The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Meet the Robin Hood of Science
The tale of how one researcher has made nearly every scientific paper ever published available for free to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Continue reading “Sepp Hasslberger: Elsevier & Thomson Reuters Et al — Going, Going, Gone?”
Open-Source Textbooks Gain in Push for College Affordability
ABC News (Michael Melia of Associated Press)
The standard textbook for Fundamentals of General Chemistry I at the University of Connecticut has a list price of $303. For students who use the version professor Edward Neth is preparing for the fall semester, the cost will be zero. An early adopter of open source textbooks, Neth said he turned to the new technology out of frustration with spiraling prices of commercial textbooks.
Open source textbooks not flunking out
Finally, a bit of good news on the college costs front: A study out of Brigham Young University finds that free open source textbooks do the job pretty darn well. The study of nearly 17,000 students at 9 colleges found that open source textbooks (or open educational resources — OERs in academic lingo) found that students learn the same amount or more from the free books across many subjects. (Here's a sampling of the sorts of texts available, via a University of Minnesota site.) What's more, 85% of students and instructors said open textbooks were actually better than the commercial ones.
Liquid democracy, its challenges and its forebears
Whereas a growing amount of decision-making software is currently in use in the political arena, LiquidFeedback‘s distinctive feature is the possibility for users to delegate their vote to other users by topic.
Real Democracy (Direct Democracy) & Feasible Implementation
Six offerings against the doctrines which state “We cannot change the system” or “There is no better system than the current one”!
Political decision-making by elected representatives is far removed from those who go to the election booth once every four or five years. Liquid democracy uses the internet to reduce the distance between citizens and decision makers…
Liquid Democracy: The App That Turns Everyone into a Politician
Liquid Democracy is one of the boldest contemporary innovations in democratic decision-making. The idea uses web technology that allows users to interact in new ways.
Continue reading “Sepp Hasslberger: Liquid Democracy Rising…”
County Registrars Tell Political Parties to Pay for Their Own Elections
EXTRACT
So if party primaries are ‘private’ activities, the county registrars are now asking a simple question: Why are the taxpayers funding them? Would it be appropriate for a county clerk to fund the elections of any other private corporation?
