Real Time – Public Intelligence Blog

220px-Michel_Bauwens_crop — Michel Bauwens

Essay of the Day: From Open Source to Open Sourcing Digital Medical Devices

Excerpted from Glyn Moody:

“It is not just an issue for life-saving medical devices that can kill as well as save: it is about our increasing reliance on embedded software in everyday life, in developed countries at least.

Clearly, we can’t. If the code is not available, then it necessarily limits the number of people who have looked at it. And as Linus’ Law reminds us, given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. That doesn’t mean opening up the code guarantees that all bugs will be found, but it certainly increases the probability. The corollary is that keeping it closed decreases the chance of someone finding such bugs.

But there’s a problem here. As we move from the realm of “pure” software – that is, programs running on generalised computers producing essentially digital output (even if that is converted into analogue formats like sounds, images or printouts) – to that of “applied” software, there is a new element: the device itself.

For example, in the case of the pacemakers, having the software that drives the computational side of things is only part of the story: just as important is knowing what the software does in the real world, and that depends critically on the design of the hardware. Knowing that a particular sub-routine controls a particular aspect of the pacemaker tells us little unless we also know how the sub-routine’s output is implemented in the device.

What that means is that not only do we need the source code for the programs that run the devices, we also need details about the hardware – its design, its mechanical properties etc. That takes us into the area of open hardware, and here things start to get tricky.

Read rest of article.

Phi Beta Iota: Governments have all failed to be responsible about understanding complexity and understanding the role of integrity as a foundation for sustainable properity. Proprietary does not scale. Closed kills. It's time now for open everything and no compromises with respect to intelligence and integrity.

2012 (Slides) THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Trust

2012/03/222012/03/22

Graphic: School for Future-Oriented Hybrid Governance with World Brain Institute, Global Game, and Prototype Center for Public Intelligence

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collaboration Zones, Ethics, Hacking, Key Players, Mobile, Policies, Real Time, Serious Games, Threats, Topics (All Other), True Cost, Worth A Look

School for GW — Click on Image to Enlarge

Creative Commons license applies — no financial exploitation without permission. Robert Steele owns three of the four world-brain urls (net, org, com) and is looking for a university with the gravitas to understand why this concept needs to be implemented in full, soonest.

Director of briefings & lectures leading to this graphic

Books leading to this graphic

Reviews of books by others leading to this graphic (negative)

Reviews of books by others leading to this graphic (positive)

Personal web page of Robert Steele

2012/02/102016/03/25

Robert Steele: Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies, and the New Craft of Intelligence

Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, Geospatial, Hacking, History, Information Operations (IO), Intelligence (government), Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Resilience, Serious Games, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Waste (materials, food, etc), Whole Earth Review

steele formal high res — Robert David STEELE Vivas

I have begun drafting my portion of the new Handbook of Intelligence Studies (Routledge, 2013), it is a chapter early on entitled “The Craft of Intelligence.” I pick up where Allen Dulles and Sherman Kent left off. My graphic on Intelligence Maturity captures the essence of my thinking at the strategic level, but of course there is more to come, including the desperate need to restore integrity to all that we do.

In 1988 I ghost-wrote for the Commandant of the Marine Corps an article that he enhanced and signed, “Global Intelligence Challenges in the 1990's.” At that time my focus was on the difference between the conventional threat and the emerging unconventional threat.

Now my focus is on the purpose and process of intelligence as decision-support. We must — we will — move from secret intelligence for the few to open intelligence for the many; from expensive centralized largely worthless intelligence to free and low-cost distributed intelligence relevant to every person at every level on every issue; from intelligence as window-dressing for channeling $80 billion a year to banks and corporations, to intelligence as an integral element of every aspect of a Smart Nation.

Today Owl sent me a link to an article, Philip E. Tetlock and Barabara A Mellers, “Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies,” American Psychologist, 2011, pp. 1-12. I respect Owl, so I printed it and read it twice.

This article is completely out of touch with reality and the authors have not bothered to familiarize themselves with the literatures pertinent to their endeavor. Out of 89 cited sources 12 are non-intelligence-related prior publications of the lead author, 1 is a prior publication of the second author, and 11 are ostensibly about intelligence but truly marginal selections. So 12% sources on the subject, 13% self-citation, and 75% escoteric psycho-babble irrelevant to the actual challenge. As an intelligence professional, I am offended that two ostensibly erudite individuals would dare to publish this trype without even a semblance of understanding of the subject under discussion.

