Summary: Sessions of the Administrative Council dissected; Reports from the Office serve to show how grim things have become for all staff unions, not just SUEPO

FOR anyone still in doubt about Benoît Battistelli’s megalomania, we humbly suggest the first, second and third part of this ongoing series (together with the teaser) as preparatory reading. The EPO has become somewhat of a laughing stock because the President of the EPO not only stomps on the law but also brags about it. That’s the hallmark of sadistic tyrants — those who view themselves as kings of the universe (which nobody is allowed to disagree with, no matter how high up). Famous examples include Stalin, who made a habit of ‘vanishing’ his perceived opposition.

“Il faudrait un tremblement de terre pour que le conseil d’administration, où chacun des 35 États membres a une voix, n’accorde pas son soutien aux propositions majeures.”
      –Benoît BattistelliToday’s situation report, which is circulating among EPO staff, reveals how atrocious things have become inside the EPO. It begins with a quote from the infamous Usine Nouvelle interview from 2012 where Battistelli bragged how free of any constraints he is. Or in other words, how totally unaccountable he is. To quote the original (in French): «Il faudrait un tremblement de terre pour que le conseil d’administration, où chacun des 35 États membres a une voix, n’accorde pas son soutien aux propositions majeures.»

That’s from Battistelli’s own mouth. Translation from French-speaking people (whom we have been in touch with) would be: “An earthquake would be needed for the Administrative Council, where each of the 35 member states has one vote, not to support my major proposals.”

Amazing, isn’t it? Until you consider what Battistelli’s character is like…

Based on some comments that we are seeing in IP Kat right now, Team Battistelli is fast-tracking the union-busting ahead of Christmas, even a week ahead of Christmas Eve.

One recent comment says: “Battistelli was told by the council to renew social dialogue and stop harassing the representatives of the personal and he was, apparently, told privately by the French and Dutch delegations to stop the ongoing disciplinary procedures but he is still in post. What will he do next?

“There are 3 members of the staff union who are attacked in Munich. I think that all 3 hearings have been rushed through this week, so that the president can publish his 3 decisions before the end of the year. From what has been published from the procedure, it is obvious that this is a mock trial. There are simply too many procedural violations for the procedure to be believable.

“Battistelli was told by the council to renew social dialogue and stop harassing the representatives of the personal and he was, apparently, told privately by the French and Dutch delegations to stop the ongoing disciplinary procedures but he is still in post.”
      –Anonymous“Will the president do what he was told by the council, stop the disciplinary procedures and reintegrate the 3 representatives? Or will he show the council that they are powerless to stop him and fire all 3 nevertheless?

“He can stop the disciplinary procedures, the service regulations allow him to do so. The disciplinary committees can find all 3 guilty, the president is still allowed to ignore their findings and reintegrate the 3 representatives. This is what he was explicitly instructed to do so any other decision will be contrary to the instructions of the council.”

Battistelli has been trying to halt communications so that they can do mock trials in secret. As another commenter put it: “What a pity that Merkel has failed to report on a fifth “remarkable” letter:

“Battistelli has been trying to halt communications so that they can do mock trials in secret.”“Namely, the “warning letter” sent by the President of the EPO to the Chair of the Presidium (VP3) telling him to be careful about contacts between the Presidium and the AC which had not received prior authorisation from the President of the EPO.

“Now that’s a letter that would make interesting reading.”

Remember how politely the Presidium of the Boards put it. It has since then been cited by at least 3 formal complaint letters [1, 2, 3].

Based on the latest comments in IP Kat, some people are still not sure what happened in the meetings/sessions which started and ended this week. We have some yet-unverified claims (pertaining to boards and unions), but based on the following report, this is what actually happened and it’s similar to what commenters in IP Kat had predicted:

I- Earthquake?

Fact is that during this Session, the AC has unambiguously criticised and NOT “given its support” to no less than 3 “major proposals”:

1. …the opening speech gave the opportunity to delegations to express their disagreement with the analysis of the President on the situation in the Office

2. the Tax-adjustment was purely and simply rejected

3. the paper on Orientations for the structural reform of the EPO Boards of Appeal was purely removed overnight from the agenda (see point II)

4. even the review of the service regulation did not make it on the agenda and an overnight reworked revised version was only accepted after controversial discussions

It may not solve our urgent problems directly but the above seems to indicate that if not an earthquake, major tremors have emanated from the AC epicentre.

After 3 AC sessions during which delegations expressed subtle warnings though means of abstentions and critical remark, their message is now less diplomatic and this president has been stopped for the first time ever.

One can hope that clear instructions have also been issued by the AC regarding how to deal with the staff, the staff representation and the suspended colleagues, as some of the statements in plenum seem to indicate, but nothing is less than sure. And one can hope that the powerful will not vent their frustration on those the powerless staff they administer (see point IV below).

II- DG3 reforms: “Gimme that toy before you break it entirely…”

As mentioned above, after the Confidential session, the reform was removed from the agenda and replaced by an exchange of view in plenum. It essentially suggests that the B28 is put in charge of this dossier and comes, after another consultation, with a reviewed proposal.

Surprisingly, it is the Swiss delegation by the voice of Mr. Grossenbacher, that seems to have taken the lead^* in reformulating the reform proposal. As a side note, it is remarkable, since the present administration is the very product of this powerful man sitting a AC president for years and who has initially suggested the whole HR reforms and what many call and “autocratic” management style rolled out by the present administration: a “Brutus-situation” the other way around?

In essence, the proposal seemingly should be refocused on the following elements (to paraphrase the Swiss delegate):

1. “The seat issue is less important. It appears to us irrelevant. The Boards of Appeal can stay where they are, in the Isar building. This costs nothing and does not harm the independence.“

2. They suggest “to exclude The Cooling-Off Period”, preventing employment after EPO life.

3. For the appointment and reappointment of DG3 members, the right of appointment must be transferred to the President of the Board of Appeal.

4. The Rules of Procedure should not be proposed by the Office President.

5. The budget should be prepared to be then submitted to the Council as in CA/16/15

6. The Board of Appeal Committee should be established by the Council alone. The Committee serves to foster dialogue. The decisions should be taken by the Council. Six members should have the Committee, three by the Council and three from the Boards of Appeal. No observer, but the President of the Boards of Appeal and others can be invited.

