Sharing and Freedom: the Philosophy Spreads Beyond Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-20 16:34:19 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-20 16:35:01 UTC
Open Source City
An open source city, according to Jason Hibbets, project manager in Corporate Marketing at Red Hat, in his book ‘Foundation for an open source city’, is a blend of open culture, open government policies and economic development. It is an ecosystem made up of: a culture of citizen participation, effective open government policies and open data initiatives, open source user groups and conferences, and a hub for innovation and open source businesses.
Jason Hibbets is working to convince local governments to adapt open source ideas in their day to day operations. His book, “The Foundation for an Open Source City,” attempts to be a step by step guide for implementing open source ideas into government policies and solutions, based on his own experiences. He uses Raleigh, North Carolina, where he resides, as his example. He calls it the worlds first open source city. In a way, the small southern capital is his laboratory.
Optics
Optical technology is viewed as still, and likely to remain, a set of technologies in ferment - highly proprietary, tied up in intellectual property, fast changing and just not the sort of area you might try to discipline into open source standards - not at this stage..
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New user-vendor forum set to define and promote OpenFlow-based, merchant-optical networking solutions
Automobiles
“Today we manage a global community of engineers, consumers and designers that co-creates the product with us,” says Rogers, CEO of Local Motors. “Co-creation is about sharing ideas and working through the same problem together.”
Nicolas Perrinn is a firm believer in crowdsourced ideas, open source development, and fan-funded projects. What’s truly innovative about Nicolas’ choice of projects however is its scope — because Perrinn isn’t just talking about building an open source hybrid electric race car. Perrinn is talking about building an open source hybrid electric race car and pitting it against the best that industry giants Porsche, Toyota, and Audi have to offer.
Perrinn myTeam offers schoolchildren, students, engineers, enthusiasts and fans unprecedented access to contribute and share data and ideas for top flight Le Mans hybrid race car.
Libraries
Pew Research Center released a new study on Thursday showing that library users are more social than people who do not go to libraries. The report questioned 6,000 Americans, ages 16 and up, and found that more than two-thirds of Americans are actively using libraries. Along with actively using the library, users typically are more social than those who do not use the library. Library users also tend to be more active.
Sharing
The most popular items in Berlin's first "borrowing shop" are the electric drills. At least one of the local people who have registered with Leila – a little shop on Fehrbelliner Strasse, north-east of the city centre – seems to be continually fixing shelves or hanging pictures.
It's a transparent gun design powered by an Arduino board with colour-changing LEDs and a built-in screen to log essential information such as your kills, health, ammo, and anything else you might need. The Skirmos guns communicate via radio and infrared optics lets your game extend beyond the walls of your local laser tag death arena.
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The Shuttleworth Foundation has done me the honour of appointing me as a Fellow, starting today.
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It’s this ability to create communities that makes us different from our predecessors. As exemplars I look to my own immediate circle of electronic communities: Wikipedia, Mozilla, Open Knowledge Foundation, Creative Commons, Open Rights Group, Blue Obelisk …
Maps
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Back in 2005, a study in Nature concluded that Wikipedia — at the time, a free upstart just eking its way into the Google results — was about as good a source as the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica. Though it found Wikipedia had slightly more factual errors than the older reference, the study gave the website a major commendation when it needed one.
Open Data
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So, with much help from various community members, I am pleased to say we are starting to gear up for Open Data Day 2014 on February 22.
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Mapbox makes it easy for anyone to leverage the work of the hundreds of thousands of open source cartographers from all around the world who make their work available on OpenStreetMap (OSM). Contributing back to the community is part of their mission as well. With several FOSS projects in their inventory, Mapbox has already made a serious impact in the OSM community. Their efforts revolve around two development areas: parsing data and contributing data.
Open Hardware
Chris Clark is the IT director at SparkFun Electronics in Boulder, Colorado. He talked with Opensource.com community manager Jason Hibbets, late last year during the All Things Open conference about open hardware.
With traditional computer vendors' hardware sales in the proverbial toilet, one has to wonder: Where will data center hardware innovations come from? Worry not -- the fine folks at the Open Compute Project held the OCP Summit V in January 2014 in San Jose, Calif., and there was no lack of ingenuity on display.
A programmable test and measurement instrument which runs open source software developed by start-up Red Pitaya can be bought from RS later this year.
