How the FreeBSD Project Works
Google engEDU
51 min – Jun 20, 2007

Google Tech Talks
June 20, 2007

ABSTRACT

The FreeBSD Project is one of the oldest and most successful open source operating system projects, seeing wide deployment across the IT industry. From the root name servers, to top tier ISPs, to core router operating systems, to firewalls, to embedded appliances, you can’t use a networked computer for ten minutes without using FreeBSD dozens of times. Part of FreeBSD’s reputation for quality and reliability comes from the nature of its development organization–driven by a hundreds of highly skilled volunteers, from high school students to university professors. And unlike most open source projects, the FreeBSD Project has developers who have been working on the same source base for over twenty years. But how does this organization work? Who pays the bandwidth bills, runs the web servers, writes the documentation, writes the code, and calls the shots? And how can developers in a dozen time zones reach agreement on the time of day, let alone a kernel architecture? This presentation will attempt to provide, in 45 minutes, a brief if entertaining snapshot into what makes FreeBSD run.

Speaker: Robert Watson
Robert Watson is a researcher at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory investinging operating system and network security. Prior to joining the Computer Laboratory to work on a PhD, he was a Senior Principal Scientist at McAfee Research, now SPARTA ISSO, a leading security research and development organization, where he directed government and commercial research contracts for customers that include DARPA, the US Navy, and Apple Computer. His research interests include operating system security, network stack structure and performance, and windowing system structure. He is also a member of the FreeBSD Core Team and president of the FreeBSD Foundation. Read the rest of this entry »

Scary Monsters: Does Social Software Have Fangs?
Google engEDU
53 min – Jun 27, 2007

Google Tech Talks
June 27, 2007

ABSTRACT

So we’re all agreed. Blogs: good; email: bad. Wikis: good; sending round attachments to a dozen people and then having to merge all the changes by hand afterwards: bad.

But despite the labour-saving wonders of social software, many people – even those who otherwise pounce on every new technological innovation – prefer to stick with the old way of doing things. What’s stopping them from adopting blogs and wikis as a way of getting things done? It can’t be the tool, because the tools are easy. So what scary monsters are lurking in the social software closet, ready to leap out at the innocent project leader, fangs and claws to the fore?

Speaker: Suw Charman
Suw Charman is a social software expert specialising in the use of blogs and wikis in business. She’s worked with companies in the UK and US – in the tech, travel, media, financial and public relations sectors – to help them understand how social software can be used both behind the firewall and for customer communications.

Suw writes about social software, the media, publishing, and other related subects at Strange Attractor (strange.corante.com, with her partner Kevin Anderson), and also keeps a personal blog, Chocolate and Vodka, (chocnvodka.blogware.com).

A passionate digital rights advocate, Suw co-founded the Open Rights Group in July 2005 with the aim of raising awareness of digital rights issues, running campaigns and supporting grass roots activism. Read the rest of this entry »