Open Source Life: How the open movement will change everything Consider this: in just a few short years, the open-source encyclopedia Wikipedia has made closed-source encyclopedias obsolete — both the hard-bound kind and the CD-ROM or commercial online kind. Goodbye World Book and Brittanica. Sure, these companies still exist, but their customer base is rapidly shrinking as more and more people would rather go with Wikipedia — it’s free, it’s easy to use, and it’s much, much more up-to-date. This is but one example of how the concept of open source has changed our lives already. Over the next 10 years or so, we’ll be seeing many more examples, and the effects could change just about every aspect of our lives. The open-source concept was popularized through GNU and the GPL, and it has spread ever since, in an increasingly rapid manner. Now consider this: the open-source concept doesn’t have to just apply to software. Schools.
Internet Archive: Free Download: Libre Culture: Meditations on F SILK: Social Innovation Lab Kent SILK is a small team based within Kent County Council that was set up in 2007 to ‘do policy differently’. Over the past 4 years we have been doing projects which have demonstrated the benefits of working in a different way and have developed a Methodology and Toolkit which provide a structure for the way we work. We believe that the best solutions come from the people who are closest to the issue; this could be service users, residents or frontline staff. We're really pleased that SILK has been featured in Parsons Innovation Constellation. Each project will fall into one of three diamonds: Strategic / Policy, Service Re-design, or Creating Sustainable Communities: Once the type of project has been identified it will follow four phases: Initiate | Create | Test | Define as shown in our Project Planner: The Method Deck can then be used to choose which methods should be used during each phase of the project: If you have any questions about our Methodology or Toolkit please get in touch.
Global mapping of technology for transparency and accountability | Transparency & Accountability Initiative As internet and mobile phone use increases, technology is transforming the field of transparency and accountability making it an increasingly dynamic space across the globe. Technology is helping to improve citizen participation in decision-making and producing new ways of identifying public service challenges through processes such as ‘data mashing’. This paper documents current trends in the way technology is being used to promote transparency in different parts of the world. Our research finds promising success stories alongside less accomplished examples. The paper includes a summary of the key findings and recommendations for further research in key areas of this field.
Human shield action to Iraq Activist movement in opposition to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq The Human Shield Action to Iraq was a group of people who traveled to Iraq to act as human shields with the aim of preventing the U.S.-led coalition forces from bombing certain locations during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In December 2002, Kenneth O'Keefe, an ex-U.S. marine and Persian Gulf War veteran who had attempted multiple times to renounce his U.S. citizenship, posted a call to action for large numbers of western citizens to migrate to Iraq and deploy themselves as "Human Shields".[1][better source needed] The action was ultimately named the TJP (Truth Justice Peace) Human Shield Action to Iraq. O'Keefe believed that protests and petitions had no chance of preventing the invasion and that a large presence of western citizens, strategically placed in Iraq at potential targets, was the only viable deterrent to war. In January 2003 a group of anti-war activists joined O'Keefe in London and set out to carry out the plan.
Government Are we on the cusp of seeing dramatic changes in the way governments operate by publishing and consuming open data? Mark Headd, Developer Evangelism at Accela seems to think so. Earlier this year, Croatian political party ORaH published a new policy that relies heavily on open source solutions, addresses the dangers off vendor lock-in, and insists on open document standards. Best of all, they did it the open source way. The Open Election Data Initiative wants to give access to election data for a true picture of an election process, including how candidates are certified, how and which voters are registered, what happens on election day, whether results are accurate, and how complaints are resolved. The Government of India (GOI) has adopted a comprehensive and supportive open source policy. The impact of technology on society and the economy continues to excite and challenge government. The history of creativity and how the rise of it has propelled open data forward today.
Open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software with its source code made available and licensed with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.[1] Open-source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally defined) open-content movements.[2] A report by the Standish Group (from 2008) states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.[3][4] Definitions[edit] The Open Source Initiative's (OSI) definition is recognized[who?] OSI uses The Open Source Definition to determine whether it considers a software license open source. Proliferation of the term[edit] Open software licensing[edit] Certifications[edit] Open-source software development[edit] Early releases
Ideal Government A More Social Open Government Earlier this week, Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra and OIRA Administrator Cass Sunstein jointly released an inquiry about the future of open government-- specifically, they asked for insight on three things: How can regulations.gov, one of the primary mechanisms for government transparency and public participation, be made more useful to the public rulemaking process?OMB is beginning the process of reviewing and potentially updating its Federal Web Policy. What policy updates should be included in this revision to make Federal websites more user-friendly and pertinent to the needs of the public? We have specific, detailed responses to each of these questions, based on our experiences in encouraging public engagement, but first, it’s worth talking about how far we’ve come. If government does not take input from its citizens seriously, we do not have a democracy at all. In that spirit, we present thoughts about the inquiries itself, and how things can be made better. 1. Improve the language 3.
Brand activism Type of activism in economy Brand activism is one way business can play a role in processes of social, political, economic, or environmental change.[1] Applying brand activism, businesses show concern not for profits but for the communities they serve, and their economic, social, and environmental problems, which allows businesses to establish value-based relationships with customers and prospects. Businesses express brand activism through the vision, values, goals, communication, and behavior of the businesses and its brands towards the communities they are part of.[1] Unlike corporate social responsibility and environmental, social and corporate governance politics, which are marketing-driven and corporate-driven, brand activism is society-driven.[1] Thus, brand activism can be regressive or progressive; for example companies that lobby our politicians for regressive policies are brand activists, as are companies seeking to have an impact on the biggest societal problems.[3] [edit]
Wired 11.11: Open Source Everywhere Open Source Everywhere Software is just the beginning … open source is doing for mass innovation what the assembly line did for mass production. Get ready for the era when collaboration replaces the corporation. By Thomas Goetz Cholera is one of those 19th-century ills that, like consumption or gout, at first seems almost quaint, a malady from an age when people suffered from maladies. Since cholera kills by driving fluids from the body, the treatment is to pump liquid back in, as fast as possible. "It's a health problem, but it's also a design problem," says Timothy Prestero, a onetime Peace Corps volunteer who cofounded a group called Design That Matters. But the team needed more medical expertise. ThinkCycle's collaborative approach is modeled on a method that for more than a decade has been closely associated with software development: open source. Open source, of course, is the magic behind Linux, the operating system that is transforming the software industry. In the Beginning Linus