7. The wage system should be committed to performance however, the modalities of which should be worked on later however, handling should remain solely with the President of the Boards of Appeal.

8. The timeframe: new proposal by March 2016.

It is too early to comment on the new direction but so much seems clear: it seems to have changed towards insuring truly more independence. However, in the light on the complexity of the issue we can simply wish them good luck with this challenging timetable.

III- Suspense and suspension: ad vitam eternam is removed but…

The original reform proposal regulating the suspension of staff (Art.95, planned by Mr. Battistelli to be without limitation in time) was replaced overnight. The revised version tabled lead to somewhat confused or confusing discussions in plenum as the new wording was discovered by many during the session. The final document can be found now on MICADO.

In essence, the delegations recognised the problem with having a 4 months time-limit for employees nominated by the AC, which seems incompatible with the rhythm of 3 to 4 planned plenary sessions per year but seem to have understood that the removal of any maximum time limit is abusive. It is thus suggested to keep the 4 months for all staff and as a compromise change it to up to 24 months for appointees of the AC. In how far, such a legal uncertainty for a judge is seen as adequate by the delegations seems well above my pay-grade…

On the retroactivity on running cases – which leads this reform to be dubbed by some outside observers as a special rule exclusively targeting the suspended DG3 judge – the debate was heated: some delegations considered the legality of such a proposal “questionable” and in fine, it led to DE and NL to vote against the proposal. All considered, the proposal found a large majority with 32 in favour, 2 against (DE, NL) and 4 abstentions (GR, SK, SE, FR).

IV- Lost in suspension: “and the winner is…”

Wednesday and Thursday the Member States representatives made certainly a remarkable step towards taking concrete actions. Today is Friday and “real-life” goes on with its train of bad news… The dust has not settled yet and the Disciplinary Committees are taking the next steps on very practical cases, touching the lives of colleagues who should be focusing on Christmas and their families or friends instead.

The bad news is that the Disciplinary committees seem to work as if nothing happened. In the first concrete case of Ms. Elizabeth Hardon the recommendation has fallen and is unambiguous. We can unfortunately expect her dismissal at short notice. Under these conditions, little hope remains for the other two colleagues who are still expecting terrific news.

The next week will tell us if the president has been given clear instructions or only polite indications during the Administrative Council.

But honestly, hope is slim that these colleagues are given a chance to a fair trial given the procedure so far.

V- Personal comments: it can’t go on like this, this is not a life!

[...] the staff representation office-wide has been decimated and many of its actors are getting at a point where they are either sick, suspended, resigned or Els(e)… This cannot go on.

Statistically spoken, as can be seen from the paper “Social Democracy: Staff Representation dismantling is on track!” we used to have ca. 200 staff members working on behalf of Staff representation in the past with an average of ca. 40 men years. It represented in 2012 a total of 8900 days, e.g. a yearly 1,2 day per staff member. Now the December Dashboard shows EXCATLY 3281 days, e.g. less than 0,46 day per staff member. Such statistics mean preciously little when you live it but they can be a pale indication to an outsider.

The EPO makes no secret of the fact that it not interested in the Staff opinion and even less its staff representation but everybody knows that already.

That fact per se is dangerous enough for any institution. Evolution has shown that an organism without feedback loops is bound to fail.

My opinion is to let people work under these conditions is grossly negligent.

And, as in the above mentioned cases, attacking them at the same me is purely and simply criminal. (if not legally than at least morally)

In short, it seems likely that the EPO will officially fire a staff representative for allegedly speaking to a blogger (not me), allegedly speaking to a judge, and something about "sniper" (just a cheap personal attack on the accused). This serves as a warning shot or — pardon the pun — sniping of a staff representative to scare all others. If this doesn’t constitute union-busting, what is?

“Battistelli was trouble for the EPO all along.”Battistelli must be furious that his power over the delegates is rapidly eroding, so he looks for a scapegoat and tries to demonstrate his alleged superpower in order to restore his old reign of terror. History teaches that moves such as these are short-lived and doomed to fail. But who are the sacrificial lambs to be martyred?

Battistelli was trouble for the EPO all along. It’s him and his new high-level recruits that need to go, not the decades-long representatives of staff, whose endorsement/popularity among staff was very much evident in recent public protests. █

• How Linux Foundation Events Have Evolved

  Today we released our 2014 global event schedule. Back in 2007, we created The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit because I could see a unique opportunity to bring together the developers, industry leaders and end users (largely from the enterprise) who were creating this thing we called Linux. We knew that face-to-face collaboration amongst disparate yet aligned groups could reap great rewards. Soon we were adding developers and companies from the world of mobile, then embedded computing, then cloud computing, then automotive to events first in North America, then Asia, then Europe. Basically everywhere Linux has gone, we have gone.

• Linux Foundation announces its 2014 conferences

• The Linux Foundation Delivers Complete 2014 Event Schedule

  The 2014 events schedule, which includes LinuxCon and CloudOpen in North America and Europe, as well as the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, Embedded Linux Conference, Android Builders Summit and ApacheCon, among others. LinuxCon and CloudOpen North America will take place this year in Chicago and will be co-located with the Linux Kernel Summit. LinuxCon and CloudOpen Europe will be in Duesseldorf, Germany, along with Embedded Linux Conference, KVM Forum and Linux Plumbers Conference.

• OpenDaylight Summit to Highlight Open Source SDN

  If having your own conference means you’ve made it as a software project, the developers of OpenDaylight, the open source software-defined networking (SDN) platform, will be celebrating next month. On Feb. 4-5, the inaugral OpenDaylight Summit will take place in Santa Clara, Calif., highlighting the significant backing that the collaborative software project enjoys as SDN becomes an increasingly important part of enterprise computing.

• Linux Foundation Set to Produce Apachecon Conference – No that’s not a typo

• Apache Foundation and Linux Foundation join forces for ApacheCon

  No, it’s not a joke. The Linux Foundation has joined forces with the Apache Software Foundation, the grandfather of open-source development groups, to help run ApacheCon.