If you fancy owning your very own open source Enigma replica a new project has launched over on the Kickstarter crowd funding website that might interest you.
With this short guide we release today, we will explain you how to use your Arduino Yun to do something that was never accomplished before with a board of such family.
3D
Today, we have 3D modeling software that can pack an exponential cache of information, render designs visible with incredible fidelity, and make those designs easier to adapt. BIM technology (building information modeling) has entered the workplace, too, improving coordination and productivity of all trades involved in project construction, effectively revolutionizing the manufacturing sector. This is technology that, like CAD, has undeniably been pushed forward via the open development and integration of components.
Earlier this year, I shared my story about open source designs and my 3D printed prosthetic hand to a room of 4,600+ at Intel’s Annual International Sales Conference in Las Vegas. I joined Jon Schull on stage, the founder of e-NABLE, an online group dedicated to open source 3D printable assistive devices.
The word "open" is certainly a buzzword in 3D printing, but what does that really mean? While many are tossing around this phrase, few actually practice an open business and product philosophy. Open source hardware (or Libre hardware), notably led by the RepRap project, is experiencing rapid, cross-industry adoption. This philosophy empowers engineers, makers, builders, and creators with unprecedented freedom to change, update, and modify their products over time.
Misc.
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As a woman in open source, I have found that the values of community, open development, and flat organizational structure appeal equally to both men and women. The ability of local organizers to freely define what type of culture they are building allows them to adapt in order to appeal to the surrounding culture, while striving to improve access.
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At the Open Technology Institute (OTI), we've been working on opening our user feedback process as a way to improve our internal processes and collaboration, engage our user community more, promote non-developer contributions, and think more broadly about how open source process plays a role in the Commotion Wireless project, a free and open-source communication tool that uses mobile phones, computers, and other wireless devices to create decentralized mesh networks.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Preparations for Our 19th Anniversary Have Already Begun
- When we get back we'll probably sort out some balloons and venue for the next party
- Pleased After 2 Years With team.blue
- Moving from a Content Management System (CMS, dynamic) to a Static Site Generator (SSG) was a wise decision that made life so much easier
- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is Being Attacked by Organisations Jealous of Its Principled Stance and Longevity
- Nobody is perfect, but imperfection does not instantaneously imply sinister intent
- Many Microsoft "Assets" Are Fabricated Baloney (to Game the Numbers)
- At times it seems like what we deal with are many weak patents (on algorithms), valuations or speculations based on hype ("hey hi"), and stocks held by Microsoft and its own staff
- "Internal Changes at Red Hat / IBM"
- It seems like quite a few people are leaving
- Confirmed in French Media: Mass Layoffs (10% Culled) in Microsoft France
- Now some reports in French
- Microsoft in Freefall in Finland
- Can Finland eradicate Windows from all its infrastructure, including core operations that are sensitive to sabotage by cracking?
- Google's Chrome Passes 70% and Web Standards Are Dying
- The Web is quickly becoming devoid of any standards
- Slopwatch: Plagiarism and Ponzi Scheme, Bubble About to Burst Entirely, Admits Goldman Sachs
- the hype that Google News and The Register MS actively participate and profit from
- The Register MS Says "AI Web Crawlers Are Destroying Websites", So Why Does The Register MS Help 'AI' Companies? (Spoiler: Money)
- People need to call out The Register MS on its hypocrisy
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- Links 03/09/2025: Salesforce's Latest Mass Layoffs, 93% in Large Poll at The Register MS Say UK Government Should Dump Microsoft
- Links for the day
- If You Reject the Google Verdict in the US, Then You Should Also Reject the "Modern" Web (Do Something About It)
- Gemini Protocol is still open; it cannot be hijacked or subverted because it's frozen by design and by intention
- Open Source Initiative IRS Filing: Almost All the Money is Corporate, Stefano Maffuli (Executive Director) Takes About a Quarter of That Money for Openwashing of "AI" Ponzi Scheme
- OSI is currently little but a PR/marketing agency of Microsoft
- Many People Are "Leaving" Red Hat, Even High-Level Managers
- Something is definitely going on at Red Hat
- Techrights Has Been Subjected to Calls of Violence (and Death Threats), It Never Condoned Violence
- I have no sympathy for people who call violence "free speech" and then get in trouble
- Condoning Violent Behaviour and "Free Speech"
- perhaps Microsoft Lunduke lost touch with what constitutes violence
- Takeaway From the Google Verdict: GAFAM Has Too Much Control (Even Over the US Government and Courts With Government Appointees)
- Many people feel disappointed but hardly surprised by the verdict
- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 in One Month
- As noted a few days ago, several times in fact, many people now recognise the importance of the FSF's mission, even if most people don't know what the FSF is
- "Voluntary" Layoffs at Microsoft (to Game the Numbers, Sugar-Coating a Crisis)
- "Employees interested have until the end of October to volunteer."
