OpenMoko, OpenBTS, Free Your Phone & Humanity

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Autonomous Internet, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, IO Technologies, Mobile

Openmoko™ – Open. Mobile. Free.

Openmoko™ is a project dedicated to delivering mobile phones with an open source software stack. Openmoko was earlier more directly associated with Openmoko Inc, but is nowadays a gathering of people with the shared goal of “Free Your Phone”. Distributors are currently selling updated versions of the Openmoko Inc's phone released in 2008, Neo FreeRunner, to advanced users, while the software stack for FreeRunner and future free phones is being developed by the community.

Burning Man's open source cell phone system could help save the world

Solar-powered OpenBTS systems costs pennies a day and operates in the farthest outreaches of Earth.

By Julie Bort, Network World
August 30, 2010 02:47 PM ET

Today I bring you a story that has it all: a solar-powered, low-cost, open source cellular network that's revolutionizing coverage in underprivileged and off-grid spots. It uses VoIP yet works with existing cell phones. It has pedigreed founders. Best of all, it is part of the sex, drugs and art collectively known as Burning Man. Where do you want me to begin?

The Open Source Subnet
Cell towers that blend vs. those that offend

“We make GSM look like a wireless access point. We make it that simple,” describes one of the project's three founders, Glenn Edens.

Read rest of article….

Continue reading “OpenMoko, OpenBTS, Free Your Phone & Humanity”

Rising Wisely — C-K Theory & Indian Brainpower

About the Idea, Advanced Cyber/IO

Rising Wisely

This blog is focused on India’s development from the perspective of the Next Generation Infrastructure Lab at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), a Bangalore think tank launched in 2008. The bloggers are CSTEP’s researchers, its visiting students, and scholars. It is a collaborative, creative space to blog about the issues that we think about at CSTEP, including clean energy and climate change, transportation, infrastructure, information design, how to make technology and information more democratic, and ways technology can make democracy more participatory.

C-K Theory Explained

Breakthrough in theory of learning and innovation

Based on mathematics but also executable at multiple levels

Powerful framework, especially for engineers

Essence of the problem: what is creativity–RESISTENCE to past fixations

Provoke expansion in a step by step way, adding properties, studying attributes, rearranging both

Already existing knowledge does not lead to innovation in a natural way–innovation has to be forced by circumstance or process–this is a process that forces innovation.

C-K theory implements forcing as a process

Mixing attributes and properties from disparate objects (e.g. floating and flying) can force a new third way.

C stands for the Concept Space

K stands for the Knowledge Space

EGYPT: CIA’s Last Stand? Mubarak as First Domino? Advice for the USG: BUTT OUT.

07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Real Time
DefDog Recommends...

Suleiman: The CIA's man in Cairo

Suleiman, a friend to the US and reported torturer, has long been touted as a presidential successor.

. . . . . . .

In the mid-1990s, Suleiman worked closely with the Clinton administration in devising and implementing its rendition program; back then, rendition involved kidnapping suspected terrorists and transferring them to a third country for trial.

. . . . . . .

Under the Bush administration, in the context of “the global war on terror”, US renditions became “extraordinary”, meaning the objective of kidnapping and extra-legal transfer was no longer to bring a suspect to trial – but rather for interrogation to seek actionable intelligence. The extraordinary rendition program landed some people in CIA black sites – and others were turned over for torture-by-proxy to other regimes. Egypt figured large as a torture destination of choice, as did Suleiman as Egypt’s torturer-in-chief. At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt — Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib — was reportedly tortured by Suleiman himself.

Read the entire article….

Phi Beta Iota: A great deal hinges on the next few days.  We are betting on the Egyptian people.  The USA should BUTT OUT.  Not only is the Administration completely ignorant of the dynamics in Egypt, where young people, old people, workers, and all other walks of life have “come out”–the Muslim Brotherhood has been SIDELINED–but anything the Administration says can and will be used against it and against the people of Egypt.  The USA is long overdue for getting back in touch with its core values, which should NOT include redition, torture, and dictator pals, all “in our name.”

URGENT EVOKE: The End of Old Government

Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Geospatial, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), International Aid, Key Players, Methods & Process, Mobile, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Real Time, Serious Games, Threats
Four Rules of EVOKING

EVOKE is a ten-week crash course in changing the world.

It is free to play and open to anyone, anywhere.

The goal of the social network game is to help empower people all over the world to come up with creative solutions to our most urgent social problems.

VOKE was developed by the World Bank Institute, the learning and knowledge arm of the World Bank Group, and directed by alternate reality game master Jane McGonigal.

EVOKE is for all ages; recommended age 13 and up.

LEARN HOW TO PLAY: the Five Secrets of the EVOKE Network.

URGENT EVOKE Home Page

LinkTV: Righteous, Professional, a Public Service

Advanced Cyber/IO, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Movies, Videos/Movies/Documentaries, Worth A Look

Phi Beta Iota: We concur with Contributor John Steiner, who sends this direct message from Link TV for consideration by one and all.  They have been added as both a Professional Site and a Righteous Site.

Link TV

Dear Friend,

Sometimes in the life of an organization, there is a defining moment— one that validates everything you believe in and stand for.

For Link TV, the democratic uprising in the Middle East has been that moment. When the people of Tunisia and Egypt roared for democracy, we brought you more than 14 hours a day of unfiltered global news from Link TV’s Mosaic, Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera English.

Short message and link button below the line.

Continue reading “LinkTV: Righteous, Professional, a Public Service”

NIGHTWATCH on Egypt…and Libya

08 Wild Cards, Advanced Cyber/IO, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence

Egypt: Protesters in Tahrir Square, Cairo, are asking citizens to take part in demonstrations on 11 February, for the “Day of Confrontation,” Al Arabiya reported. One news service reported tens of millions of text messages about the event. According to a report in the Indian Express, “organizers” want a “big push” on Friday that could include storming parliament and the state television station in Cairo.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH on Egypt…and Libya”

USAF Backs Off on Threat to Air Family Members….

06 Family, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call

DefDog Recommends...

Air Force Rescinds New Guidance on WikiLeaks

Secrecy News reported Monday on strange new guidance from the Air Force Materiel Command declaring that Air Force employees and even their family members could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for accessing the WikiLeaks web site. On Monday night that new guidance was abruptly withdrawn.

Lt. Col. Richard L. Johnson of Air Force Headquarters released this statement:  read statement….

Airmen, It’s Illegal for Your Kids to Read WikiLeaks [Updated]

Spencer Ackerman, WIRED Magazine Danger Room, Feburary 7, 2011

“[I]f a family member of an Air Force employee accesses WikiLeaks on a home computer, the family member may be subject to prosecution for espionage under U.S. Code Title 18 Section 793,” the legal guidance reads. “The Air Force member would have an obligation to safeguard the information under the general guidance to safeguard classified information.”

Read the sordid story….

Phi Beta Iota: We do not make this stuff up.  If SecDef wants an excuse to dismiss Air Force leadership down to the one-star level, this is it.  This is utterly insane, and a clear demonstration of moral and intellectual and leadership vacuum that exists in the US Air Force.

See Also:

Journal: Chuck Spinney on Gallipoli

Censorship & Denial of Access (35)

Power (Pathologies & Utilization) (154)

Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy (63)

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