Are you in need of an open source task manager? TaskFreak is definitely one solution. I came across this project recently and took a tour through the Demo and it seems promising. You can create tasks and order them by priority and deadline. You can also organize your tasks by project and context. It’s setup for Multi-Users so it could work well for your business and your employees. Here’s a shot of the interface. If you check out the demo you will find out how simple it is to use:

I’m thinking about giving this software a try for some of the designers and programmers that I outsource to. I’m thinking that the simplicity of this program may be perfect with my interaction with some of my people. If you have any experience using this software your feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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I recently came across an open source project called Ajaxpress - an open source blogging software with an Ajax administration. It’s pretty suite actually. It seems to speed things up quite nicely. Here’s the link to the website for AjaxPress. Check it out yourself.

The best use for this seems to be for a situation where you don’t need a lot of features or special plugins or anything. You just want a simple blog system that is easy to setup and configure and quick and efficient to write in. Because of the Ajax backend, AjaxPress makes it easy to quickly add new posts and manage existing posts. You will definitely speed up your blogging administration time by at least 50%. And since time seems to be the most valuable thing for us web people, you might want to give this software a try!

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Does anyone know of an open source or free multi level marketing (MLM) system? Even if it’s just a PHP script? It my research, this seems to be something that is currently missing in the open source world. That or I could be horrible at searching the web. Which is definitely a possibility!

I ask this because there are a ton of multi level marketing companies out there, and it seems that if there was an open source project were available that many could benefit from it. It seems that there would be a ton of money that could be contributed to the project because of the sheer size of the market. If you know of any answers to my question above than please leave your comment and share the info you know. It would be neat to contribute to such a project. Thanks!

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These commercials are awesome! They are the new DirecTV commercials featuring the actor from “The Break Up”. He was the brother of Jennifer Aniston’s character in the movie. These commercials are a perfect spoof on corporate America. I love it! Enjoy!

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Seriously think about this topic for a minute? Can Open Source boost our economy? Really? When I talk about open source, I mean not just about the development of free software but of social production as a whole. Think about it, the more our economy focuses on Open Source or Social Production, the more advancements you have in any given area of expertise. More inventions are found. More solutions are found. Many people understand the positive effect that ‘Open Source’ is having, but are not easily relating it to our economy.

In the computer and Internet worlds, ‘Open Source’ is assisting people in two ways. First, it’s helping build fantastic pieces of software that are helping run the everyday world. Second, it’s a higher, faster, more effective means of learning and education for developers and programmers of all types. Other industries however, are not taking advantage of ‘Open Source’ in their respective areas. And a direct correlation can be made. In almost every single struggling Industry in our economy, you can find a lack of Social Production! Stock Market, Real Estate, Restaurants etc. All currently struggle in the United States and all suffer from a lack of Social Production of some kind. Find a way to boost the social production, and you will find an increase in that particular industries economy.

A better question is will this happen? Will different market segments such as Real Estate make strong efforts towards Social Production and Open Source within their industry. It’s hard to say. I don’t know myself. In these other industries you will find greedy people. People who don’t like to share information to others. They horde! This “hording” mentality keeps their Industry from advancements into the future. And thus, threatens their industries existence. Software can only grow for so long until we will need other industries to start catching up. If they don’t, a hard falling economy will effect us all.

The Programmer’s Opportunity
On the flip side of this, a huge opportunity awaits programmers of all types. If or when people begin to look at social production as a means for success, they will start inquiring for help from programmers to build tools and applications that they need. This is when the responsibility now lies in the hands of the programmer. Instead of building a proprietary piece of software for a client, using an already existing open source project or starting one of your own will ultimately benefit that industry in the long term.

Only time will tell this story. But if professionals of all types can learn to leverage open source technologies, and also help contribute to them, as well as share and build hubs of information online you better believe increases in our Economy will follow. Social Production and Open Source is the critical factor in our economy, and the one thing that can save it!!!!

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Here’s a great lecture to watch about open source and social production by Yochai Benkler. Call me ignorant but I really don’t know who this guy is. But I do know that he knows what he’s talking about and has some great things to say.

Here are some of my notes from watching the video. He covers such topics as Wikipedia, the Apache Webserver, the Open Directory Project, P2P file sharing among others. He helps give a clearer understanding of a Collaborative Informational Environment. He describes social sharing and exchange as a modality of economic production.

Yochai Benkler also showed an interesting diagram where he talks about specific social production environments and how they are a threat to specific commercial environments. For example, P2P file sharing is a threat to the Recording Industry. Free and Open Source software is a threat to Microsoft. Wikipedia is a threat to Encarta!

These are just some of my notes. I hope you find this video as helpful and informational as I have. I hope it will motivate you to be more active in the open source community!

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