• Linux.conf.au, Linux Darling, and More Linux List

• Catch up on Linux.conf.au 2014

  Linux.conf.au took place last week in Perth, and this year, the conference’s video team has outdone itself, with the session videos appearing the next day in a lot of cases.

• Linux.Conf.Au 2014 Presentations Worth Watching

  With the Linux.Conf.Au 2014 conference having wrapped up, here’s some of the video recordings that I’d recommend worth watching as Phoronix readers.

• Video: Presentations from linux.conf.au 2014

  Linux.conf.au 2014 just ended on Friday and they streamed most of the presentations live and have also posted the recordings. Here are three that I found interesting.

• GStreamer 2013 Conference Videos Now Online

  The GStreamer Conference 2013 videos and slides are now available online for anyone curious about GStreamer and OpenGL, Linux multimedia enhancements coming, the Opus and Daala free codecs, PulseAudio, and other open-source media topics.

• “Opening Your Business to Open Source” Subject of Interactive @Duo Event

• How to attract more women to tech conferences

• OggCamp 2013 – Free software, free culture & mass surveillance

  Since the first issue of Linux User appeared at the end of the last century, the free software community has grown and evolved – bringing in open data, free culture, open hardware – and the nature of its events has changed. The Linux Expo, and Linux User Expo, events of the past were huge corporate affairs, but the coffers of the big companies enabled the .ORG Village to run alongside, providing space for dozens of FOSS projects and organisations.

• Call for participation “FLOSS village at Med-e-Tel 2014″

Summary: Bill Gates’ agenda in US education takes further steps and the Huffington Post calls Bill Gates “the most dangerous man in America”

THE Gates Foundation is intervening a great deal in matters which were originally assigned to government agencies and state workers. This is bad news to democracy and good news for Microsoft.

Some people may recall Microsoft’s “school of the future” push, which we last mentioned over a month ago [1, 2]. The name is designed to imply that Microsoft is the only future in schools and the company is using the same old tricks to advance itself with PR at homes (“Home of the future”).

Bill Gates himself is meanwhile seen changing (“reforming” is often a euphemism of choice) the schooling system in the United States. When it comes to influence in education, nobody else seems to have more impact these days and informed individuals are not happy about it:

Skeptics say the Microsoft founder is foisting a business-driven agenda on schools without understanding the challenges of public education. “I suspect that eight years from now, the Gates Foundation will say, ‘Whoops, we made another big boo-boo. What should we do now?’ ” education historian Diane Ravitch said.

The influence is likely to increase as Gates is expanding his philanthro-capitalistic business (recently in London and now in the United States) and what we found very interesting is that there are already protests from teachers and Leonie Haimson called Gates “the most dangerous man in America” (that’s the headline of the piece in the Huffington Post). “Like lambs being led to the slaughter” is an essay that covers more or less the same problem.

And just three days after being subjected to that humiliation in his hometown of Seattle, the Washington Post rushed in to his defense. Bright and early on the morning of Monday, July 12, WaPo readers opened their papers to find the following: “Gates Foundation playing pivotal role in changes for education system.”

Of course, it is especially important to note that both Melinda Gates and Warren E. Buffett, who is a major donor to the Gates Foundation, sit on the board of directors of The Washington Post Co.

The reason Bill Gates was heckled by a group of teacher protesters during his appearance at the AFT convention is because they oppose the enormous role which the Gates Foundation is playing re the privatization of public education and the weakening of the teachers’ unions. Among other efforts, the foundation has poured millions of dollars into supporting mayoral control, dismantling neighborhood schools, and expanding charter schools. These teachers labeled Gates as a “Trojan Horse in the AFT House.”

The day following his AFT appearance, Leonie Haimson called Gates “The most dangerous man in America,” a Huffington Post piece which widely circulated in the edu-blogosphere.

A Monday post by Norm Scott (a retired teacher, reporter, and activist in NYC) discussed AFT President Randi Weingarten’s reaction to the anti-Gates protest, as well as the way in which other teachers at the convention ridiculed and shunned the protesters.

[...]

That sub-total comes to $9,471,378. Without any doubt, the Gates Foundation is a primary supporter of a wide range of organizations which are working in unison to replace unionized public schools with non-unionized charter schools.This effort has been going on for some time.

[...]

The teacher protesters in Seattle and a few assorted individuals aren’t the only ones alarmed by the power and influence of Bill Gates and his foundation. A number of people involved with world health are also deeply concerned about the nature of the impact which the Gates Foundation is having in their arena. It would behoove those who pooh-pooh and ridicule the Gates’ critics to read the 2008 report by Global Health Watch.

[...]

Our public education system, its schools, and the profession of public K-12 teaching are intentionally being eroded by Bill Gates and others, in the name of “helping” children. And, as as far as the teachers go, a huge group of them has no good reason to believe that their leader is protecting them.

More news sites recognise the fact that Gates is shaping the national education agenda rather than the elected government doing so.

The only big surprise among the finalists was Arizona, which finished 40th in Round 1. But education policy bloggers suspect that their application this time around was strengthened by involvement from the Gates foundation—Bill and his wife Melinda have become key players in the education reform world, guiding the agenda with their millions of foundation dollars.

Back in June we showed that Gates' staff was taking over LA schools administration. It was almost as though they were putting external staff in charge and it was still in the news in recent weeks. It’s looking grim.

