This is really similar to the idea some of us in MI, USA came up within 2008 at a “startup weekend” event, called “Exploded View/Void andInfringe”. I am glad someone is doing something like this.
Others may disagree with me, but I see *this* as a *crucial* use-casefor systems like https://github.com/kanzure/skdb andhttp://tangiblebit.com/
Specifically, above and beyond fixing and repairing mass producedphysical objects, I see that when people figure out what materials areuseful and re-usable in existing discarded mass produced goods, thatthey can document the dis-assembly and processing of those materialsfor use use as raw (or processed) material in new types of production.
The only *problem* (as ever) that I personally can currently see withifixit in particular as a website is that it does not appear toimplement an open standards-based “API” for talking to systems likeSKDB and Tangible Bit. ifixit *really* need an open standards basedAPI on their site, today.
A similar, and perhaps competing site at http://bildr.org/ happened tochoose Free/Libre Open source software in the form of Media Wiki asthe part of their architecture. This turned out to be a good choice,because what they walked away with was a fairly robust API that allowsfor Creating, Reading, Updating of records.
example http://wiki.bildr.org/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&titles=API|Main%20Page&rvprop=timestamp|user|comment|content
Furthermore, within Media wiki (and really almost any wiki) it ispossible to create a vary simple and standard way to enter informationso that it can be recognized/parsed. translated if needed, and re-usedoutside of the original location. In turn, the possibility should exist to contribute back to a resource like ifixit or bildr in thesame way from the outside (such as from another wiki, or website, ordatabase, etc).
Personally, I’d feel better contributing to ifixit if it were BY-SA,
instead of BY-NC-SA. If I give something away for free, I want people
to be able to use it to make a living if they need to. Releasing
something under BY-SA still ensures that there is no way that others
can wholly claim it for their own. It still remains in the digital
media commons, except now there are more options for more people to do
more with it. The more that I think about it, with the existence of
BY-SA, BY-NC-SA is likely totally unneeded. It’d take you just as many
resources to enforce BY-SA as it would BY-NC-SA. Why stop people from
feeding their families?
Anyway, the ifixit site is a great project. They definitely deserve
congratulations for creating and evolving this resource.
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This is really similar to the idea some of us in MI, USA came up within 2008 at a “startup weekend” event, called “Exploded View/Void andInfringe”. I am glad someone is doing something like this.
Others may disagree with me, but I see *this* as a *crucial* use-casefor systems like https://github.com/kanzure/skdb andhttp://tangiblebit.com/
Specifically, above and beyond fixing and repairing mass producedphysical objects, I see that when people figure out what materials areuseful and re-usable in existing discarded mass produced goods, thatthey can document the dis-assembly and processing of those materialsfor use use as raw (or processed) material in new types of production.
The only *problem* (as ever) that I personally can currently see withifixit in particular as a website is that it does not appear toimplement an open standards-based “API” for talking to systems likeSKDB and Tangible Bit. ifixit *really* need an open standards basedAPI on their site, today.
A similar, and perhaps competing site at http://bildr.org/ happened tochoose Free/Libre Open source software in the form of Media Wiki asthe part of their architecture. This turned out to be a good choice,because what they walked away with was a fairly robust API that allowsfor Creating, Reading, Updating of records.
example http://wiki.bildr.org/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&titles=API|Main%20Page&rvprop=timestamp|user|comment|content
Furthermore, within Media wiki (and really almost any wiki) it ispossible to create a vary simple and standard way to enter informationso that it can be recognized/parsed. translated if needed, and re-usedoutside of the original location. In turn, the possibility should exist to contribute back to a resource like ifixit or bildr in thesame way from the outside (such as from another wiki, or website, ordatabase, etc).
Update:
I sent them a message via twitter, and it turns out that they are
working on an outgoing (read) API via xml,
https://twitter.com/#!/iFixit/statuses/3863545032744960
example: http://www.ifixit.com/api/guide/3185?type=xml That’s really great news.
Personally, I’d feel better contributing to ifixit if it were BY-SA,
instead of BY-NC-SA. If I give something away for free, I want people
to be able to use it to make a living if they need to. Releasing
something under BY-SA still ensures that there is no way that others
can wholly claim it for their own. It still remains in the digital
media commons, except now there are more options for more people to do
more with it. The more that I think about it, with the existence of
BY-SA, BY-NC-SA is likely totally unneeded. It’d take you just as many
resources to enforce BY-SA as it would BY-NC-SA. Why stop people from
feeding their families?
Anyway, the ifixit site is a great project. They definitely deserve
congratulations for creating and evolving this resource.