Highlights
The WordPress Economy
Next Web has an essay on the free software
economy of WordPress. Clue: the key is in customer service
and technical support.
Perhaps one of the things Mullenweg can be most proud of is that his platform and the economy that has developed around it sustains the livelihood of probably hundreds of families and thousands of people, drawing on a wide range of talent in a loyal, dedicated community. Between theme developers who sell their products on marketplaces like ThemeForest, companies that make WordPress products and employ support staff, product managers, developers, designers, lawyers, accountants and more, and Automattic itself, the reach is huge.
Finland's Nemein Oy celebrates Tenth Year in Business
Congratulations to Nemein Oy in Helsinki on their 10th Anniversary. Company Co-founder Henri Bergius is a Linux Greenhouse alumni. Nemein provides web-pages and customized intranet- and extranet solutions using Midgard.Â
Midgard is an open source content management system (CMS) that has been developed in an international community since 1999.
Hundreds of sites have been built on Midgard, from small association sites to large corporate sites. Midgard consists of different components that can be combined almost without limits.
Nemein has strong expertise in social Web-services and location-aware web services.
¿Que es Linux Greenhouse?
¿Que es Linux Greenhouse?
In Montevideo Enrique Verdes writes about the Linux
Greenhouse.
Eyebeam Annual Fundraising Appeal
Eyebeam is an art and technology center that provides a fertile
context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and
experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and
thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with
culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time.
Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates
the next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers
its contributions to the community, and invites the public to
share in a spirit of openness: open source, open content and
open distribution.
The Eyebeam Open Culture Research Group explores the history of
craft traditions, free software, open source, creative commons,
and other models of shared, open culture.
Where Tech Entrepreneurs Go in Boston
In technology strongholds like Cambridge’s Kendall Square, or
up-and-coming hotbeds like Providence, every corner hides a
restaurant, pub or hangout where deals are done on bar napkins
and where the crowd of former colleagues and connections makes
a quick bite to eat impossible for any technology entrepreneur.
10 Boston area High Tech Meeting Nodes
Linux Greenhouse Workshop
Open Source could save $1 Trillion in IT Expenditures
Electronic Government Congress in Brasilia
The International Congress Free Software and Electronic Government CONSEGI 2009 in Brasilia will have a special focus on Electronic Government. According to SERPRO Director-President, the congress will promote the Framework Integrador Demoiselle, a Java Application Framework for accelerating transactional database Web applications. CONSEGI will be held from August 26 - 28th, 2009 in Brasilia at the Escola de Administração Fazendária (ESAF.)
Malaysia's Open Source Conference
MSC Malaysia and the Malaysian Development Corporation (MDeC)
is organising
the MSC Open Source Convention (MSC OSConf ‘09), held from
31st of May to 3rd of June
2009 in Berjaya Times Square Hotel & Convention Centre,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Investments Can Yield More on K Street, Study Indicates
In a remarkable illustration of the power of lobbying in Washington, a study released last week found that a single tax break in 2004 earned companies $220 for every dollar they spent on the issue -- a 22,000 percent rate of return on their investment. The study by researchers at the University of Kansas underscores the central reason that lobbying has become a $3 billion-a-year industry in Washington: It pays. The $787 billion stimulus act and major spending proposals have ratcheted up the lobbying frenzy further this year, even as President Obama and public-interest groups press for sharper restrictions on the practice. The paper by three Kansas professors examined the impact of a one-time tax break approved by Congress in 2004 that allowed multinational corporations to "repatriate" profits earned overseas, effectively reducing their tax rate on the money from 35 percent to 5.25 percent. More than 800 companies took advantage of the legislation, saving an estimated $100 billion in the process, according to the study. The largest recipients of tax breaks were concentrated in the pharmaceutical and technology fields, including Pfizer, Merck, Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson and IBM. Pfizer alone repatriated $37 billion, representing 70 percent of its revenue in 2004, the study found. The now-beleaguered financial industry also benefited from the provision, including Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, all of which have since received tens of billions of dollars in federal bailout money. The researchers calculated an average rate of return of 22,000 percent for those companies that helped lobby for the tax break. Eli Lilly, for example, reported in disclosure documents that it spent $8.5 million in 2003 and 2004 to lobby for the provision -- and eventually gained tax savings of more than $2 billion. "There's always been speculation that lobbying is a lucrative area," said Stephen W. Mazza, a Kansas tax-law professor who is one of the authors of the study. "We've been able to come up with quantifiable returns and show that it really is the case." Mazza added that the results are "troubling" because they show how large companies can distort tax policy to benefit their bottom line. Obama has made lobbying a key target of his ethics policies, sharply limiting the access of lobbyists to the administration and forbidding the appointment of many former lobbyists in the government without special waivers. The moves have angered many lobbying groups but have had little apparent impact on the ongoing boom in K Street business. "It's always hard to measure the financial benefits of lobbying, but generally everyone knows it does bring in a lot," said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen. "That's why corporations are pouring more and more money into lobbying every year. Clearly, they understand it has a very good rate of return." The tax break in question was included as part of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, and was billed as a way to create jobs in the United States by requiring companies to use the money for specific purposes. But the Congressional Research Service and others have since found that many companies cut jobs in the wake of the tax break and that nearly all the money was used for stock buybacks or dividends. Supporters failed in a bid to include a similar tax break in this year's stimulus legislation, and a Senate subcommittee has launched an investigation into how companies used their tax savings under the 2004 program. The provision was championed in part by the Homeland Investment Coalition, a group of companies and trade associations that was formed to push for the repatriation holiday. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), one of the disbanded coalition's members, said in a statement Friday that "repatriation of profits provided a new source of investment for American companies." "PhRMA supported the legislation four years ago as part of a broad business coalition because of the additional economic benefits the bill would provide," senior vice president Ken Johnson said. "It meant jobs and skilled training for American workers, as well as a shot in the arm for local economies." - Dan Eggen in Washington Post