Standards New Zealand today cast a "no" vote on the proposal to adopt the Open XML draft Standard as an international Standard. "After considerable discussion and input from key New Zealand stakeholders, a large number of whom opposed publication of the document as an international standard in it's current form, the Standards Council have concluded that the best vote for New Zealand is 'no'," said Grant Thomas, Chief Operating Officer, Standards New Zealand. More on the story from Standards New Zealand here.

Pair of improvements
highlight Mahara 0.8.2

With two major improvements, Mahara -- an open source electronic portfolio, weblog, resume builder and social networking system -- recently released version 0.8.2, the latest stable release of the new 0.8 series, while it ramps up an internationalized version with the upcoming version 9. More on the story from OSR Correspondent Penny Leach here.

Microsoft dealing
in terrorism?
Sun exec equates patent threats to terror tactics

The efforts of Microsoft to pressure the Linux community over alleged and unspecified patents is akin to "patent terrorism", according to an Australian executive for Sun Microsystems."What we're seeing though now can be loosely described as patent terrorism, where people are using their patent horde as a threat," said James Eagleton, systems product manager for Sun Microsystems. "It's almost like a cold war stand over tactic; where I have these patents and if you breach these patents, I'm going to come after you and sue you." More on the story from ZDNet Australia here.

New Zealand holds first
Open Source awards

On Oct. 17th, New Zealand's first Open Source Awards will be held in Wellington. The event is being spearheaded by Catalyst IT, New Zealand's largest open source provider, and the New Zealand Open Source Society. Use of Open Source in New Zealand has been on the rise across the board, and the awards aim to acknowledge this. Nominations are open until August 17, in seven categories, and can be for organisations, projects or individuals. There will be one prize in each category. More on the story from Open Source Reporter here.

A dramatic rise of open source in New Zealand's education sector over the last three years provides an example of how Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) can both a difference in society and provide a model for FOSS in business. More on the story from OSR correspondent Penny Leach can be found here.

Taking care of business,
New Zealand style

Catalyst IT, New Zealand's leading open source solutions provider, launched Open4Business, with the aim of providing a one-stop information source on open source software for the business community. The service marks Catalyst's tenth year as an independent open source provider and is also a response to a perceived sea-change in attitudes towards open source software. More on the story from m-net here, and the Open4Business site can be found here.

Oz IBM chief: Business
can learn from GNU/Linux

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