The Antonio Pizzigati Prize For Software in the Public Interest
TechnologiesEstablished in 2006, the Antonio Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest annually awards $10,000 to a software developer who adds significant value to the nonprofit sector and movements for social change. The Pizzigati Prize honors the brief life of Tony Pizzigati, an early advocate of open source computing.
Our Mission
Software developers who create, for free public distribution, open source applications and tools that nonprofit and advocacy groups can put to good use are making a two-faceted contribution to social change.
Our Application
The Pizzigati Prize welcomes applications from–and nominations of–single individuals. Those nominated for the prize should have developed a software product that is open source, as defined by the Open Source Initiative, and easily and widely available. This software must have already demonstrated its value to at least one nonprofit organization, and be a product that can be a value to multiple nonprofit organizations. Applicants will be evaluated on a range of criteria by an advisory panel that includes national leaders in public interest computing and past winners of the Prize.
Please visit the Prize Information pages for more information about eligibility, the application and nomination processes, and evaluation criteria.
2011 PRIZE NOMINATION PROCESS NOW OPEN
Nominations are now open for the fifth annual awarding of the $10,000 Antonio Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest, the nation's top honor for software developers working with nonprofits to help forge innovative social change. The Tides Foundation will be accepting nominations for this year's competition through December 15, 2010. The 2011 prize winner will be announced this March at the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) annual conference in Washington, D.C.Please visit the Prize Information section for full details on the nomination and application process.
Thanks to those who update the inSTEDD Twitter feed
Reference: Bell System Technical Journal, 1922-1983
TechnologiesThe scientific discoveries and technological innovations produced by Bell System research and engineering were critical not only to the evolution of global telecommunications but, more widely, they had a considerable impact on the technological base of the global economy and, indeed, on our daily lives.
Bell Labs is the source of many significant contributions, of course, in the area of telephony, but also in memory devices, imaging devices, system organization, computers and software technology, as well as acoustics, optics, switching, transmission, wireless and data communication. New principles, new materials, new devices, and new systems from Bell Telephone Laboratories resulted in new industries, hundreds of new products, and thousands of new jobs. The invention of the transistor in 1947, and subsequent advances in related solid-state device and circuit technology formed the basis of a multibillion dollar global industry and ultimately enabled the digital world. Shannon’s seminal paper titled “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” published over 60 years ago, gave birth to Information Theory and has stood as the guiding foundation for communications scientists and engineers in their quest for faster, more efficient, and more robust communications systems ever since.
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TED Video on “Connectivity=Productivity” Growth of Bangladesh Telecom to Allieviate Poverty
01 Poverty, Commerce, Mobile, Technologies, TED Videos, Videos/Movies/DocumentariesIqbal Quadir Creates a Culture of Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh
Why does poverty exist? That's no small question for an individual to ask, but in Iqbal Quadir's homeland, Bangladesh, there may be no other question that matters more.
His answer is twofold: First, European prosperity resulted from the devolution of authorities and the empowerment of citizens, while Western aid to developing countries simply empowered authorities to marginalize the citizenry. Even looking at oil-rich countries, the autocratic regimes grew spectacularly wealthy, while poverty remained entrenched. “Economic development,” Quadir concludes, “is of, by and for the people.” Second, his life experience had demonstrated that connectivity is a powerful weapon against poverty. The ability to communicate eliminates massive and avoidable waste in productivity, which in turn creates greater commerce and economies.
In Bangladesh 12 years ago, only one in 500 people had access to a telephone. “In whole areas where 100 million people lived, there were no telephones,” he says. “Vast amounts of wasted time results. The only way people can depend on each other is to connect to each other, which leads to productivity.” He decided to bring cell phones to them all–although not to each of them individually.
The New York-banker-turned-Bangladeshi-entrepreneur faced the hurdles you would imagine, the most prominent being that poor people could not afford cell phones. But in fine entrepreneurial fashion, Quadir contended, “If a cell phone creates productivity, why would you worry about [people's ability to pay]?” With backing from microbank GrameenBank, Quadir started GrameenPhone, a locally based shared cell phone service. He approached a single woman entrepreneur in each village and provided her with a cell phone. The local woman would lease its access on a per-call basis, making cell phone communication available to more than 52,000 Bangladeshi villages and 80 million people. As for the women entrepreneurs, there are now 115,000 of them within GrameenPhone, each making a profit of $700 a year, far more than the average per capita income of the country.
