It was predicted years ago, but it took some time to materialize, but Business Week is confirming that the trend of nearly free international telephony is becoming real. Excerpt: “Gorilla, iCall, and a growing number of other services rely on what’s known as Voice over Internet Protocol technology that delivers speech via the Internet in… Continue reading
Date archives "August 2008"
Eric Hunting on P2P architecture (4): the maker movement and the quest for an open industrial infrastructure
Eric Hunting: Now, imagine if you could do something like this for a very large variety of artifacts and technologies. This is what I was planning for the Open Source Everything Project. The idea here isn’t just to invent and disseminate a collection of open source artifact designs. The idea is to create an organized… Continue reading
Refuting the Tragedy of the Commons myth
Some myths and memes may be entirely non-factual, but have a long shelf-life, and do untold damage to the social fabric. One such myth is the Tragedy of the Commons, put forward in a famous essay by Gareth Hardin. A refutation by Ian Angus, editor of Climate and Capitalism. “Will shared resources always be misused… Continue reading
The governance of sponsored open source projects and their communities
We continue our processing of a number of key research papers on the realities of peer governance in open source software communities. This one here is really important: The Role of Participation Architecture in Growing Sponsored Open Source Communities. By Joel West (San Jose State University College of Business) and Siobhán O’Mahony (UC Davis Graduate… Continue reading
Key arguments for sharing designs
Found this overview of key arguments at the Shared Design Alliance: “Placing design information in the public domain has the following benefits: 1. Lowers Entry Barriers by Providing a Platform for Low-Cost Experimentation. The success of Google is based on two shared designs. The first was the published design of the IBM compatible personal computer,… Continue reading
Two videos on open design, personal fabrication, and appropriate technology
The first video is an extensive and very interesting discussion of Vinay Gupta with Smari McCarthy of the Icelandic Fablabs, on the potential of personal fabrication. The second is a presentation by Vinay on the huge potential of open design to eliminate poverty. Smari McCarthy: Vinay Gupta:
Why Open Source development models may not be optimal for systemic innovation
This continues our theme on Modularity, taken from the article, Of Hackers and Hairdressers. In the referenced article, Langlois and Garzarelli make a very important point, after having distinguished modular systems (where parts can be developed independently of the whole), from integral systems. In some cases, a part is so tightly integrated into the whole,… Continue reading
The issue of interoperability in 3D architectural design
Studio Wikitecture is an open group, composed of a diverse range of individuals from varying disciplines, interested in exploring the application of a open-source paradigm to the design and production of both real and virtual architecture and urban planning. Amongst their projects is an award-winning 3D Wiki multiple-author 3D-urban project. They have launched an important… Continue reading
Eric Hunting on P2P Architecture (3): Plug-in approaches and the soft-high tech divide
The third part of our interview on p2p architecture. Eric is still responding to the following multiple-thread question: “do you have any ideas about a possible integration of what you call the soft-tech (if not anti-tech) sensibility of the ecovillage movement, and the more pro-high tech approaches, such as you mention, and I have also… Continue reading
Decision Rights in Open Source
We continue our treatment of a number of research essays on the practicalities of the governance of open source communities, here we focus on decision rights. For related treatment, see also our wiki entries on Particpation Architecture and the Governance Rights Typology. The following is an excerpt from draft version of the article: Of Hackers… Continue reading
Modularity in Open Source
We have a general treatment of modularity in our wiki, which discusses modularity in the context of industry and culture. Here, we continue our processing of a number of important essays on peer governance in open source communities, and specifically, the following essay: Of Hackers and Hairdressers: Modularity and the Organizational Economics of Open-source Collaboration…. Continue reading
Protective mechanisms in the peer governance of open source communities
We continue our examination of a series of research papers on the governance of open source communities. This is from the article: Guarding the commons: how community managed software projects protect their work. Research Policy 32 (2003) 1179–1198. By Siobhán O’Mahony. Item 3 to 7 in the overview of tactics below shows the institutional strategies… Continue reading
What’s wrong with classroom education and can new media change it?
As usual, a brilliant presentation by Michael Wesch, drawing on the real-life experience with students at Kansas U. Presented at the University of Manitoba June 17th 2008.
Reinventing the Sacred – Stuart Kauffman
Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion Stuart A. Kauffman 2008, Basic Books There are some books that do not fade after the first encounter. They do not let go of the mind, instead re-surfacing again and again, because they communicate something fundamental, something vital, with the potential to change an… Continue reading
Zed Shaw launches Freehacker’s Union
Here’s the original description of the project. Warning: It’s a rant, i.e. continuous use of the kind of language we never use here, showing a particular dislike of MBA and business types, and framed as a desire to go back to the original values and ideals of the hacking community. (here’s a comprehensive list of… Continue reading
Interviews with open, p2p, and commons luminaries
Are you aware of our growing directory of interviews that are available in textual format, i.e. either for-print interviews or transcripts of audio or video interviews? Catch them here at http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Category:Interviews. (or do you rather listen and watch than read?) Bio details are also available. Overview: A * Adam Greenfield on Everyware and Ubiquitous Computing… Continue reading