Gates’ experimentation in Memphis schools is a subject that we covered in the following posts:

• Boston Globe Writes About Gates’ Dangerous Influence on US Education, Memphis Provides New Example
• Gates Foundation Accused of “Steer[ing] State and National Policy in Education” (Monopolising Schools)
• Gates Roundup: Monsanto, Colonisation, Clinton Ties, and Control of Education
• How the Gates Foundation Blocks GNU/Linux and Free Software in National Libraries, Then Inherits Education
• “Both Sen. Williams and Mr. Gates Do a Great Disservice to the Hundreds of Thousands of Students and Teachers”
• The World According to Gates: Constructing a System of Profitable Philanthropy
• More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation
• Microsoft Builds Coalitions of NGOs, Makes Political and Educational Changes
• Microsoft and the Gates Foundation Inherit More Roles of the US Department of Education
• Bill Gates and Microsoft Use Government Support to Turn Public Schools Into Private Business
• Gates Foundation Still Sponsors Blogs That Praise Its Work, Lobbies Governments, Takes Over School Districts

Here is another new article confirming that they want to use Memphis as a “model”. Another place where Gates has been pumping a lot of cash — that is, funds with strings attached — to create a “model” (to be later imposed on other districts) is Hillsborough. We wrote about that in the following posts:

• Beyond the ‘Public Relations’
• Gates Roundup: Monsanto, Colonisation, Clinton Ties, and Control of Education
• Gates Foundation Roundup: (Mis)Education With Spin; GAVI, Pfizer, Merck, and the African Ventures
• Gates Foundation Roundup: Schools, Vaccines Monopoly, and “Fatally Flawed” Studies
• The World According to Gates: Constructing a System of Profitable Philanthropy
• How the Gates Foundation Blocks GNU/Linux and Free Software in National Libraries, Then Inherits Education
• Gates Foundation Accused of “Steer[ing] State and National Policy in Education” (Monopolising Schools)
• Author Calls for Action to Stop Bill Gates’ Abduction of US Education
• Bill Gates and Microsoft Guard Their Interest in Schoolchildren and Colleges
• US Education Steps Aside for Bill
• Bill Gates and Microsoft Use Government Support to Turn Public Schools Into Private Business
• The Gates Foundation May Be Turning School Teachers Into State-funded PR Agents

Hillsborough is still in the news because of the Gates Foundation and this report suggests that they may possibly put Gates’ friends/staff in charge over there (Gates is paying them or working with them). It’s basically a nice way of changing policy, a little like entryism (see the case of LA schools). Not everyone in Hillsborough is happy:

Faliero, 47, has no major accomplishment to point to, and she seems preoccupied with the anecdotal instead of the bigger picture. Stacy White, a 37-year old pharmacist, voices a legitimate concern that the Gates project might weaken local control.

Jefferson Co. seems like another target for Gates as money starts arriving [1, 2] (“Jeffco schools get almost $1 million from Gates Foundation”) and there is more lobbying on such matters, as usual:

National teachers union brings ideas to Seattl

[...]

Bill Gates, an avid supporter of charter schools, which are mostly not unionized, was invited to speak to the conference on Saturday.

There is similar lobbying from Gates in Aspen. Why is he so desperate to control the education system? That affects the minds of future generations of course. “Gates Foundation puts its stamp on education,” say Gates’ regular fans and philanthropy.com links to the Gates-influenced (Melinda on the board) Washington Post. The article is titled “How Gates is spending money on school reform”. Spot the euphemism again.

Should school “reforms” be guided by elected officials rather than private power? Ravitch sure seems to think so [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

“Gates Foundation playing pivotal role in changes for education system,” says another new headline from the Washington Post. Externally, one article innocently states that the “Washington Post Examines Gates Foundation’s Influence on Education Reform” (it actually promotes it rather than examine it). █

Summary: Three new examples of Novell’s marketing staff praising and helping to sell Microsoft’s sequel to Windows Vista

SEVERAL days ago we showed that Novell had produced some Vista 7 advertising, mostly led by Grant Ho. It’s not a one-time error and Novell keeps doing that in its PR blog and sometimes in the press. Here is yet another guest post by Grant Ho, who promotes Vista 7. Here is a third new example of Vista 7 promotion from Novell’s marketing staff.

The demo showed the migration of a Windows XP desktop to Windows 7 in mere minutes. The reality of the process was discussed during an in-depth session on Thursday, May 20.

These posts need to be read (especially the first two) in order to understand what Novell is doing here. Has Novell conveniently forgotten to compete in the operating systems space? █

Summary: Pretty boring week for Novell, but for those looking for events, here is an overview

SCO

LIKE MANY recent weeks, the past week has been exceptionally quiet, but we managed to find minor news involving Novell. Groklaw was apparently the only site that has kept track of the SCO case over the past week. There are two short articles about it:

i. Request for transcript of oral argument in SCO v Novell appeal denied

Wayne Gray filed a motion requesting either a transcript or an audio recording of the oral argument from last week in the appeal of SCO v. Novell.

ii. Hearing set for June 15 on US Trustee’s Motion to Convert SCO to Ch. 7 (or Dismiss)

The hearing on the U.S. Trustee’s motion to convert SCO’s bankruptcy from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, or to dismiss, has been set for June 15, 2009 at 02:00 PM at US Bankruptcy Court, 824 Market St., 6th Fl., Courtroom #3, Wilmington, Delaware.

[...]

There are some other filings too, with a few mistakes being corrected in the record. I expect further entries, reflecting that both IBM and Novell have also filed motions to convert or dismiss. So, likely their motions will be added to the list of matters to be heard that day.

A little more here:

It looks like the end of SCO is finally upon us. Years ago I wrote that SCO had a limited lifetime because they kept pushing their brand of UNIX at the expense of Linux, even to the point of legal action. Then came Chapter 11 and now after a long time fighting they have gone into Chapter 7. The Bankruptcy Court has finally declared that SCO have not rehabilitated nor could they sell off their assets. Losing to Novell did not help either. SCO will continue to fight, they have no other choice, but it looks bleak for the former UNIX giant.

Finance

Novell’s financial results are near and they will not be nice. Here is a new report from a company which is trying to sell it.

This Novell Inc – SWOT Analysis company profile is the essential source for top-level company data and information. The report examines the company’s key business structure and operations, history and products, and provides summary analysis of its key revenue lines and strategy.

The story of one investor is being told:

New Purchase: Novell Inc. (NOVL)

Arnold Van Den Berg initiated holdings in Novell Inc.. His purchase prices were between $3.16 and $4.4, with an estimated average price of $3.7. The impact to his portfolio due to this purchase was less than 0.01%. His holdings were 14,600 shares as of 03/31/2009.

