News articles from 2012
The winners of the 2012 New Zealand Open Source Awards were announced at a gala dinner in Wellington last night.
8 November, 2012
The winners for each category were:
- Open Source Use in Government: GNS Science for GeoNet Rapid(external link), a state of the art, fast and innovative earthquake location and information system that is a key component of the GeoNet Project.
- Open Source Use in Business: Totara Learning Management System(external link), the open source corporate learning platform.
- Open Source Use in Education: Manaiakalani(external link) the digital access programme in nine of Auckland's lowest decile schools.
- Open Source Use in The Arts: Whisper Down The Lane,(external link) the open source art project for The Obstinate Object: Contemporary New Zealand Sculpture at the City Gallery Wellington in 2012.
- The National eScience Infrastructure Open Science Award(external link): GNS Science for their Data Policy and Services, the policy for all data including seismic wave form data as well as derived data, such as the catalogue of earthquake locations made by the GeoNet Project.
- Open Source Software Project: Piwik(external link): the open source web analytics software.
- Open Source Contributor: Grant McLean, for contributions to Perl and the wider open source community.
- Open Source in Social Services: (JOINT WINNERS) Soup Hub(external link) and Wellington City Council's Housing Computer Hubs(external link), for using open source to enable the most vulnerable and impoverished access to Internet and related technologies.
- The ZaReason People's Choice award(external link)*: Sofa Statistics,(external link) a powerful open-source and cross-platform statistical analysis and reporting application.
(* The People's Choice Award winner also receives a ZaReason ZaTab Android tablet computer.)
- Special Award: Promoting Open Culture: The Warrington School for the Ubuntu Room, a low-powered community radio station that runs on Open Source software and plays only Creative Commons licensed music.
Finalists for the New Zealand Open Source Awards Announced
31 October, 2012
The finalists for the 2012 New Zealand Open Source Awards have been announced. The final award winners will be announced at the Gala Dinner in Wellington on November 7.
Chair of the judging panel Jason Ryan, from Catalyst IT, said the judges were impressed by the range and quality of the nominations.
“The quality and consistency of the nominations this year presented the judges with a welcome problem: how to decide which of these projects and people to recognize on the night.
The depth and breadth of achievement by the New Zealand open source community, both locally and internationally, is nothing short of impressive. We are fortunate to have so many people here using open source technology and philosophy to deliver amazing technical, social and creative projects.
“Ultimately, though, we have to narrow down a list of nominations to recognize on the night and we have agreed that the following people and projects comprise the finalists for the 2012 New Zealand Open Source Awards.”
- Government: Central Agencies Shared Services use of Koha Library Management System, GNS Science for GeoNet Rapid, Piwik.
- Business: Fulcrum, Piwik and Totara LMS.
- Education: the Catalyst Academy, Manaiakalani, Warrington School for the Ubuntu Room.
- Arts:the Big Idea, Daniel Reurich for the Open Source Organ Refit, Whisper Down The Lane.
- Software Project: NIWA for Cylc, Piwik, Sofa Statistics.
- Open Source Contributor: Michael Kerrisk, Grant McLean, Simon Welsh.
- Social Services: EQNZ for the Christchurch Earthquake Ushahidi, SoupHub, Wellington City Council for Housing Computer Hubs.
- Open Science: Computational Evolution Group for BEAST, GNS Science for their GeoNet Data Policy, NIWA for Cylc.
Clinton Bedogni Prize for Open Systems – last chance for entries
9 October 2012
The biennial Clinton Bedogni Prize for Open Systems, proudly administered by The University of Auckland’s Department of Computer Science, will be announced at the New Zealand Open Source Awards 2012 gala event on Wednesday 7 November in Wellington.
Endowed by the Bedogni family, the Clinton Bedogni Prize recognises world-class work in open systems and open source projects and research. It is designed to reward the New Zealander from industry or academia who has made the greatest contribution to open systems in the past two years.
