04.13.14

Sharing Works: Latest News Stories About Crowd-sourcing, Sharing, Transparency

Posted in News Roundup at 3:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Voting/Government

California Experiments with Open-Source Voting

After spending tens of millions of dollars in recent years on ineffective voting systems, California election officials are planning to experiment with an “open source” system that may prove to be the cure-all for secure, accessible balloting – or just another expensive failure.
Transparent civic improvement with crowdfunding platform Neighbor.ly

ARM

ARM Endorses Open-Source Sensor Platform

Sensor algorithm software company Sensor Platforms Inc. (SPI) is getting into the open-source movement by transforming its internal sensor platform into an open-source platform for sensor hubs. SPI’s Open Sensor Platform (OSP) is aimed at simplifying sensor hubs and data collection, and ARM is on board with the plan.
Sensor Platforms and ARM Introduce Open Source Software to Enable Sensor Hub Implementations

Printers

Do 3D-Printed Guns Warrant a Limit on Open-Source Design?

Guns don’t kill people, people kill people is what guns advocates say. But the guns, well, the guns do play an essential role in killing people. How much blame to place on objects of design is at the heart of MoMA’s Design and Violence ongoing online exhibition and was the subject of the series’ first debate.
Open source embroidery creates a niche stitch with the EmbroiderModder

For those not in this niche of hobbies, embroidering your favorite image on something isn’t as simple as grabbing a crappy jpeg off the website and telling the machine “go.” You need an embroidery file, and making that file is called “digitizing.” It’s best to start with vector art, and then you need to understand things like stitch types and when the thread should be trimmed. It takes some effort to learn (like any skill), but to get better at it means sitting in front of that computer with the dongles in it. And with my travel schedule, let’s just say that doesn’t happen very often. I’m excited that now I can have the design software on my Linux laptop and work on digitizing anything anytime I want, whether I’m in an airport or a hotel or a beanbag in my house.
Mamba3D Open Source 3D Printer Announced (video)

A new type of open source 3D printer called the Mamba3D has been unveiled this week and its creators MyMatics are shortly set to launch a new Kickstarter crowd funding campaign to help construct the first Mamba3D 3D printers.
Mamba3D May Just Raise The Bar For Open Source 3D Printers
Going to the extreme to make 3D printers open source

Beehives

Open Source, Printable Hives Let Citizens Help Save The Bee Population [Video]
Open Source Beehives
Wire up hives to keep bees happy and healthy

With the help of Open Source Beehives, a do-it-yourself apiary kit, you can build a hive that encourages healthy bees. The hive comes with a sensor system that collects data so that you can keep an eye on the bees in real time.
Save Your Bees With an Open Source Beehive (w/ Video)

NASA

NASA goes open source

NASA says it will publicly releases code for many of the systems the space organization has used through the years making your DIY satellite now closer than ever.
Wanna Build a Rocket? NASA’s About to Give Away a Mountain of Its Code

By that time, the code was little more than a novelty. But in recent years, the space agency has built all sorts of other software that is still on the cutting edge. And as it turns out, like the Apollo 11 code, much of this NASA software is available for public use, meaning anyone can download it and run it and adapt it for free. You can even use it in commercial products.
NASA releases code, National Robotics Week, and more

Robotics

Glaucus, an open-source soft robot sea-slug, sort of

“The Glaucus, named after the Blue Sea Slug (Glaucus Atlanticus), is an open source soft robotic quadruped from Super-Releaser { http://superreleaser.com }. It is a proof of concept for a method developed at Super-Releaser that can reproduce nearly any geometry modeled on the computer as a seamless silicone skin. The company hopes to apply these same techniques to practical problems in medicine and engineering as the technology develops.
Open-Source Robotic Arm Comes to Life

There isn’t an engineer out there who hasn’t, at one point, wanted a robotic arm. Unfortunately, they’re quite costly. Dan Royer from Marginally Clever, however, has released an open-source 3DOF robotic arm that is sure to get many excited.

Drug Discovery

India’s Open Source Drug Discovery Program Faces Lack Of Funding
India’s Open Source Experiment Short on Funds, Talent
The Collateral Benefits of India’s Open Source Drug Discovery Programme

India’s Open Source Drug Discovery programme is struggling for lack of expertise and a research ecosystem. However, the programme’s real contribution may be the creation of just such an ecosystem

Starck/Furniture

Philippe Starck’s Open Source Furniture Lets You Try Your Hand At Design
Philippe Starck’s Open Source Furniture Lets You Try Your Hand at Design
open source furniture by philippe starck for TOG

…downloaded as data to be 3D printed at home.

