[Linux-aus] Grant request: Travel assistance for ODF+RDF talk at OLS

[Ben Martin]

Hi folks,
  Firstly, a big thank you to Sridhar Dhanapalan and Steve Dalton for
supporting the application! 

  I'm not sure on the status of the application. It's been about a month
since I proposed it and the event itself starts on the 11th of July
(about 3 weeks time).

  In any case, I'll be doing my best to continue to promote ODF and open
document computing standards & software. (& write more of the later of
course). If semantics in ODF sounds interesting to anyone on the list,
feel free to drop me an email :)

On Mon, 2012-06-04 at 16:29 +1000, Ben Martin wrote:
> IIRC there was some two week discussion window which ended yesterday.
> 
> Happy to hear other comments on this.
> 
> On Sun, 2012-05-20 at 17:55 +1000, Ben Martin wrote:
> > Date: 20 may 2012
> > 
> > Project Name:
> > Travel assistance to OLS to talk about RDF+ODF in both Calligra and
> > Abiword.
> > OLS is on July 11-13 in Ottawa.
> > http://www.linuxsymposium.org/2012/speakers.php?types=talk,tutorial,lightning,bofs
> > 
> > Aim of Project:
> > The ODF document format includes provision to store and associate one or
> > more RDF/XML files inside the PDF zip file container with the document
> > (content.xml). Thus, the format allows for semantic information to be a
> > first class citizen in document computing. The catch is making sure that
> > many of the document editing applications can offer the user a method of
> > taking advantage of RDF simply and making the experience compelling
> > enough that businesses demand RDF as part of their documents.
> > 
> > Simply, the aim is to move word processors from tools which arrange
> > strings of characters to being tools which allow editing semantic
> > documents. Then the document can know about who, what, where, why, and
> > the relation between things. Tables of content can be supplemented with
> > tables of semantic relations and logistics timelines. I think RDF in ODF
> > gives the opportunity for the semantic web stuff to move onto open
> > source desktops before it gains mainstream acceptance.
> > 
> > I have made inroads in both Calligra and Abiword to this ends, and am
> > hopeful to attract interest at OLS to further and accelerate the pace of
> > development. While I enjoy attending conferences as much as the next
> > person, the main goal of this grant is to try to get larger companies
> > attending OLS interested in RDF/ODF enough to help move it forward. Of
> > course, I'd love to be a part of helping that movement too on the C++
> > coding front :) Ancillary: if anyone wishes to hack on this stuff or
> > knows projects which might like to use it, feel free to contact me!
> > 
> > I can see two ways that Australian citizens could benefit from this
> > grant. I say could because the grant is to travel in order to try to
> > gain wider acceptance, more hackers, and interest in the core idea of
> > RDF+ODF. It is very hard to directly tie tangible positive outcomes. 
> > 
> > The first good thing I see would be helping to save people from being
> > locked in to online "cloud" service providers for document computing,
> > with their vendor lockin, variable T&C, and closed source codebases
> > which disappear. Some of these offerings are trying to integrate with
> > Web 2.0 to provide a more compelling experience for the user. This
> > integration is exactly what RDF+ODF offers in a purely open standards
> > way.
> > 
> > A longer term benefit would be having RDF on the OLPC write activity.
> > The write activity is based on abiword, so could allow for RDF to be
> > collaboratively edited by millions of children, a subset of these being
> > Australian citizens. If RDF is accepted by children as useful, perhaps
> > not at the triple level, but at a level that it helps do something
> > useful, then it becomes a widely used and expected feature of document
> > computing.
> > 
> > Person Responsible for Request:
> > Ben Martin
> > 
> > Request:
> > Return airfare to Ottawa in July ($3500 or below).
> > 
> > Orbitz has this pegged at $3300 to $3700 on a major carrier.
> > A route not considered by them is:
> > Brisbane <-> tokyo, Qantas      = $1150
> > tokyo <-> ottawa  , AmericanAir = $1600
> >                                 --------
> >                                 = $2750
> > And probably cheaper yet with jetstar, but also flight dates are
> > critical to price and likely to change by the time approval of the grant
> > may occur.
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > linux-aus mailing list
> > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> > http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/linux-aus
> 
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