Novell Inc. delivers infrastructure software for the Open Enterprise. Novell is a leader in enterprise-wide operating systems based on Linux and open source and provides the enterprise management services required to operate mixed IT environments. Novell helps customers minimize cost complexity and risk allowing them to focus on innovation and growth. Novell Inc. has a market cap of $1.36 billion; its shares were traded at around $3.95 with a P/E ratio of 18.8 and P/S ratio of 1.4.

Netware

There is nothing significant here, just a few stories about Novell’s ever-weakening business such as Netware:

i. Washington County Public Schools Delivers High Performance Wi-Fi

“Besides providing ample bandwidth and user capacity, we have a unique Novell implementation that no Wi-Fi vendor could get working wirelessly – we tested quite a few Wi-Fi access points, but the only one that worked seamlessly with Novell was Xirrus. Because each Array is able to do authentication, this allows a Novell user to login directly from the client, which means end users do not know they are on a wireless network as it acts just like a wired network.”

ii. California District Moves to 802.11n WiFi

“Our school district has 2,500 employees servicing over 20,000 K-12 students across 46 campuses–selecting the right WiFi solution was critical to our future online learning, not to mention the ability to better utilize our existing facilities and resources,” said Dave Mundey, manager of technology and telecommunication services at Washington County Public Schools, in a statement released this week. “Besides providing ample bandwidth and user capacity, we have a unique Novell implementation that no WiFi vendor could get working wirelessly–we tested quite a few WiFi access points, but the only one that worked seamlessly with Novell was Xirrus. Because each Array is able to do authentication, this allows a Novell user to login directly from the client, which means end users do not know they are on a wireless network as it acts just like a wired network.”

iii. The Phoenix Principle

So far, so good. Hartung’s analysis is acute. He gets better, recommending that since lock-ins make companies predictable, you should exploit those of your competitors. It’s great advice, and a perfect account of, for example, how Microsoft rolled right over Novell with its introduction of Windows NT Server.

Virtualisation

CIOL has a real article for a change and major parts of it promote Novell virtualisation (although not exclusively).

John Stetic, director, product management, systems and resource management, Novell, and Sandeep Menon, country head, Novell, talk to Deepa Damodaran of CIOL, on Novell’s virtualization plans with Platespin.

A speculation regarding Oracle’s acquisition of Virtual Iron is being contradicted by InfoWorld’s virtualisation expert:

Mann said that every justification that he has seen or heard is just not reasonable. As examples, he stated the following:

[...]

It will prevent Novell from buying Virtual Iron’s technology. Again, this is simply wrong. Novell is already beating Virtual Iron (and Oracle VM, for that matter) in all markets with PlateSpin, ZENworks, and Suse Xen, not to mention its partnership with Microsoft and Hyper-V. Again, there is no incentive at all for Novell to buy Virtual Iron.

In this new article, see a correction in the comments:

“…Sun Microsystems was recently acquired by Novell…”

Oracle rather than Novell…

What an embarrassing mistake to slip past the editor’s attention.

Collaboration and Mail

Novell Teaming is said to have this deployment in Ohio.

In Dublin, Ohio, the city operates a Novell Teaming portal where government officials can run blogs, chat over instant messaging and share documents. In the next few months, the city plans to make the private network available to all citizens. In a future city scenario, a social network like this could allow residents to submit ideas for city improvements, chat with politicians and blog about their neighborhood over a secure and city-centric portal that caters to their local needs.

There was very little that could be found about Groupwise this week, but here it is listed in a couple of new pages (among a list of supported products):

i. IM tools for the chattering class

Formerly Gaim, now Pidgin, this multiprotocol client offers a bit more out of the box than Miranda does–but it’s still light on its feet and offers useful features like chat history and emoticons without tinkering. It, too, has a portable version. Out of the box, it supports Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Lotus Sametime, MySpaceIM, MSN, Novell GroupWise, AIM, ICQ, QQ, SIMPLE, SILC, XMPP clients like Jabber and Google, Yahoo, and Zephyr. Some of these, like Yahoo, are limited to the basics of chatting and file-transferring.

ii. Can Apple Woo the IT Department?

Blackberry maker RIM has enterprise-focused software that can help the devices tie in with corporate networks and that works with Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise. This is an absolute bottom-line requirement. If a device cannot get executives into their email, it simply cannot get broad IT support. Furthermore, a device will need to provide access to necessary corporate applications.

There is also this promotional GroupWise video that someone put on YouTube a few days ago.

Will Groupwise reach Ubuntu? Some people think so.

I stumbled onto this blog post earlier today — from dkpw’s Wikedfire — explaining how you can potentially install Novell’s GroupWise on Ubuntu. Novell doesn’t support GroupWise on Ubuntu. So, do dkpw’s step-by-step directions work? I must concede: I haven’t tried the install. But the mere mention of Novell GroupWise and Canonical’s Ubuntu in the same sentence raises some interesting considerations.

Identity and Management

On the identity side, Novell is mentioned again as a supporter of OpenID, but it is part of a sparse list.

Facebook joins AOL, Google, Microsoft, MySpace, Novell, Sun, Telecom and Yahoo as a company on board with OpenID. The foundation estimates that there are more than 1 billion OpenID-enabled user accounts with more than 40,000 Web sites supporting OpenID logins.

Novell keeps getting mentioned in articles such as this about Microsoft’s ambitions in the same space

Sun OpenSSO is not the exclusive focus of the software giant however, as an interoperability bridge is also built between Geneva and Novell Access Manager 3.1.

“Interoperability testing of code name “Geneva” and Novel Access Manager is well underway. Microsoft and Novell have verified that Novell Access Manager can be used as an Identity Provider (IdP) with a code name “Geneva” Server Service Provider (SP) over WS-Federation or SAML 2.0 protocols. It has also been confirmed that a code name “Geneva” Server IdP can be used with a Novell Access Manager SP over WS-Federation or SAML 2.0 protocols,” Microsoft informed.

Security

Novell’s Sentinel was mentioned in IDG in relation to cyberwar. We too are under regular DDoS attacks these days.

Distributed intrusion-prevention and firewall sensors send real-time data to be analyzed by what the Navy calls its Prometheus system, which includes the Novell Sentinel security event management system and SAS data management tools.

