#OSE Open Source Everything – Page 255 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/09/222012/09/22

Michel Bauwens: Rob Van Kranenburg on The Sensing Planet – Challenge is NOT Technology, Challenge is Ensuring Process is Inclusive and Open

220px-Michel_Bauwens_crop — Michel Bauwens

The Sensing Planet: Why The Internet Of Things Is The Biggest Next Big Thing

By: Rob van Kranenburg

Rob van Kranenburg outlines a brief history of the next big thing–the internet of things–and argues that U.S. industry and government should be taking a more active role in its evolution.

About a decade ago, I would stand in the middle of a square somewhere and imagine that everything I saw could and would one day be possibly connected.

In my mind that was not such a new idea. Animists in Africa and Asia have for centuries talked about “living” inanimate objects, believing that things had a soul and taking good care of them. Humans are meaning-making machines, so we invest inanimate landscapes and objects with all kinds of qualities that they cannot really possess.

Ten years on, that daydream is becoming a reality with the Internet of Things. Loosely defined as a global process to enhance all objects with some kind of digital address, IoT is already coming to you: to your home as the smart meter that will streamline all your electrical appliances; to your connected car that will have distance sensors and eCall to alert accidents; and to your body as a patch in an intelligent T-shirt or the Siemens hearing aid that aims to pick up the fire truck noise and soften it before you “hear” it. In terms of “the next big thing” this is as big as fire and the book.

And it’s inevitable. Why? Because a confluence of historical factors has come together to make what was once the domain of science fiction a reality. Let’s quickly take a look at those drivers.

Continue reading “Michel Bauwens: Rob Van Kranenburg on The Sensing Planet – Challenge is NOT Technology, Challenge is Ensuring Process is Inclusive and Open”

2012/09/222012/09/22

Owl: Between April and June 2012 more Americans were added to the food stamp program than found jobs…

Economics/True Cost, Graphics

Between April and June 2012 more Americans were added to the food stamp program than found jobs.

An alarming data point from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee: More Americans are being added to food stamps than are finding jobs. The data is detailed in this chart, provided by the committee:

As the chart shows, between April-June 2012 (the most recent three month block for which government data is available), only 200,000 jobs have been created while 265,000 individuals have been added to the food stamp rolls. Additionally, in that time period, 246,000 workers were awarded disability.

Phi Beta Iota: It's actually worse than that — and not something that can be blamed on President Obama or his Administration alone. This is a systemic problem. Accurate statistics that account for the growing eligible workforce show net losses of jobs created.

2012/09/212012/09/21

Berto Jongman: Global Journal, Global Minds

Knowledge

Request an invitation to join the Global Minds community

What is a Global Mind?

Global Minds are executives, experts, academics and individuals coming from a variety of backgrounds. Some work for UN agencies and NGOs, others in research centers, universities or the private sector. All Global Minds have one thing in common: they look to exchange views with other members on a variety of global governance issues. Topics discussed include energy security, social entrepreneurship, internet governance, politics of development and humanitarian aid. The Global Minds platform gives individuals the opportunity to share their knowledge and insights on these topics and be informed about emerging debates.

Learn more.

Phi Beta Iota: This is potentially a good idea but poorly framed — they have no analytic model and the primary emphasis appears to be on getting volunteer writers who can produce high-quality contributions at no cost. If the sponsors were to adopt or create a strategic analytic model, and create global intelligence councils, one for each threat, one for each policy, and then regional integrative councils and one global umbrella council, they just might be able to scale quickly and with relevance.

2012/09/202012/10/07

VIDEO (20:25): Warren Pollock Interviews Robert Steele on End of the Closed System

#OSE Open Source Everything

The closed system is the industrial era system by and for the few at the expense of the many. Robert David Steele is an American activist and a former Central Intelligence Agency clandestine services case officer known for his promotion of open source intelligence. He is also author of the “Open Source Manifesto.”

Posted 20 September 2012

2012/09/202012/09/20

Eagle: President Obama Tells the Truth – A Good First Step – But Can He Turn On A Dime & Force Electoral Reform in 30 Days?

Innovation, Knowledge, P2P / Panarchy, Politics

Republicans pounce on Obama remark: ‘You can't change Washington from the inside'

He has not been able to change the ‘tone’ in Washington, Obama says, calling that ‘disappointing.’

President Obama — who ran his 2008 campaign on the promise of “hope and change” — made a surprising admission after four years in office on Thursday: “You can't change Washington from the inside.”

Republicans immediately pounced on the president's seemingly off-the-cuff remark, which came after Mitt Romney's campaign had endured days of attacks over the GOP candidate's own unscripted comments at a secretly-recorded May fundraiser.

“His slogan was ‘Yes we can,'” an energized Romney declared at a rally in Sarasota, Fla. “His slogan now is ‘No I can't!'”

Obama made the comment in response to a question about his “biggest failure” at a Univision town-hall forum in Miami on Thursday.

In a nod to the mostly-Latino audience, Obama first mentioned his inability to pass immigration reform, before admitting to the larger failing.

“Obviously, the fact that we haven't been able to change the tone in Washington is disappointing,” he said.

“And I think that I've learned some lessons over the last four years and the most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside,” the president continued. “You can only change it from the outside.”

Read full article.

Continue reading “Eagle: President Obama Tells the Truth – A Good First Step – But Can He Turn On A Dime & Force Electoral Reform in 30 Days?”

2012/09/202012/09/20

Eagle: Public Information Cards

Economics/True Cost, Knowledge

Occupy is dead — the energy and the potential are not.

OCCUPCARDS.COM – Educational Outreach Cards for Activists

Current Cards

Potential Upcoming Cards

Continue reading “Eagle: Public Information Cards”

2012/09/202012/09/20

DefDog: Bottom Up Sharing of Books – A New Model?

Crowd-Sourcing, Knowledge, P2P / Panarchy

Further to the comment on Owl's previous post, “displacing the advertising model of book publishers; and those who pay for localized printing will be incentivized to donate the books to their local library….” it may be that the official libraries, too few and limited as they are, will be displaced as well.

The man who turned his home into a public library

By Kate McGeown

BBC News, Manila, 19 September 2012

If you put all the books you own on the street outside your house, you might expect them to disappear in a trice. But one man in Manila tried it – and found that his collection grew.

Hernando Guanlao is a sprightly man in his early 60s, with one abiding passion – books.

They're his pride and joy, which is just as well because, whether he likes it or not, they seem to be taking over his house.

Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, has set up an informal library outside his home in central Manila, to encourage his local community to share his joy of reading.

The idea is simple. Readers can take as many books as they want, for as long as they want – even permanently. As Guanlao says: “The only rule is that there are no rules.”

It's a policy you might assume would end very quickly – with Mr Guanlao having no books at all.

But in fact, in the 12 years he's been running his library – or, in his words, his book club – he's found that his collection has grown rather than diminished, as more and more people donate to the cause.

Read full article with photos.