New open-source software predicts impacts of extreme events on grids

A new, free, open-source software reliably predicts how damage from hurricanes, ice storms, earthquakes, and other extreme events will restrict power delivery from utility grids. The Severe Contingency Solver for Electric Power Transmission is the only software available—commercially or open-source—that reliably supports analysis of extreme events that cause widespread damage.

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This is the first software to reliably, consistently, and accurately analyze extreme-event damage to a power grid—and it is the only software guaranteed to provide a solution for a severely damaged power grid. It runs on a variety of operating systems, including Windows, OS X, and Linux. That way, no matter who the user is, the software can be deployed effortlessly.
 
The Severe Contingency Solver, which is currently being used by U.S. government agencies, has potentially broader applications. The Los Alamos team is now working on similar solver capabilities in power distribution and gas networks. These new tools will further help network operators and policymakers understand and quantify how multiple critical infrastructures will respond to extreme events where many components are out of service simultaneously. This provides situational awareness beyond commercially available analysis software and helps stakeholders better respond to extreme events, such as deciding to mobilize FEMA or dispatching additional repair crews from neighboring areas.

Why the Apache Unomi Open-Source Customer Data Platform Is Worth a Look

Customer experience (CX) demands personalization, and personalization requires access to a wide variety of customer data. Today, that data is commonly maintained in separate, siloed systems of record and engagement. However, marketers need a consolidated 360-degree-view of customer data to personalize content and make relevant recommendations. Thus was born the customer data platform (CDP), a relatively new approach to master data management for CX data.

The open source business model: can 'free' be 'profitable'?

The spirit and power of open source lies in freedom, and not in its being free.

The Open Science Of Reproductive Biology: A New Open-Source Project For Sperm Analysis

Recently, a manifesto for reproducible science [1] has been published, where authors point to a list of good practices in order to guarantee the reproducibility of the scientific studies as much as possible. As part of what it is known as Open Science, one of the key points of this manifesto is the encouragement to make all data and software used publicly available, in order to make peer-review testing of the results and conclusions obtained in the corresponding studies. The problem here is that in most studies, the source code of the software used to either measure or analyze the data is private and inaccessible, making the comparison and understanding of why similar studies led to different conclusions difficult. Furthermore, an additional problem found is that, usually, the needs of the scientific community and the availability of commercial solutions for these needs are not always synchronized, with the former normally leading the latter. In other cases, the scientists need a level of flexibility to make changes that private solutions cannot offer because of the opaque nature of such programs.

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In the recent years, some open-source alternatives have been proposed, but these programs are still way behind the commercial CASA systems in terms of ease of use and standardization, and they have not usually been designed to encourage the scalability and the continuity of the software development. Hence, the source code is usually written in one single file and published by references to static web pages or by links to a file hosting service, like Dropbox. In this scenario, users can download the software, but they cannot update or improve these programs for the benefit of other users. In the worst cases, the link is broken shortly after publication.

My Code Is Your Code: Embracing The Power Of Open Sourcing

How open source tech is changing the world

Open source software (OSS) has been around for some time now, yet the benefits it can offer to a business are often overlooked.

Open source is software in which the source code that was used to create the program is freely available for the public to view, edit, transform and redistribute. As such, any type of software program can be open source, including and not limited to operating systems (eg, Linux), databases (eg, PostgreSQL), applications (eg, OpenOffice.org), games and programming languages (eg, Python).

OSS is identified by the type of licence it is released under. The licences OSS is released under are very specific and include the Apache 2.0 licence, Microsoft Public Licence and GNU General Public Licence. There may be a few variations; however, most open source licences require that the source code be freely available to everyone and users are free to modify the source code and redistribute the software and derived works at will.

How open source can survive the cloud

Open source has been the backbone of cloud innovation for the past decade, from Linux and MySQL to Kubernetes, Spark, Presto, and MongoDB. But recent developments have thrown a dark cloud over the business model behind open source, and the industry must act now to avert stifling one of its greatest sources of innovation.

As a co-creator and former project lead for Apache Hive, I know that incentives are critical for an open source ecosystem to thrive. Independent developers need the incentive to contribute their time and skills to open source projects, and those with an entrepreneurial mindset need the incentive to build companies around those projects to help them flourish.

Get Great 3D Scans with Open Photogrammetry

Not long ago, photogrammetry — the process of stitching multiple photographs taken from different angles into a 3D whole — was hard stuff. Nowadays, it’s easy. [Mikolas Zuza] over at Prusa Printers, has a guide showing off cutting edge open-source software that’s not only more powerful, but also easier to use. They’ve also produced a video, which we’ve embedded below.

Basically, this is a guide to using Meshroom, which is based on the AliceVision photogrammetry framework. AliceVision is a research platform, so it’s got tremendous capability but doesn’t necessarily focus on the user experience. Enter Meshroom, which makes that power accessible.

InfluxData charts new path for time series databases

At Google NEXT this week, Google is introducing its own strategy for accommodating open source platforms. Rather than compete with its own implementations, it is making them first-class citizens on GCP with native integration to its own cloud management infrastructure. InfluxData, the creator of one of the most popular open source time series databases, has signed on. It occurs as time series databases are starting to crawl out from behind the shadows. We'll be reviewing this more deeply next week in our postmortem on the event.

Microsoft Office vs OpenOffice vs LibreOffice: Which one is better? [Ed: How a dedicated Microsoft propaganda site covered the Free software rivals to Microsoft Office]

Microsoft Office remains to be a powerful platform among the office suits, however, with the rise of free alternative office suites like LibreOffice and Apache’s OpenOffice to Microsoft Office, the question arises if you have to switch from Microsoft Office to the open source Office suites. Both the Microsoft Office and Open source Office suits have their pros and cons, and one of the biggest decision you may have to face is to pick one among them.

Are you planning to upgrade from your old Office suite or looking out for a changeover to new Office suites? Well, choosing between a commercially licensed Microsoft Office suite and an open-source platform like LibreOffice or an OpenOffice purely depends on how it fits your needs.

ColorID discusses how open-source solutions can enable more options for campuses

In a recent addition to the company’s tech article series, ColorID’s David Stallsmith discusses the options at a university’s disposal should it decide to pursue open-source hardware and software solutions. Opting for open-source solutions can offer an alternative to the traditional practice of opting for card system vendor solutions and the comprehensive ecosystems that come with, says Stallsmith.

“Many organizations purchase these solutions exclusively from their system providers, but many others chose to acquire some applications and services from third-party suppliers,” he explains. “This latter arrangement allowed them to prioritize their options for the applications they needed according to price, features, brands and support.”

BigCommerce for Drupal Brings Customized Shopping Experiences to Drupal Community

SD Times Open-Source Project of the Week: Pantheon Heroes

WebOps for Drupal and WordPress provider Pantheon has launched a new online program, called Pantheon Heroes Community,  “dedicated to contributing to the greater good of the open web.”

The Heroes Community is meant to bring developers together with content and best practices for Drupal and WordPress. The content will be curated by a range of experts, including authors, educators, core contributors, enterprise developers and the people behind organizing events such as WordSesh, WordCamp US, JavaScript for WordPress and others, the company said in its announcement.