Misc.

If you dig maps, history, and open-source tinkering, the New York Public Library just made your week
MEG The Open Source Indoor Smart Greenhouse (video)

If you don’t have a garden or a balcony but fancy growing your own herbs and vegetables you might be interested in a new smart indoor greenhouse called MEG, which has been launched over on the Kickstarter crowd funding website.
Understanding The Facets of “OPEN”
The business of guiding other businesses to open source
The open source culture of freedom and responsibility at Netflix
Organizations with innovative IT departments value collaboration

In the open source community, we know the value of collaboration. It’s at the core of everything we do. Some of us are lucky to work for organizations that understand and embrace the power of collaboration. Yet, the silo mentality runs rampant in many organizations where collaboration and internal crowdsourcing is not valued. (Opensource.com readers who are pursuing open source projects on the side, but spend their days working at companies with silos are likely very familiar with this).
Crowdsource vs Open Source

This is especially relevant to software. When we forget to provide software freedom, a collaborative project becomes just another crowdsourced project. This isn’t just a matter of philosophy — it affects the degree and quality of collaboration too. A crowdfunded project will have to be created and maintained solely by the recipient of the funds, even if they claim to be creating an “open community”. Open source is unlocked by the equality of all participants in a given community. When that equality is constrained, the network effect that delivers the benefits the initiator is seeking will be inhibited.
Valcucine’s open-source project to inspire sustainable kitchen designs
Small group of makers transforms a big idea into a community of users

Though they’re on a trajectory without a clear future, their vision is crystal. To share what they’ve created with the world and allow the natural course of innovation and invention to change lives—without the obstacles of patents and the barriers of cost.
pedalSHIELD designed using the open source tool KiCad

There are a good number of nice programmable DIY guitar pedals out there. So, the pedalSHIELD is nothing new, except for the fact that I think we’ve strived harder than the rest to keep the project open, simple, supported, and affordable. The idea was to design a platform for Arduino users to learn about digital signal processing, effects, and synthesizers—also to experiment without a deep knowledge in electronics or programming.
Open Source Racer Heading for 24 Hours LeMans
Skirmos Takes Laser Tag To The Next Level By Going Open Source

Skirmos Takes Laser Tag To The Next Level By Going Open SourceLaser tag is something that we might have played before in the past. The premise of laser tag is simple: aim for the enemy, pull the trigger, score some points. However a Kickstarter project b y the name of Skirmos is hoping to take a relatively simple game like laser tag to the next level by making it an open source project.

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What Else is New

Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) Willing to Work With Campinos But Foresees Difficulties

New message from SUEPO regarding Battistelli's successor of choice (Campinos)
Links 18/10/2017: GTK+ 3.92, Microsoft Bug Doors Leaked

Links for the day
The Darker Past of the Next President of the EPO - Part I: Introduction

Some new details about Mr. Campinos, who is Battistelli’s successor at the EPO
Confessions of EPO Insiders Reveal That European Patents (EPs) Have Lost Their Legitimacy/Value Due to Battistelli's Policies

A much-discussed topic at the EPO is now the ever-declining quality of granted patents, which make or break patent offices because quality justifies high costs (searches, applications, renewals and so on)
Patent Firms From the United States Try Hard to Push the Unitary Patent (UPC), Which Would Foment Litigation Wars in Europe

The UPC push seems to be coming from firms which not only fail to represent public interests but are not even European
In the Age of Alice and PTAB There is No Reason to Pursue Software Patents in the United States (Not Anymore)

The appeal board in the US (PTAB) combined with a key decision of the Supreme Court may mean that even at a very low cost software patents can be invalidated upon demand (petition) and, failing that, the courts will invalidate these
IAM is Wrong, the Narrative Isn't Changing, Except in the Battistelli-Funded (at EPO's Expense) Financial Times

The desperate attempts to change the narrative in the press culminate in nothing more than yet another misleading article from Rana Foroohar and some rants from Watchtroll
The Federal Circuit Continues Squashing Software Patents

Under the leadership of Sharon Prost the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) continues its war on software patents, making it very hard to remember the last time it tolerated any
SUEPO Representatives Like Elizabeth Hardon Vindicated as Battistelli's Detrimental Effect on Patent Quality is Widely Confirmed

Feedback regarding the awful refusal to acknowledge patent quality crisis at the EPO as well as the appointment of a President so close to Battistelli (who most likely assures continuation of his policies)
Links 17/10/2017: KDE Frameworks 5.39.0, Safe Browsing in Epiphany

Links for the day
Judge Bryson Rules Against Allergan After It Used Native American Tribes to Dodge Scrutiny of Patents (IPRs); Senator Hatch Does Not Understand IPRs