Regarding loss of national archives, a Novell vice president had this to say:

“There are several ways this incident could be avoided and the case of the missing hard drive would be irrelevant,” Nick Nikols, vice president of security at Novell told SCMagazieUS.com in an email Wednesday. “Obviously, you could put it in a drawer, lock it in a cabinet, or hire honest people that don’t have shifty eyes, etc. However, the key to this incident is mainly negligence and a false sense of security, a scenario many companies and government organizations experience.”

People

Novell’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, was mentioned in the following article.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a businessman who has earned both honor and money with the dawn of the digital era. He has a Ph.D. in computer engineering and has worked as chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems and CEO at Linux-maker Novell. Schmidt took over Google in 2001. He is also politically powerful enough to advise U.S. President Barack Obama.

Christopher Stone, a former vice chairman of Novell, appeared in Reuters to make this remark:

“We’re the only computer company here. We’re the only one left,” says Christopher Stone, president and CEO. Stone is also a refugee from Data General and was vice chairman of Novell Inc., the information technology management software company based in nearby Waltham. Stone weighs the advantages of where he is now and what he’s doing. “It’s a great place to be. All the talent’s here,” he says. Of course, “this was designed to make wool sweaters, not computers. You can still smell the lanolin on a hot day.”

Another former Novell senior makes his move.

MindGenius Appoints New Commercial Director, Dustin Newport

[...]

Other positions held included Sales Director at Novium Plc; EMEA Vice President of Sales for AppsMall LLC and held senior sales roles at Novell, Remedy Corporation and Informix.

Partners

Novell is listed as a notable partner of Cisco.

Partner parade

Cisco hauled out the big guns in support of the launch. In addition to the aforementioned EMC and VMware, BMC Software, Emulex, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, Novell, Oracle, QLogic and Red Hat all pledged support for the UCS.

Novell is also included in the following short list.

Noel Vallejo: We develop computer based training, which helps individuals to be certified in the IT space, like Microsoft’s MCSE, Cisco, Novell, and CompTIA.

Video

Some new videos showed up throughout the week, some of which were mostly about SUSE and another about SEP.

There is also an interview with Novell’s Marina Walser, but that’s about all for now. █

I

n the following video, Miguel de Icaza explains Mono. The video is from 2004. He mentions nothing about software patents and he sure praises the technology and assumes that being an ECMA standard is somewhat an indication of being ‘safe’. It's not.

A couple of years went by and Novell bought exclusive 'protection' from Microsoft for the use Mono. Where does that put the choice of Mono? And why is Miguel a fan of the greatest fiasco of this decade (OOXML)? █

BrainShare 2008

A video from the scenes of the conference has been added to YouTube.

An interview with a Novell Director of Engineering was pushed upstream as well, thanks to GWAVA.

Here is another Jaffe interview from BrainShare. From the article:

It has competed hard with the likes of Microsoft and IBM, but over the years Novell has remained a smaller player than either of its two main rivals.

GWAVA

This is just a press release, but the news is tied to Novell’s GroupWise.

Snowtide Informatics Systems, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class PDF content extraction solutions, today announced that GWAVA, the premier source for innovative Novell GroupWise solutions has licensed Snowtide’s PDFTextStream library for inclusion in its Retain email archiving product.

This just about sums up BrainShare 2008. █

Identity Management

Here is some humour/viral marketing, which has just been added to YouTube. It seems like shameless promotion for identity management at Novell:

Novell is now boasting 6,000 customers for identity management (and security too).

Large and small enterprises, representing financial services, healthcare, education and government, are securing user identities and meeting compliance requirements with Novell

ActivIdentity made an announcement that talks about its relationship with Novell.

ActivIdentity Corporation announced today that the integration of the ActivIdentity Smart Employee ID and the Novell Identity Assurance Solution will be demonstrated at BrainShare 2008, showcasing the next generation in physical-logical access convergence solutions.

Here is an article about it:

ActivIdentity, Novell integrate products

ActivIdentity Corp., Fremont, Calif., and Novell Inc., Waltham, Mass., have combined products that may make it easier for corporation to use one ID card for both physical and logical access, the companies announced.

From Novell, the following generic and broad announcement was made:

Novell Extends Identity and Security Management Capabilities With New Technology Partners

Responding to customer needs for a seamless end-to-end identity and
security infrastructure, Novell today announced seven new vendors have
joined its identity and security management technology partner ecosystem.
Enterprises today are faced with defending against increasing security
threats and meeting compliance in a complex and heterogeneous IT
environment. By teaming with these vendors, Novell helps customers
cost-effectively increase security and streamline their identity
infrastructure by delivering a broader choice of solutions. Products from
the new partners, when combined with Novell’s identity and security
management offerings, will enable enterprises to further leverage Novell’s
solutions to solve specific business challenges.

Another company that works with Novell in this area is Layer 7 Technologies, which issued this press release.

Layer 7 Technologies, a leading provider of security and governance solutions for Service Oriented integration architectures, today announced a go-to-market partnership with Novell to secure programmatic Web services, leveraging Novell eDirectory and Novell Access Manager identity solutions.

Lastly, there is also The Blackbird Group.

The Blackbird Group today announced it has joined Novell’s identity and security management partner ecosystem. Under the terms of the agreement, Novell’s global sales channel will market and recommend Blackbird’s DeTroubler for their customers’ directory backup and recovery needs as part of Novell’s identity and security management framework.

About a fortnight ago we saw a success story in a hotel (or a chain thereof). Here is a timely article about this.

The Novell-led Bandit project aims to address the challenges of cost effectively connecting disparate systems in the hotel and hospitality sector while streamlining administration and meeting compliance requirements.

Ireland

Some good signs for Novell in Ireland, according to its own claims. Here is one sign among several.

Firms operating in the compliance market have enjoyed some good form of late with companies such as Dublin-based Norkom performing well. The Bear Stearns incident might yet create more opportunities in this market as regulators could crack down even further, meaning that bad news for the market might be good news for firms such as Novell.

The following is even more optimistic and clear:

Irish operation drives change at Novell

Novell’s Irish operation is playing a key role in the reshaping of the infrastructure software firm, according to Novell’s president of EMEA, Volker Smid.

