Feeding Black Ducks Bullshit

A mallard-loving friend of mine told me about the Black Duck Test. At first, I thought he was talking about Black Swans, but apparently he was referring to a much more common kind of event. Rumor has it that the Black Duck company is well on its way to do a Google. That is, to be so successful in branding that the product name becomes the general one for a phenomenon.

A Black Duck Test is used when, for example, an investor wants to get a grip of to what extent Open Source code has been used in a piece of software and what licences apply. The use of Open Souce can help developers find a way around the "software iron triangle", by reducing cost and time but not features. However, if badly managed in terms of origin the code can be nightmare if you want to sell the company and the investors want to do a technical due dilligence.

From London Spring 2008

In Sweden right now, it's not possible to open a newspaper or watch TV without being bombarded with political messages. General Election Day is September 19 and it's going to be a close fight between the two blocks, with red-green and centre-right coalition. However, since this is Sweden, there's little difference between the blocks where everybody agrees upon the ambition to keep the welfare state and that more companies and entrepreneurship are needed. The major disagreements concerns what taxes to raise and lower. The established parties are also united in their strong detest of the anti-immigrant party, and I sincerely hope we can keep them out of the Parliament.

It's interesting to see new kinds of services in relation to the election. All parties have been inspired by Obama's use of the Internet, and are now freely experimenting with various kinds of social media. But there are other examples such as the media companies who have started blogs where citizens can ask for verification of political claims such as Faktakollen. You can also get the major party leaders as cut-out dolls, although I'm afraid I don't think they'll make it to Stardolls.

However there's one important service missing. In politics memory is short. For example, the Socialist Party which usually is very pro Keynes, is now complaining about the way the current government has been running the finances where lots of public spending has been used to keep unemployment down. So what I would like is a kind of Black Duck Test for party manifestos, where it can be checked to what extent parts have been taken from older ones or even other parties', but also to what extent the negation of current politics can be found among former critique of others. Now, that would be a service I could engage in!