasts, now!

Screenshot of the Child Support Ghana homepage

Out with the old

In the old situation, there were three different places you could find new and out-dated information about the various projects and activities. First there was the Wa Yiri Children’s Home website, which I quickly built using the Mambo content management system. This was 2004-2005, and Mambo has matured a lot since those days. I used Mambo mainly because I needed a system that non-web-savvy people could use and publish content. But this turned out not to be such a good choice. The non-web-savvy people were non-Mambo-savvy people too -or better yet, Mambo wasn’t as user-friendly as it lead us to believe. So the information published on the site quickly became outdated and irrelevant.
In february 2005 my dad went to Ghana to find out if he could settle there -at least for a while, maybe even indefinitely- and make a real change. He wanted a weblog to keep everyone informed of his travels, his journeys, his experiences, and as he settled in more, his projects as well. His weblog was dubbed Under African Skies and became the major source of information about the works of Child Support Ghana. This is chiefly due to the fact that my dad could publish all this information, including photo’s, all by himself (he doesn’t have running water or is connected to a sewer system, but he does have an ADSL broadband internet connection -when there’s power…). And this was made possible by the awesome WordPress blogging platform, which has grown in sheer awesomeness ever since those days. Now the new website is powered by WordPress too.
The third site you could find all kinds of information about the project is the Child Support Ghana Foundation website, the main website. This website should have been maintained by the Board and volunteers of the Child Support Ghana. It was also created by me, and I was seen as the person who should keep it up to date. But, since I’m not the best at keeping sites up to date, this didn’t work very well. So this site contained outdated information as well, and as it is part of the official communications of the Child Support Ghana Foundation, this became a growing problem.
The solution was simple.

In with the new

About a year ago, I decided to merge all three websites into one, using the Child Support Ghana domain, where all information is published by those who know it best. I created an information structure based on the available information and topics, and set out to validate that at some of the visitors and users of the websites. It was tweaked a little, and accepted. I based thenew structure as much on the information that wasn’t available, as on the information that was. Thus, I hoped to create a content strategy for the volunteer-driven site, ensuring the publication of compelling and motivating content.
Te new site caters to three different groups of visitors. First and main, it’s targeted at potential sponsors and donators. These are people who support the projects Child Support Ghana executes in Wa, because they feel connected and want to be involved in small and bigger ways. So, the website needed to provide information about the projects and their merits. More so, it needs to sell the projects to draw people into the site, and make them think “something special is going on here, I’d like to learn more about it!”. And for this kind of third world development work, nothing conveys this better then photo’s of the people Child Support is helping out. So on the homepage, I added a photo carrousel (using JonDesign’s excellent SmoothGallery script) with photo’s of the projects.
I also learned that the second best way to sell the projects is to provide authentic content. This means that we’re not hiding the fact that working in the Upper West Region of Ghana is difficult, and that Child Support Ghana is forced to make difficult (sometimes even life-and-death) decisions. By merging Eric’s weblog into the new site, we’re ensured of hundreds of authentic posts filled with experiences and anecdotes of life in Ghana and the work of Child Support Ghana.
Now that we have the visitors attention, we need to make it easy for them to become involved in Child Support Ghana, and donate funds and/or time and effort. Donating funds is easy using the TipIt service, a quick donation via iDeal and/or creditcard is available on each and every page on the site. Since our main audience is based in The Netherlands and Belgium, iDeal and creditcards basically covers the main means of doing online transactions. If people want to participate in other ways, there’s a whole section on how to support Child Support Ghana.
The other group we’re trying to convince to participate on the site is the potential volunteers. These are good people who want to donate their skills and experience and participate in the projects in Wa. This group is really looking for information on the projects, trying to find what their value to those could be. Also, they’re looking for practical info about the life in Ghana, as well as infom on how to get in touch with the people behind Child Support Ghana to see if going there for 6 months is a viable option. We try to provide the necessary info on the site, but I still feel that’s the one area we don’t have enough information -yet.
The third main group is English-speaking/reading visitors. As the success of Child Support Ghana spreads through the news channels of Ghana and other non-BeNeLux countries, the need to provide quality information in English is growing. More and more people and organizations abroad are supporting Child Support Ghana now, so we created a whole new section just for English content.

The new design

A large part of my time and effort went into the redesign of the site. This is because I’m never really satisfied with the quality of my skills and experience to create a really high-end design, but for this site, I tried pushing my limits. First though, I went looking for inspiration, and was awestruck by the beauty and effectiveness of Rob Goodlatte‘s Wiser Girls theme. WISER is also a third world development project, supporting and running a girls school in Africa. The design of the WISER site is stunning. I definitely didn’t want to copy and steal it, but as you can see, a lot of elements from WISER went into the Child Support Ghana site.
Because I didn’t want to copy it, I had to recreate the design. And to complicate things more, I decided to create the theme using the Carrington Blog theme framework for WordPress, created by Crowd Favorite. This framework would allow me to create a flexible and sustainable theme, which is easy to extend and add new template types to. This would make maintaining the site easier.
And to top it all off, as a self-proclaimed webstandards advocate, I had to bring it all together in standards-compliant, semantic markup and stylesheets. Due to the complexity of the Carrington Blog theme, and trying to recreate a look and feel, I’m sure there are many many opportunities to optimise the code I used. But overall, I’m quite happy with the results!

