Today has proven to be a monumental day in the Open Source Community, with the Release of Aiki Framework 0.6 alongside it’s featured website: Open Clip Art Library 2.7. The Fabricatorz Team is largely responsible for the development of these latest iterations and we are proudly endorsing their entrance into the public domain!

Fabricatorz Developer (and Lead Aiki Developer), Bassel Safadi, has pushed out a new and improved package for Aiki’s latest instance. A major compatibility hurdle has been tackled with out-of-box Language Support. Now, sites created using the web framework can be efficiently localized all over the world!

If multi-lingual websites aren’t enough to peak interest, another (and even more promising) feature arrives in Aiki Framework 0.6: Revision Control. Adjustments made to sites and widgets are logged and it’s now possible to return to previous incarnations! Bassel says of this latest asset:

Revision Control was a hotly requested feature that I’m very excited to have been able to bring to Aiki Framework. Developers now have even greater control over the progress of their sites. In the future, we will expose this feature more along with other ways of notifying Aiki developers about updates to Aiki Installations.

The 2.7 Edition of The Open Clip Art Library is marked by several adjustments and ever-increasing stats. Most noticeably, a link to a web survey has been placed atop OCAL’s main pages. The Librarians encourage all users of the platform to fill out the short questionnaire, as the results will help Developers push Open Clip Art Library in more effective ways. October saw the upload of over 600 svg files and more than 1,500 new registered users! Along with the more robust collection, a Thanksgiving-themed clip art set is now available. Users can download individual works created by Community Artists or a single download that encapsulates the entire body of work.

For more information on the recent launch, check out the Official Press Release.

Weeks spent hopping the globe and spreading the word on Open Source Tech have brought the Fabricatorz back into a heavy development cycle. As all of these projects and events evolve, Community updates become vital to those keeping track, and the first week of November promises a month packed with new and exciting projects!

Fabricatorz Developer, Christopher Adams, has been busy promoting Sharism on a global scale. Christopher and other Fabricatorz launched The Sharism Forum, at Get It Louder 2010 in Beijing, where the ideology behind new cultures stressing openness and sharing was featured and promoted.

October 23 brought Fabricatorz (Barry, Bassel, Jon and Christopher) to Doha, where they held an Open Source Workshop at the Digitally Open conference hosted by ICTQatar. The Workshop brought in a maximum capacity crowd of students and professionals eager to learn techniques, histories, and best practices of an emerging and Open digital culture.

October 25 saw even more Sharism love at a Creative Commons Salon in Beirut at Karaj, where Christopher again spent time introducing and presenting. Last week was rounded out with a group Developer/Planning Session at Hackerspace Damascus, where progress on new features for Aiki Framework were focal points.

In related Open Source news, The Open Clip Art Library recently received some contributions from a group of first-time users of it’s key development tool: Inkscape. John Haltiwanger led a class where students investigated the possibilities of the tool as an alternative to proprietary systems for creating digital artwork. Some examples from the students are shown above, below and as a part of the heading graphic.

Marije Rooze notes in her blog, after her work in Inkscape:

I like the idea of open source, of community and sharing. In terms of sympathy my head goes to initiatives like Inkscape. But I am also a creature of habit, unwilling to let go of something so good as Illustrator.

Marije’s impressions are indicative of the challenges that the Open Source Community has to address in order to move forward and continue cultivating a healthier and more vibrant digital culture. The Fabricatorz are hard at work making this a reality. Stay tuned for more Fabricatorz Business and Open Source cultural happenings.