We heard from Volker quite a bit recently [1, 2, 3]. We had quite a bit of coverage in the past about Novell in Ireland, including expansions.

OES2

Syncsort plugs into OES.

Backup Express from Syncsort Incorporated is now available for Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 (Linux). The seamless integration of the two solutions allows joint customers to successfully protect their data, applications and servers while also taking advantage of the Xen-based NetWare paravirtualization available in OES2.

The same goes for Moonwalk.

Moonwalk announced its latest Moonwalk software suite, with support for Novell’s Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES2).

Novell’s Open Enterprise Server 2 combines workgroup services from Novell with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, completing the Open Enterprise Server shift to providing workgroup services entirely on Linux. It includes dynamic storage technology for user-defined policies, storage management enhancements and Netware virtualization.

Guys and Dolls… and Muppets

There were quite a few puns available here and bloggers took the opprtunity. Novell hooked up with Sesame Street.

Novell today announced that Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization behind the ground-breaking children’s television program “Sesame Street,” has selected Novell to streamline its hardware and software infrastructure. Using Novell® ZENworks® Asset Management, which provides a complete and accurate view of the organization’s software licenses, inventories and usage, Sesame Workshop is now better able to comply with audit requests and properly manage its leasing contracts. By consolidating its Web server infrastructure using Xen* virtualization on SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server, Sesame Workshop is lowering server hardware costs, increasing flexibility and enabling its data center to dynamically respond to the needs of its business.

Watch how sys-con.com, home of O’Gara 007, merely rewrites that press release to make a bogus ‘article’. Compare the words below to the ones above.

Novell Helps Sesame Workshop by Implementing Xen Virtualization

Novell announced that Sesame Workshop has selected Novell to streamline its hardware and software infrastructure. Using Novell ZENworks Asset Management, Sesame Workshop is now better able to comply with audit requests and properly manage its leasing contracts.

Very original, sys-con.com. We will soon show another example.

ZDNet’s BTL has commented on this announcement and so did Matt Asay.

Novell on Tuesday announced that Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind Sesame Street, is a reference customer using ZENworks Asset Management and Xen virtualization on Suse Linux Enterprise Server.

Fossa

Fossa was mentioned very briefly yesterday. Here is some more coverage of it.

Novell says ZenWorks key to Fossa Project success

Novell has positioned its ZenWorks systems and identity management product line as a central piece to its newly unveiled “Fossa Project” strategy, which aims to turn compute infrastructure into collaboration infrastructure.

Novell outlines Fossa plan

“Enterprise computing will change and we will be at the center of it,” said Jeff Jaffe, Novell’s CTO, said during the opening keynote of the company’s annual Brainshare conference. He said the key word would be “agility,” which he said would be defined in large part by policy and identity enablement within the Novell infrastructure software stack.

TechWorld has some more specific details.

The company said its new strategy, code-named Fossa, aims to allow companies to dynamically assign workloads to server resources within their datacentres. It will also include enhancements to Novell’s virtualisation, Linux, orchestration, policy, identity, compliance, and collaboration tools.

CRN also alludes to this in an article about Novell’s “adaptive infrastructure” (big fancy words that sound good to CIOs).

Jeff Jaffe, Novell’s CTO and EVP of business units, outlined the company’s technical vision at this week’s BrainShare 2008 conference in Salt Lake City, codenamed The Fossa Project. Jaffe explained that a fossa is an agile, cat-like animal native to Madagascar with no known predators. Fossa, he mentioned, also serves well as an acronym for “Free and Open Source Software with Agility.”

The third (and last) part is on its way. It requires more editing. Apologies for all the typos. █

BrainShare Opening

The conference was formally announced with this press release.

At its annual BrainShare user conference today, Novell unveiled products,
partnerships and its strategic vision for the future to customers,
partners, press, and industry and financial analysts. Novell’s BrainShare,
with 5,500 participants from 58 countries, features keynotes, business and
technical sessions, and demonstrations that illuminate Novell’s software
that solves customer problems today and Novell’s strategy for streamlining
computing in the future. Cornerstone sponsor SAP leads a group of 65
sponsors and exhibitors at the conference.

Zonker gave somewhat of an introduction the following day. It’s brief.

First thing this morning I went to the General Session (a.k.a. “keynote”) with Ron Hovsepian, Jeff Jaffe, John Dragoon, and Jim Ebzery. (If you couldn’t make it, or just want to relive the experience, the vids are already up on the BrainShare site here.) The room was packed — not sure how many people were at the general session, but it was a huge room, and looked quite full from where I was sitting.

Photos

In case you want to see what it looked like, here are some photos. Seems nice.

However Novell also provides plenty of down-time opportunities from pool tables, and huge TV screens showing episodes of the US version of The Office.

Agility, Agility, Agility

Yes, there was a theme which got rather tedious after you saw it dozens of times in the press. For example:

Free and open source software plus agility is Brainshare mantra

More of the “agile/agility” chorus:

Jeff Jaffe, Novell’s CTO and EVP of business units, outlined the company’s technical vision at this week’s BrainShare 2008 conference in Salt Lake City, codenamed The Fossa Project. Jaffe explained that a fossa is an agile, cat-like animal native to Madagascar with no known predators. Fossa, he mentioned, also serves well as an acronym for “Free and Open Source Software with Agility.”

And again:

Speaking at the company’s annual user conference Brainshare, Novell’s CTO Jeff Jaffe has announced the company’s new technology strategy which it has rather curiously decided to name after an endangered relative of the mongoose – the Madagascan Fossa.

Despite keeping references to open source and Linux to a minimum, in this morning’s keynote speeches, the Fossa is obviously a play on Free and Open Source Software with the ‘A’ standing for agility. Novell claims that its going to revolutionise the IT world by focusing on creating “agile infrastructure”.

Even in headlines: Novell lays out vision for SUSE, IT agility at BrainShare

Mixed-IT environments are here to stay. And Novell Inc. wants to be the lubricant — that is, the infrastructure software company — that makes them all work together.

Another headline: Novell pushes agile infrastructure vision

Novell has kicked off its annual user conference by announcing ambitious plans to instigate what it claims is “the next revolution in the IT industry”.