So, please take a look at the site, read through some of the projects, perhaps even read a few blog posts made by my dad, and let me know what you think of the new site!

Day one: start with a bang

The festival started with an early performance by Lamb, one of -if not the most – my favorite bands. Lamb got back together again after they split up 5 years ago to persue other projects (such as Lou starting her own label Infinite Bloom, and singing on two Cinematic Orchestra albums, and Andy doing Hoof and Luna Seeds). But now producer Andy Barlow, singer Lou Rhodes and bassplayer Jon Thorne are touring the festivals again, playing their old songs. We saw them first at the Cactus Festival in Brugges, Belgium a couple of weeks ago, and the basically played the same set.

Lamb live @ RAW Rhythm 2009

Lou Rhodes taking center stage

Lamb used to be 5 people, with Icelandic Oddur Mar Runnarson playing the guitar, and Dane Nikolaj Bjerre as the main percussionist. But now it’s just the three of them on stage.

Lamb had the difficult task to play early in the evening, in the largest venue at the Westergasfabriek, with gorgeous weather outside. By the time they started playing, there were only about a hundred people about. Their audience gradually grew, but they had to work hard to get the positive and energetic vibe they’re famous and loved for.

I especially liked Lou’s singing, her voice has matured over the years and become rock solid and fragile at once. Her voice is a love it or hate it thing, apparently, as a friend who joined us for this performance told us later, her voice annoys him.

And Andy and Jon were their usual energetic selves, with Andy firing up the fans by taking the bongo’s (or whatever these drums are called) to the front stage and soloing a bit.

I loved seeing Lamb perform live again, this must have been our 8th time. And I can’t wait for their live CD/DVD to be released (as their Wikipedia page announces). But in all honesty, their performance was lacking that bit of extra fire, the interaction with the fans and audience, and frankly, the drummer. It made a big difference, but not enough to ruin the performance.

There’s one little anecdote I’d like to share with you all that relates to Lamb. I twittered about the performance, and I got a special kind of reply:

Tweet @Herko Lamb was awesome! As usual @RAWrhythm #RR http://twitpic.com/ca9d6
Reply @Lamb_lover It’s so easy using up roast lamb leftovers, wrapped in foil and kept in the fridge they’re good for two days

Ben Westbeech and Jazzanova

The rest of the evening were dedicated to walking from one hall to another, finding some good tunes to dance to. Ducth rappers Zwart Licht were able to get the crowds going crazy in an instant, but that was just loud noise. Ryan Leslie was a slick smooth talker with a good show on the main stage, and Dizzee Rascal was ok, but not my kind of music. Nneka was great, she has a voice like a real soul diva. And then we came to Ben Westbeech.

Westbeech is a producer/singer/DJ from Giles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings label. His was a DJ set with vocals. Jazzanova was there to tweak some knobs as well, apparently they know eachother and have worked together for a bit. But Westbeec clearly wanted to have a good time. He played an impressive set of funk, soul, house, hip-hop and sang in some of those tunes as well. There weren’t many people in the audience at first (Dizzee Rascal was performing on the main stage), but as the set continued, the dancefloor filled up nicely.

Ben Westbeech + flutist @RAW Rhythm

Ben Westbeech & Jazzanova

Ben Westbeech (photo @arnecoomans)

And thus ended day one of the RAW Rhythm festival 2009. The old Drum Rhythm vibe was there, the quality of the artists was high, the food was good and the weather was too.

Day two: not so much

The second day of RAW Rhythm started with us getting more bracelets, as the photographers and crew bracelets we got yesterday apparently didn’t cut it for today. So now we got a new photo bracelet, and uniquely a backstage access bracelet. We looked kinda like a freakshow with all those tags, if you ask me.

Tagged

This second day was main sponsor G-Star RAW Denim’s day, apparently. They held a ‘private’ party, inviting a bunch of ‘celebs and babes’ as my brother put it. This meant that there were a lot of people there who didn’t come for the music, who were more interested in how they looked, and by whom they were noticed, and this didn’t have a positive effect on the festivals vibe. It became more tense, and more crowded outside. The effect was that DJs were playing in a smaller room, near empt, while outside were hundreds of people drinking and eating.

Anyways, back to the music, so to speak. Surprise soul act of the festival was Leelah James, sort of a smaller (and younger of course) version of Tina Turner. She has a great voice, and an awesome band, but she clearly didn’t like that fact that she had to start off for a rather empty and docile main stage.

And we saw De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, which was nice (but also not my kind of music), and Chuckie and Lil John. Chuckie is ok, but Lil John is just nasty. And for some reason, there’s a LOT of talk and interrupting going on, in stead of just playing the music and letting everybody dance.

We also saw Roni Size, who is clearly still king of the jungle. His beats got the whole room up and jumping from the very first start. Roni Size was awesome. For me, it was the best of the whole day.

Anyways, the second day just didn’t reach the same high as the first -for me. Overall we enjoyed ourselves very much ,and hope to see the festival return next year!