Don’t miss the biggest open source news in the last two weeks.
In this open Source news roundup, we share Facebook’s open source two algorithms to find harmful content, Apple’s new role in the data transfer project, and more news you should know about.
Facebook’s open source algorithm is used to find harmful content
Facebook has announced that it has opened source two algorithms used to detect child exploitation, terrorist threats and graphic violence on the platform. In an Aug. 1 blog post, Facebook shared PDQ and TMK + PDQF, two technologies that store files as digital hashed, and then compared them to examples of known harmful content — now posted on GitHub.
The code was released under pressure from Facebook to remove harmful content from the platform as quickly as possible. When a mass murder in New Zealand was exposed on Facebook Live in March, the Australian government threatened Facebook executives with fines and jail if the video was not removed in time. By releasing the source code for these algorithms, Facebook says it hopes nonprofit organizations, tech companies and independent developers will help it find and remove harmful content more quickly.
Alibaba has released the fastest open source CPU
Last month, Alibaba subsidiary Flathead Semiconductor Unveiled its Basalt 91 processor. It can be used in infrastructure such as artificial intelligence, Internet of things, 5G and self-driving cars. It has a 7.1 Coremark/MHz benchmark, making it the fastest open source CPU on the market.
Flathead announced plans to make its premium code available on GitHub in September. Analysts see the launch as aimed at helping China meet its goal of using local suppliers to meet 40 percent of its processor needs by 2021. Recent TARIFF changes in the United States threaten to undermine that goal, creating demand for open-source computer components.
Mattermost makes the case for open source collaboration applications
All open source communities benefit from being able to communicate with each other from one or more places. The world of team chat apps seems to be dominated by a handful of powerful tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Most of the choices are cloud-based and proprietary; Mattermost takes a different approach, selling the value of open source collaboration applications.
“People want an open source alternative because they need the trust, flexibility and innovation that only open source can provide,” said Ian Tien, co-founder and CEO of Mattermost.
With customers ranging from Uber to the Department of Defense, Mattermost has tapped into a key market: teams that need open-source software they can trust and install on their own servers. For enterprises that need collaborative applications to run on their internal infrastructure, Mattermost fills the void left by Atlassian. In a Computerworld article, Matthew Finnegan discusses why locally deployed open source chat is not dead yet.
Apple joined the open source data transfer project
Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft joined forces last year to create the Data Transfer Project (DTP). Hailed as a way to improve data security and user agency through your own data, DTP was a rare show of technical solidarity. This week, Apple announced that it would join them.
The goal of DTP is to help users move data from one online service to another via an open source platform. DTP aims to cut out the middleman by using apis and authorization tools so that users can move data from one service to another. This will eliminate the need for users to download data and then upload it to another service. Apple’s choice to join DTP, which will allow users to move data in and out of iCloud, could be a victory for privacy advocates.
Other news
- FlexiWAN’s open source SD-WAN is available for download in public beta
- [Open source Windows Calculator application gets forever top mode] 10
- [With Zowe, open source and DevOps are democratizing mainframe computers] 11
- Mozilla launches its first implementation of WebThings Gateway firmware
- Update: Make a contribution to the Mozilla code base
Thanks to the Opensource.com staff and moderators for their help this week.
Via: opensource.com/article/19/…
By Lauren Maffeo (Translator: Wxy
This article is originally compiled by LCTT and released in Linux China