There is still a chance to take part in the competition, and entries are welcome until the closing date of 31 October 2012.
“This year’s entries represent the best of the best,” says organiser Professor Robert Amor from the Department of Computer Science. “As a prestigious event that celebrates New Zealand’s high calibre of free and open source software development, the New Zealand Open Source Awards is a very appropriate occasion to announce the winner.”
“It was a great honour to receive the Clinton Bedogni Prize. New Zealand has a strong open source community and I look forward to finding out who will be the next recipient of the prize,” says Robert O’Callahan, who won the inaugural prize in 2010 for his contributions to Mozilla Firefox and open web standards. At the time of his award Mr O’Callahan had been a contributor to the Mozilla project for more than ten years and established Mozilla’s Auckland development office.
The biennial Clinton Bedogni Prize was established through a gift from the Bedogni family in memory of Clinton Bedogni. Clinton had a deep passion for computers and an intense interest and capability in Linux-based systems. The family’s gift also supports in perpetuity the Clinton Bedogni Fellowship in Open Systems Research in the Department of Computer Science.
The Clinton Bedogni Prize is open to New Zealand citizens and permanent residents, as individuals. The definition of Open Systems used for the prize is broadly interpreted, and refers to interoperable systems with standards-based and well documented framework of functionality and interfaces, not necessarily, but preferably, free and open source.
For more information, including the application form, visit: www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/our_department/Clinton_Bedogni (external link)
Open Science Award for NZOSA
Media Release - 29 August 2012
New Zealand eScience Infrastructure is the inaugural Open Science Award Sponsor
For the first time, the 2012 New Zealand Open Source Awards will include a category recognizing the importance of science to the wider community. The Open Science Award will be awarded to the outstanding use of free and open source software to make scientific research and data accessible to all.
This new category highlights that open licensing for research, software and data fosters cooperation and creates real value in the research sector. The New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) anticipates this award will highlight leadership by New Zealand researchers applying open licensing and open approaches in their research.
"NeSI is delighted to be part of the awards," says Nick Jones, Director of NeSI.
"We work everyday with researchers who are creating and applying openly licensed software and data to their research, and know first hand the impact it can have as we use, contribute to and create open source software ourselves."
New Zealanders are invited to nominate scientists who participate in open science for the award, including those who apply open licensing to their software, data, and publications or who have applied openly licensed software, data, and publications to achieve significant research results.
Open source software is often a strong enabler of science. There are global leaders originating from New Zealand, such as the well known R programming language. R began its life at The University of Auckland, received special recognition at last year's awards and is used by hundreds of thousands of researchers worldwide.
Nominations for the general awards close at midnight on October 4, 2012. Nominations for the People's Choice Award will then run from October 12 until midnight October 26.
The Awards ceremony will be held on November 7, 2012.
Internet New Zealand backs Open Source Awards
Media Release - 2 August 2012
The organisers of the New Zealand Open Source Awards are pleased to announce that Internet New Zealand has been confirmed as a Platinum sponsor of the event.
Internet New Zealand Chief Executive Vikram Kumar says the organisation is proud to be supporting the Open Source Awards, noting that the vision of a free and uncaptureable Internet depends in large measure on open source software.
“Much of the Internet has been built with open source tools and principles. Internet New Zealand recognises the critical role that open source developers and contributors have made and continue to make to the Internet and wider New Zealand society,” he says.
The Open Source Awards will be held on Wednesday 7 November in Wellington. The Awards are designed to raise awareness of free and open source software, recognising the contributions of New Zealanders to the open source philosophy and exemplary use of open source by New Zealand organisations.
A number of nominations have been submitted across nine Award categories. For the 2012 Awards a new category has been introduced – 'Open Source in Social Services'. This is shaping up to be a popular category, having already received five nominations for three different projects.
Other categories in this year's awards are: Open Source Use in Government, Open Source Use in Business, Open Source Use in Education, Open Source Use in The Arts, Open Source Software Project, Open Source Contributor, Open Science Award and the Open Source People's Choice Award.