Thanks to Entrepreneur.com for listing various TED videos
Event: 5 Nov 2010, New York City, Columbia Univ, Mobile Money II
01 Poverty, 03 Economy, Academia, Civil Society, Commerce, Mobile, TechnologiesMobile Money II
Columbia Institute for Tele-Information
Columbia Business School
Uris Hall TBD
In April 2010 CITI held its first conference on “Mobile Money”, focusing on the macroeconomic aspects. Since then, developments have accelerated. Around the world, the rapid spread of mobile phones is being followed by their use as a tool for financial transactions. The cell phone serves as a bank account, debit card, and money creator. Developing countries lack effective financial infrastructure. The positive economic impact of the mobile telecommunications infrastructure has been demonstrated, as has been the ability of microfinance to stimulate economic activity. Now a hybrid of the technologies has begun to emerge, enabling a mobile financial system. A notable example is Kenya where the M-PESA system (‘m-money’ in Swahili) has transferred in its short history over $5.4 billion by 12 million customers. This conference addresses some of the following issues:
- What are the economics of mobile money?
- What policy issues does it raise?
- Is m-money a threat to the traditional banking system?
- How might it be regulated?
- Security issues
- Consumer protection perspectives
- Investor perspectives
- Indicators for demand
- M-money and m-health
- What are consumer and privacy protection issues?
- Who will control the system—banks or telecom operators?
- What are the emerging trends?
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Journal: Time to ShitCan the FCC and Go Open Spectrum
03 Economy, 04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Open Government, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Technologies, True Cost
November 30th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could
potentially engage in one of the largest federal power grabs we have ever
seen.
At the FCC’s November meeting – note the coincidental date of choice,
AFTER the impending election – three unelected bureaucrats (of five) could
simply vote themselves rulers of 1/6th of our entire economy – the
information and technology sector.
Meaning the Internet that you currently enjoy – that has been a marvel of
economic and information innovation and success – will be subject to vast
new governmental regulations. You didn’t elect these people – but they
are on the verge of electing themselves Internet overlords.
November 30th Could Be the Day the Government Seizes Control of the Internet
by Seton Motley
November 30th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could potentially engage in one of the largest federal power grabs we have ever seen.
After two years of this Presidential Administration and this Congress, that is saying an awful lot about an awful lot.
And what’s worse, the FCC would be doing it without Congress weighing in. At the FCC’s November meeting – note the coincidental date of choice, AFTER the impending election – three unelected bureaucrats (of five) could simply vote themselves rulers of 1/6th of our entire economy – the information and technology sector.
See Also:
Journal: Microsoft Ad Trashes OpenOffice.org
Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Standards, Strategy, Technologies, ToolsA recent Microsoft video suggests the company considers OpenOffice.org a significant threat to its own Office suite.
Titled “A Few Perspectives on OpenOffice.org,” the video features a series of horror stories from customers who tried the open-source productivity suite and suffered from excess costs as well as IT resources, performance and compatibility issues.
A series of customer quotes flashes across the screen in the slickly animated video, read aloud by a series of unseen narrators. “If an open-source freeware solution breaks, who's going to fix it?” according to a statement ascribed to a school district official in the U.S.
“When we returned to Microsoft Office after our experience with OpenOffice, you could practically hear a collective sigh of relief across the entire district,” states another comment attributed to a U.S. school system official.
Comments are not enabled on the video's YouTube page.
Microsoft is facing competition from OpenOffice.org on multiple fronts, from the commercial version sold by project owner Oracle, as well as offshoots like the recently announced LibreOffice.
Phi Beta Iota: Google is in more trouble than Microsoft. Oracle will not scale, and IBM is not as imaginative as it likes to believe. Microsoft, however, has no strategy at all. Attacking OpenOffice in an era of Open Everything is a sure sign that Microsoft leadership is struggling–and this tracks with the decline of the company under Steve Balmer. We believe there will be a need for Bill Gates to take the helm again, or Microsoft is going to start falling apart and will fail to use the time it has right now–the next two years–to bury the competition by innovating itself into the future.
Guest Comment:
“Microsoft as a corporation is disgraceful. The classic case is when they bribed Nigerian Officials to replace Linux with Windows on school computers. http://www.facebook.com/l/8396a;www.geek.com/articles/news/mandriva-ceo-calls-out-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-2007112/ I prefer to work with an operating system with a Social Contract http://www.facebook.com/l/8396a;www.debian.org/social_contract or code of conduct: http://www.facebook.com/l/8396a;www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct”
Tip of the Hat to Paul Harper at Facebook.
Robert Steele's response: Quite right. Not sure we can turn a pig into a cow, but miracles do happen. I predict Bill Gates will return to run Microsoft, the question is, has he learned to listen to others? Jury is still out on that one.