Having attempted to dodge inter partes reviews (IPRs) by latching onto sovereign immunity, Allergan loses a key case and Senator Hatch is meanwhile attempting to water down IPRs albeit at the same time bemoaning patent trolls (which IPRs help neutralise)
Rumours That António Campinos Initially Had No Competition at All (for Battistelli's Succession) Are Confirmed

Succession at the EPO (mostly French) shows that there's little room for optimism and Battistelli's people are too deeply entrenched in the upper echelons of the EPO
EPO Stakeholders Complain That the New Chairman Does Not Grasp the Issues at the EPO (or Denies These)

Some information from inside the EPO’s Administrative Council, whose Chairman is denying (at least to himself) some of the core issues that render the EPO less competitive in the international market
Another Misleading Article Regarding Patents From Rana Foroohar at the Financial Times

In an effort to promote the agenda of patent maximalists, many of whom are connected to the Financial Times, another deceiving report comes out
Monika Ermert's Reports About the Crisis at the EPO and IP Kat's Uncharacteristically Shallow Coverage

News from inside the Council shows conflict regarding the quality of European Patents (granted by the EPO under pressure from top-level management)
Patent Troll VirnetX a Reminder to Apple That Software Patents Are a Threat to Apple Too

VirnetX, a notorious patent troll, is poised to receive a huge sum of money from Apple and Qualcomm is trying to ban Apple products, serving to remind Apple of the detrimental impact of patents on Apple itself
Links 16/10/2017: Linux 4.14 RC5, Debian 9.2.1, End of LibreOffice Conference 2017

Links for the day
The Systematic Erosion of Workers' Rights and Holidays at the EPO Goes Years Back

The legitimacy of the staff's concerns at the EPO, having seen basic labour safeguards being shredded to pieces by Battistelli for a number of years (predating even the escalation of the conflict)
Articles in English and German Speak About the Decline in Quality of European Patents (Granted by the EPO)

Heise and The Register, two sites that have closely watched EPO affairs for a number of years, speak about the real problem which is declining patent quality (or rushed examination) -- a recipe for frivolous litigation in Europe
Software Patents and Patent Trolls Not a Solved Issue, But the US is Getting There

A media survey regarding software patents, which are being rejected in the US in spite of all the spin from law firms and bullies such as IBM
US Patent Trolls Are Leaving and the Eastern District of Texas Sees Patent Cases Falling by More Than Half

The decline of patent aggression in the US and the patent microcosm's response to Justices, having ruled in TC Heartland, curtailing patent trolls
Qualcomm's Nightmares Are Getting Worse as Antitrust Questions Are Raised and Assessed

Qualcomm is getting itself deeper in trouble as fines pile up and its multi-billion dollar dispute with Apple isn't getting it anywhere
Forget About Apple; Two of the Leading Phone Makers (Samsung and Huawei) Are Bickering Over Patents

Massive Android OEMs, Huawei and Samsung, are in a big patent dispute and this time, for a change, China is a legal battleground
Tim Heberden From the Glasshouse Advisory is Throwing Stones in a Glasshouse to Create Patent Litigation

IAM's latest lobbying, aided by the patent microcosm, for a climate of feuds and disputes (to line the pockets of the litigation 'industry')
Access to Medicine is More Important Than Patents

Some of the latest news about patents that impede/deny access to crucial medication; strategic litigation from the generics sector, seeking to invalidate patents and then offer low-cost alternatives
Links 14/10/2017: Windows Breaks Dutch Law, Wine 2.19 Released

Links for the day
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Supported by Congress, a Federal Judge, Soon to be Supported by the Supreme Court Too?

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board is still widely defended, except by the patent microcosm which likes (and profits from) patent trolls and litigation Armageddon
Patents Are Turning BlackBerry and Nokia, Which Used Android, Into Anti-Android Fronts That Tax Android OEMs

The Canadian BlackBerry has sued BLU in the US only to compel it to pay 'protection' money; Nokia's patents are being scattered to trolls, which are doing something similar (without risking litigation themselves)
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is Rotting Like the European Patent Office

The Unitary Patent litigation pipe dreams (or prosecution/trolling fast lane), which Battistelli's EPO long relied on, turn out to be the road to nowhere
Lying and Faking Now a Standard Procedure at the European Patent Office

The European Patent Organisation (EPO) under the leadership (or chairmanship) of Christoph Ernst continues to relay lies from Battistelli's Office, SUEPO rejects these, the Office lies about SMEs, prioritises Microsoft (again), and probably buys fake Twitter "followers"