Here are a few comments and additional links:

Continue reading “Robert Steele: Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies, and the New Craft of Intelligence”

2011/10/242011/10/24

Reference: Smart Nation Act Draft (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Ethics, Hacking, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Multinational, Key Players, Legislation, Methods & Process, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Real Time, Reform, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, Threats

Proposed Legislation: The Smart Nation Act

Institutionalizing Open Source Information Exploitation

and Multinational Information Sharing Beneficial to All

Continue reading “Reference: Smart Nation Act Draft (Full Text Online for Google Translate)”

2011/10/052011/10/22

Robert Steele: Working Papers for NYC 6-7 Oct 2011

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Hacking, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Mobile, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Open Government, Policies, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Real Time, Reform, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Serious Games, Strategy, Threats

steele smiling final — Robert David STEELE Vivas

TINY URL for this post:

http://tinyurl.com/OWS-Steele

Below are the working papers that have been posted for discussion in New York City, first with the Day of Rage team (it is neither a Day nor a Rage and it is all about electoral reform), then with the General Assembly at OccupyWallStreet, beginning with a handful of self-selected facilitators.

I will be driving a 1964 MGB, red in color, license VA MGB 64. If we do the human megaphone, it should be around 1700 (5 pm) Thursday or 1100 Friday.

The best context for understanding what I hope to accomplish is provided by Tom Atlee in his Tom Atlee: Occupation Catalytic Butterfly. My summary views are at Robert Steele on Russia TV: Occupy Wall Street & Electoral Reform, General Strike Needed?

My Interpretation of the Emerging Message:

CORRUPTION is the common enemy, both in government and in the private sector.

ELECTORAL REFORM is the singular demand.

SUNSHINE CABINET is the method.

INTEGRITY is the core value.

COMMONWEALTH RESTORED is the outcome.

Document Form

NYC A Message and Method One Page.doc
NYC B Electoral Reform Act 1 Page 9 Points 2.2.doc
NYC C Preconditions of Revolution in the USA Today.doc
NYC D Seven Promises to America.doc
NYC E Citizen in Search of Integrity.doc
NYC F Integral Government in a Box.doc

Online Full Text for Google Translate

Robert Steele: OccupyWallStreet Message and Method

2011 Electoral Reform Act 2.2 (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

Graphic: Preconditions of Revolution in the USA Today

Seven Promises to America–Who Will Do This?

Robert Steele: Citizen in Search of Integrity (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

Reference: Steele at Huffington Post Updated

2011/09/22

Steve Aftergood: Citizen Scientists Using Mobile Phones

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Hacking, InfoOps (IO), Mobile, Policies, Real Time, Threats

Using Mobile Phones to Engage Citizen Scientists in Research
E. A. Graham, S. Henderson, and A. Schloss
[Abstract] [PDF]

Mobile phone–based tools have the potential to revolutionize the way citizen scientists are recruited and retained, facilitating a new type of “connected” citizen scientist—one who collects scientifically relevant data as part of his or her daily routine. Established citizen science programs collect information at local, regional, and continental scales to help answer diverse questions in the geosciences and environmental sciences. Hundreds of thousands of citizen scientists contribute to recurring research projects such as the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count, which drew more than 60,000 observers in 2009, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Volunteer
Monitoring program, through which trained volunteers improve the monitoring of water quality in lakes and streams across the United States. These programs have relied on traditional recruiting techniques and written observations. New methods for engaging participants through technology, specifically, mobile applications, or apps, provide unprecedented ways for participants to have immediate access to their own and others’ observations and research results.

Phi Beta Iota: Changes to the Earth that used to take 10,000 years now take three. Real-time science is no longer a dream, it is a necessity. Governments and corporations as well as universities appear to be largely out of touch with the possibilities, but we do note that for years Taiwan has been paying a bounty to citizens who capture polluters in the act with a snapshot and GPS location.

2011/09/07

Patrick Meier: OpenStreetMap Micro-Tasking Imagery

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Geospatial, Hacking, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence, Real Time, Threats, United Nations & NGOs

OpenStreetMap’s New Micro-Tasking Platform for Satellite Imagery Tracing

September 7, 2011

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s (HOT) response to Haiti remains one of the most remarkable examples of what’s possible when volunteers, open source software and open data intersect. When the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck on January 12th, 2010, the Google Map of downtown Port-au-Prince was simply too incomplete to be used for humanitarian response. Within days, however, several hundred volunteers from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) commu-nity used satellite imagery to trace roads, shelters, and other features to create the most detailed map of Haiti ever created.

Read full posting with graphics.

See other Patrick Meier contributions at Phi Beta Iota.

Category: Real Time

Michel Bauwens: Open Sourcing Digital Medical Devices