Keynote and Beyond

Then came some more report about talks from the executives.

But some of the most interesting tidbits came in interviews held away from the glare and video cameras of the keynote spotlights.

And more on Microsoft’s involvement:

The widely criticized Microsoft Corp.-Novell Inc. interoperability agreement has been a success for his company, Novell CEO Ron Hovespian said Monday.

Speaking to a group of international journalists at the Novell’s annual Brainshare conference in Salt Lake City, Hovespian said the deal – signed in November 2006 – has worked because most enterprises have both Novell and Microsoft software deployed in their IT environment. And in order to keep the harmony between two software stacks like JSEE and .NET or between Linux and Windows, he said, Waltham, Mass.-based Novell will continue to foster a working relationship that focuses on interoperability and efficiency with Microsoft products.

Miscellany

Quite a few reports from Peter Galli, who was apparently there:

1. Novell to Focus on the `Agile Infrastructure`

The project is code-named Fossa after the agile animal living in the jungles of Madagascar that has no known predators.

2. Novell to Announce New, Expanded Partnerships

At BrainShare, the company also will announce a deal that will see the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 preloaded on hardware from a major vendor.

SALT LAKE CITY—Novell will use its annual BrainShare conference here March 17 to announce new and expanded partnerships as well as to show off some of the features and functionality of its upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.

On the CEO’s talk:

Novell’s chief executive officer and president, Ron Hovsepian, told several thousand people Monday that he has “quite a long list” of reasons to be proud of the company, including a burgeoning customer base and continued innovation.

Some more from the local press:

Top Novell, Inc., officials outlined a strategy Monday that includes an emphasis on products that allow companies greater flexibility to integrate various brands of software into a more seamless whole – and to move the social networking revolution into business.

From Jan Stafford, who is an excellent reporter:

At the annual Novell BrainShare user conference that started in Salt Lake City today, Novell unveiled its roadmap and loaded the car with new friends. The roadmap includes a new strategy focused on agility, called Fossa, and a new release of SUSE: SUSE Linux Enterprise 11. Joining Novell for the trip will be new partners bearing products such as SAP, PlateSpin and Atos Origin.

After a very fast start, the conference slowed down somewhat, at least in terms of announcement pace and magnitude. Var Guy thinks so as well.

Novell didn’t deliver any home-run news during BrainShare on March 17, but the software company did manage to smack a few solid singles during the day. Overall, the buzz from Utah sounded pretty upbeat. Here’s a look at Monday’s developments, and The VAR Guy’s take on the situation.

Future posts will look at some less Linux-oriented announcements and contain rather dull press releases. We must keep abreast of Novell’s strategy in order to understand how it may evolve and what this means to Free software and its future prospects. █

Embarcadero’s new change management tool boasts SUSE support.

Linux version of Change Manager supports Red Hat Enterprise and SUSE

In South Africa, a complete solution for local businesses is based on Novell’s products.

A Linux-based desktop-to-server solution tailored to meet the needs of small businesses, the Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition combines the flexibility and cost efficiency of open source software with the support of an established enterprise software vendor, according to the distributor.

Yesterday we mentioned a fork of Novell’s Hula. We wish the best of luck to the Bongo developers, who continue where Novell left off. We also wrote about Bongo about 12 months ago.

In 2005, we thought that we had a solution when Novell released Hula, an open source version of Netmail. Unfortunatly, things didn’t went too far but it ultimately led to a fork called Bongo.

GWAVA, whose videos we showed here several times in the past, has won Novell’s partner of the year award.

Held at Novell´s global kick-off event in Orlando, Florida, and attended by hundreds of Novell´s worldwide sales and marketing staff, GWAVA was awarded due to its overall exceptional work and product support for the Novell GroupWise Collaboration Community.

Projity has hit the 1.0 milestone and celebrated this with a self-promotional press release that also gives Novell some bragging rights.

“Novell supports all community efforts to bring more applications to the Linux desktop,” said Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Linux and Open Platform Solutions at Novell. “OpenProj addresses an important customer need — the availability of an open source application for project management. As more users migrate to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and OpenOffice.org, these users will be seeking tools like OpenProj to help them complete their daily business tasks.” — Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Linux and Open Platform Solutions at Novell

Novell is listed among those who having presence in a new Parallels webcast.

There will be a launch webcast event (www.parallels.com/launchevent) with Parallels CEO, Serguei Beloussov on Thursday (January 31) at 11 AM Eastern U.S time that will further illuminate the Parallels strategy for the next generation of virtualization products. Joining will be executives from AMD, HP, Intel, Novell and SGI.

Novell seems to be flirting with quite a few virtualisation companies at the same time, but then again, so do IBM and Red Hat. it’s all about choice. █

Another point Vasile makes to clients is that open source doesn’t mean anti-commercial. “That’s a big misconception,” he said. “Under the GPL, if you want to charge for software, you can. However, you then have obligations.”

Mainly, if you charge for GPL software, you must keep the core open. “If you get GPL code, modify it, and sell it, you have to give the people you sell it to the same rights you received. Your customers must be able to copy, modify, and distribute without difficulty,” he said.

This, in fact, is an interesting key point which, according to Moglen, has left Microsoft exoposed to nasty consequences. It almost makes Novell’s deal a beneficial one. And as far as risk goes, Ubuntu’s founder argues that patent trolls are the greatest threat, not predatory deals. He is also certain that Microsoft will have nothing by scare tactics to offer as a weapon.

In short, Microsoft will lose a patent trench war if they start one, and I’m sure that cooler heads in Redmond know that.

1. Both Nat Friedman and Miguel de Icaza are reported to have visited Microsoft to say that the patent agreement as written isn’t acceptable, and Microsoft said itself publicly that a change was needed. Where is the rewrite? When might we expect it? What will the changes be?

[...]

3. For Novell: You promised the community that you would use your patent portfolio to protect Linux. Now you ally with this Microsoft statement, that the deal is “enabling both companies to recognize commercial value from their respective patent portfolios.” Why did you break that promise? Do you care that the majority of the FOSS community is opposed to software patents? How do you reconcile the clear intent of GPLv2 that no restrictions, such as a patent license, can be added to the GPL and what you signed?