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 02, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, September 02, 2025
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- Links for the day
- "People on LinkedIn Saying That They've Left Red Hat."
- We already saw signs of it a month ago and named some of the people
- Gone With the BRICs (or BRICS): "Linux 8" in Cuba
- GAFAM must be worried
- Telecompaper Reports Microsoft to Reduce the Workforce by Another 10% (in France)
- Imagine what this will do to staff's morale
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- For Microsoft, India is a runaway market
- Links 02/09/2025: SCO Summit and Russia Suspected Of Jamming GPS
- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
- Slopfarms Already Peaked, They Will Die When Slop Companies Run Out of Money to Borrow
- slopfarms will lack an actual "engine"
- Links 02/09/2025: Attacks on Unions, Microsoft TCO, and DDoSing a Growing Problem
- Links for the day
- Why We Publish Information About the SLAPPs (But Not About the Legal Process), an Abuse of Process by Americans Trying to Silence Critics of Their Employer, Microsoft
- It doesn't take thousands of pages to explain something simple
- Internet Relay Chat Didn't Fall Off a Cliff
- IRC will turn 40 in less than 3 years from now
- The UEFI 9/11 - Part V - This is Not a Drill (Disable "SecureBoot" Now)
- A "9/11" Coming
- There's No Obligation to Speak to Anybody
- The very fact that "bkuhn" is till spending time in social control media says a lot about his poor judgment
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, September 01, 2025
- Microsoft Trying to Force People to Resign (Amid Mass Layoffs) a Strategy That Takes Its Toll
- Microsoft seems to be circling down the drain and the "final flush" will be the moment the "hey hi" (AI) bubble implodes completely
- Google Simply Cannot Be Trusted
- Only fools would trust GAFAM
- Admission That a Third Party (or Parties) Funds the SLAPPs Against Techrights
- This can end up costing them over a million dollars
- Modifying and Writing One's Own Computer Programs is Not a Crime (or: Google Proves That Stallman Was Right)
- We're generally gratified to see so many positive mentions of him
- Why We Stopped Publishing Videos (for Now)
- We'll probably get back to videos one day, but it's hard to say when or to what extent
- What Animal Rights Activism Teaches Us About Sympathy and Focus
- It's possible to believe that the planet is warming, that we must do something about it, and still eat eggs and butter
- When You Turn Web Sites About Tech Into Political Sites
- A lot of people fall into the trap of catering only for particular groups
- Gemini Links 02/09/2025: ROOPHLOCH 2025 and Lagrange 1.19 Released
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 01/09/2025: News Corp. WSJ and A Month With NixOS
- Links for the day
- “Sideloading” Never Killed Anybody
- There are many online discussions this week about the misnomer "sideloading"
- Slopwatch: Google News as FUD Vector Against Linux and Plagiarism Enhancer, Serial Slopper (SS) Uses LLMs to Googlebomb "Linux"
- Slop destroys the Web not just by screwing with search engines and helping plagiarists. It's also responsible for de facto DDoS attacks...
- Links 01/09/2025: "Attacks on Science" and China's "Soft Power" Grows
- Links for the day
- Links 01/09/2025: Fresh Backlash Against Slop and "Norway’s Electricity Crisis is About to Hit Britain"
- Links for the day
- Writing and Coding Isn't Always Enough
- Last year we had to assume a role we didn't have before: litigants
- Links 01/09/2025: Catching Up (Mostly via Deutsche Welle), "Windows TCO" Effect in UK
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 01/09/2025: Linguistic Barriers and "Web 1.0 Hosting"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
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- IRC logs for Sunday, August 31, 2025
- Autumn Has Come
- Autumn should be exciting in all sorts of ways; it'll also mark our anniversary
- The UEFI 9/11 - Part IV - External Interference
- They all seem to be playing a role in crushing Software Freedom and self-determination for users