#OSE Open Source Everything – Page 221 – Public Intelligence Blog

By Betwa Sharma | December 31, 2012,

DELHI — In 2012, SmartPlanet reported on a series of inexpensive tablets from India especially the $41 one called Aakash, which was launched by the Indian government.

Datawind Inc., a Montreal-based tech company, made the tablet in response to the Indian government’s challenge to create the world’s cheapest tablet.

Aakash, which was further subsidized for students to $35, received bad reviews. Critics said it had poor battery life, an unresponsive screen, absence of useful apps, less storage space and a slow processor.

In November, Datawind relaunched its tablet as Aakash 2. The improved tablet is powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich run on 1 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM with 4 GB internal storage and 32 GB microSD support. Its basic features include 7-inch capacitative touch screen, battery life of three hours, 0.3 megapixel front camera and WiFi connectivity.

The Indian government will buy about 100,000 units from Datawind for Rs. 2263 ($41) and make it available to students for Rs.1130 ($20). The commercial version of the tablet can be bought online for Rs. 4499 ($81)

This time, it was launched not only in India but also unveiled at the United Nations.

“India is a critical player on security issues … but you are also a leader on development and technology,” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the unveiling in November. “Indeed, India is a superpower on the information superhighway.”

“We need to do more to help all children and young people make the most of the opportunities provided by information and communications technology – especially all those who are still unconnected from the digital revolution,” he added.

SmartPlanet spoke with tech expert Prasnato Roy, editorial adviser at CyberMedia India, on what’s new with the tablet and will it work better.

Read full article with interview.

Phi Beta Iota: Combine with with Open Cloud and Open Spectrum, among other opens, and we create a prosperous world at peace, a world that works for all.

Owl: $20 Table Storms the World — Four Million Back Ordered

Search: openbts [as of 30 Oct 2012]

SmartPlanet: Mobile Phones Lifting Global Economy

2012/12/302012/12/30

Tony Zinni: Background & Confirmation of the 4% “At Best” Quote on Secret versus Open Sources

Knowledge

ROBERT STEELE: I am doing fact-checking as I create the first textbook on intelligence that is useful to all eight tribes of intelligence and breaks away from the mis-directed focus on expensive useless secrets for policy alone. Below from Colonel GI Wilson, USMC (Ret)

Yes, sir. This is how I recall it and Zinni confirms it.

Zinni asked his J-2 at CENTCOM how much of their usable intell was open source. His J-2 said 80%. Zinni asked his J-2 how much of the 20% classified could be found or expanded in OSINT after was it was initially indicated by classified sources. It was determined to be 80% of that.

in my personal experience working with Zinni, it was very evident Zinni recognized the role of OSINT plays in the intelligence community concordant with classified intel. Zinni like Gen Al Gray never had a predilection or penchant for an over-reliance on classified intel just because it was classified.

—–Original Message—–

GI, writing a new book, INTELLIGENCE WITH INTEGRITY: Decision Support in the Public Interest. I'd like to identify you as the source if I may, of this statement from Zinni:

[1] As related to me by Col G. I. Wilson, USMC (Ret.), one of a tiny handful of asymmetric warfare pioneers in the US Marine Corps, as he heard it from General Zinni. This was first published, without attribution, in Robert Steele, “Open Source Intelligence,” in Johnson (2006), Chapter 6, pp. 95-122. Subsequently I created Graphic: Tony Zinni on 4% “At Best”.

Continue reading “Tony Zinni: Background & Confirmation of the 4% “At Best” Quote on Secret versus Open Sources”

2012/12/292012/12/29

Bojan Radej: Open Source Software Hub

Software

Dreams of ‘Open’ Everything

Quentin Hardy

New York Times, 28 November 2012

Software is not merely about automating every aspect of our lives anymore. Some of its makers want to change the way we all interact, spreading their supposed egalitarian excellence.

Whether this is liberation into a new and better mode of being (and yes, the people thinking about this take it to that scale) or the folly of an industry in love with its success is one of the more intriguing questions of a world rushing to live online.

GitHub is a San Francisco company that started in 2008 as a way for open-source software writers in disparate locations to rapidly create new and better versions of their work. Work is stored, shared and discussed, based on the idea of a “pull request,” which is a suggestion to the group for some accretive element, like several lines of code, to be “pulled,” or added, to a project.