This year marks the fourth time that the awards have been held. Previous winners have included open source website developer Silverstripe, online services firm Ponoko and Radio New Zealand.
Catalyst IT is the Award’s other Platinum sponsor. Gold sponsors are the New Zealand Open Source Society and Open Systems Specialists. Other sponsors include Egressive and Rabid Tech.
More information about the Awards, including nomination forms, is available at http://nzosa.org.nz (external link)
For more information contact:
Jason Ryan jason@catalyst.net.nz
04-803 239 or 027 244 7081
Internet New Zealand backs Open Source Awards
Media Release - 2 August 2012
The organisers of the New Zealand Open Source Awards are pleased to announce that Internet New Zealand has been confirmed as a Platinum sponsor of the event.
Internet New Zealand Chief Executive Vikram Kumar says the organisation is proud to be supporting the Open Source Awards, noting that the vision of a free and uncaptureable Internet depends in large measure on open source software.
“Much of the Internet has been built with open source tools and principles. Internet New Zealand recognises the critical role that open source developers and contributors have made and continue to make to the Internet and wider New Zealand society,” he says.
The Open Source Awards will be held on Wednesday 7 November in Wellington. The Awards are designed to raise awareness of free and open source software, recognising the contributions of New Zealanders to the open source philosophy and exemplary use of open source by New Zealand organisations.
A number of nominations have been submitted across nine Award categories. For the 2012 Awards a new category has been introduced – 'Open Source in Social Services'. This is shaping up to be a popular category, having already received five nominations for three different projects.
Other categories in this year's awards are: Open Source Use in Government, Open Source Use in Business, Open Source Use in Education, Open Source Use in The Arts, Open Source Software Project, Open Source Contributor, Open Science Award and the Open Source People's Choice Award.
This year marks the fourth time that the awards have been held. Previous winners have included open source website developer Silverstripe, online services firm Ponoko and Radio New Zealand.
Catalyst IT is the Award’s other Platinum sponsor. Gold sponsors are the New Zealand Open Source Society and Open Systems Specialists. Other sponsors include Egressive and Rabid Tech.
More information about the Awards, including nomination forms, is available at http://nzosa.org.nz (external link)
For more information contact:
Jason Ryan jason@catalyst.net.nz
04-803 239 or 027 244 7081
Nominations for 2012 New Zealand Open Source Awards Open
Friday 8 June, 2012
Nominations for the 2012 New Zealand Open Source Awards are officially open. On November 7, in Wellington, New Zealand's open source community will gather to celebrate those businesses, projects and individuals that have been recognized by their peers as representing the best open source endeavours over the last two years.
The last awards, held in 2010, celebrated a wide range of people and organizations that made a significant impact in their sectors or communities with open source. Winners included Ponoko, Silverstripe, Albany Senior High School and IRD.
Nominations for the 2012 awards are open for the best use of open source in the following categories: the Arts, Business, Education, Government, Science, and Social Services. There are also individual awards for: Best Project and Best Contributor and the People's Choice Award.
This year, the panel of judges is comprised of Dave Moskovitz, Dr. Fabiana Kubke, Francois Maurier, Dave Lane, Dr. Brenda Chawner, Austen Sinclair and Paul Seiler. The judging panel is chaired by Jason Ryan.
All of the details, and an online nomination form, are on the website: http://nzosa.org.nz/ (external link)
Nominations close on: 1 October 2012
There will be two other awards announced on the night, the People's Choice Award and the University of Auckland's Department of Computer Science will present the Clinton Bedogni Prize for Open Systems,” Jason Ryan said.
The judges for the 2012 New Zealand Open Source Awards are: Dr Brenda Chawner, Victoria University Wellington; Dr Fabiana Kubke, Auckland University; Dave Lane, Egressive; Francois Marier, Mozilla; Dave Moskovitz, Webfund; Paul Seiler, ETC Limited; Austen Sinclair, Inland Revenue Department.
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