“The concept is based around change: what is the right thing to do, what is the wrong thing?” said Tom Preston-Werner, GitHub’s co-founder and chief executive. “The efficiency of large groups working together is very low in large enterprises. We want to change that.”

Read full article.

2012/12/292012/12/29

Graphic: US Drought 25 December 2012

01 Agriculture, 11 Society, 12 Water, Earth Orientation, Graphics

Source

2012/12/282012/12/28

Mike Nelson: Cognitive Surplus Killing Monopoly Capital

#OSE Open Source Everything

If you care about technology, the future, and economics, you'll find LOTS of interesting links here.

The tech debate blasts off (a linkfest)

It took almost a year for me to be taken seriously on the “technology is undermining capital” front, so it was extremely exciting to see the debate blast off in serious economic circles during the last quarter of 2012.

I thought it might be useful, as a result, to provide some links to the most recent developments — since the debate really is moving quickly now.

But before doing so I would like to stress that I appreciate that the debate itself is not new. Ricardo, the Luddites, Keynes, Marx and many more have all considered the impact of technology on labour and capital.

But, as I’ve written previously, it’s almost as if the entire economic and financial community decided to collectively forget about how tech influences capital following the dotcom crash. Like the bubble and bust proved once and for all that the “new economy” theory was flawed, and that bringing it up again could turn out to be embarrassing — thus better left ignored.

Continue reading “Mike Nelson: Cognitive Surplus Killing Monopoly Capital”

2012/12/282016/03/26

Reflections on Healing the Americas — Open Source Agency & Hourglass Strategy

#OSE Open Source Everything, Advanced Cyber/IO, All Reflections & Story Boards, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Peace Intelligence

Robert David STEELE VivasClick on Image for Personal Page — Robert David STEELE Vivas
Click on Image for Personal Page

The Hourglass Strategy: Healing the Americas with Intelligence & Integrity

Robert David STEELE Vivas, CEO, Earth Intelligence Network

Mr. Steele grew up in Latin America, returning as a clandestine case officer, and then going on to teach governments across the region how to leverage Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). He is the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction, reading in 98 categories, and has been described in the media as a serial pioneer and an unsung hero helping create the future. If implemented, ethical evidence-based decision-support becomes the foundation for a completely new innovative and positive OAS in the Americas.

The USA and the OAS have lost their way. The formation of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) was ignored, just as President Barack Obama ignored the value of the book Open Veins of Latin America when it was given to him by President Hugo Chavez. The seven sins of American foreign policy, beginning with ignorance and ending with arrogance, persist. Meanwhile, in Asia – and reinforcing the future of CELAC – President Obama was politely sent home with a sound rejection of his proposed and obviously predatory Trans-Pacific Partnership; instead, a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is being established. The Western Hemisphere including the Arctic should be but is not Priority One for the USA and OAS. The fact is that the USA and OAS lack a strategy, lack coherent policies, and lack harmonized spending strategies for embracing, nurturing, and devising mutually beneficial diplomatic, informational, military, and economic (DIME) programs. This is a global short-coming best addressed first in relation to the Americas.

Continue reading “Reflections on Healing the Americas — Open Source Agency & Hourglass Strategy”

2012/12/282012/12/28

Michel Bauwens: One Community – Global Free-sharing and Open Source Collaboration

Architecture

GLOBAL OPEN SOURCE COLLABORATION

One Community is a non-profit organization and think tank leading a global free-sharing and open source collaboration for the creation and building of a duplicable open source village model for self-sufficient and sustainable living. Everything we do and create is open source, free-shared, and aggressively marketed to make available and spread the information and ideas as quickly as possible.

Our goal in creating this open source village model is to provide everything necessary to establish a global collaborative of successive teacher/demonstration communities, villages, and cities to exponentially expand and share sustainability. One Community is creating this because we believe it has the potential to facilitate a new Golden Age of sustainable living, cooperation, collaboration, and people thinking and creating for The Highest Good of All.

Learn more.

Category: #OSE Open Source Everything

SmartPlanet: $41 Tablet for India