#OSE Open Source Everything – Page 95 – Public Intelligence Blog

2015/03/272015/03/26

Open Agriculture Data Alliance

Access, Cloud, Data, Design, Innovation, Resilience, Transparency

Open Agriculture Data Alliance

Modern production agriculture has the potential to dramatically improve crop yields and reduce environmental impacts by enabling farmers to properly evaluate past, current and future farm management decisions through analysis of agronomic data generated in the field. However farmers are currently overwhelmed with walled gardens of incompatible data generated by their existing systems (geodata images, logs, reports, charts). Farmer’s want the hardware and software systems they use to interoperate – that is, to share information and be able to adequately rely on each other to help support decision-making. Learn more.

2015/03/242015/03/24

Independent Voter Network: 8 Reforms to Fix Politics in the United States

Access, Civil Society, Ethics

8 Reforms to Fix Politics in the United States

Three of the eight elements are now in public consciousness – our task is to nurture a public conversation about all eight – together – and now, in 2015.

Independent Voter Network, 24 March 2015

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2015/03/242015/03/24

Shawn Griffiths: 6 More States Consider Independent Redistricting

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6 More States Consider Adopting Independent Redistricting Groups

Independent Voter Network, 23 February 2015

Redistricting has been a contentious process since the early 1800s, when Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a bill that reshaped electoral districts in Massachusetts to benefit the Democratic-Republicans. This manipulation of the redistricting process was nicknamed a Gerry-Mander, partially after Governor Gerry, and partially after the shape of one of the Boston districts, which resembled a salamander.

The practice, now commonly referred to as gerrymandering, presents a challenge to the U.S.’s republican system, where representatives are supposed to represent all of the voters in a given district. In an attempt to curb the practice, 9 states have already implemented independent redistricting commissions designed to make the redistricting process fairer and more representative of a population. Additionally,13 states use a hybrid method involving more than one government branch or agency working together to draw district lines.

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2015/03/232015/03/22

Who Is Vitalik Buterin?

Design, Economics/True Cost, Innovation, P2P / Panarchy, Resilience, Software

Vitalik Buterin is a programmer, writer, founder of Ethereum, the decentralized web 3.0 publishing platform and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, a website and print magazine that covers Bitcoin-related topics.^[1]^[2]^[3] In 2014, Buterin won the World Technology Award for the co-creation and invention of Ethereum.^[4] Buterin was born in Russia, grew up in Canada, and currently resides in Toronto, Ontario.

WIkipedia / Vitalik Buterin

Author at BitCoin Magazine

Vitalik Buterin has beaten Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to win the World Technology Network (WTN) award for IT software

2015/03/232015/03/22

Jean Lievens: Anarchist David Graeber on Bullshit Jobs, Rule-Bound Lives, and Importance of Play

Access, Culture, Design, Economics/True Cost, P2P / Panarchy, Politics

He coined the phrase, “We are the 99%.”

David Graeber: ‘So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they think are unnecessary’

I found myself asking: is this what ordinary life, for most people, is really like?” writes the 53-year-old professor of anthropology in his new book The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy. “Running around feeling like an idiot all day? Being somehow put in a position where one actually does end up acting like an idiot?”

2015/03/222015/03/22

IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 16: The Statement of Demand

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IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 16: The Statement of Demand

Independent Voter Network, 20 April 2012

I am neither wealthy nor influential. All I have is intelligence and integrity. Neither of these appear to be in demand at this time. As I look at all of the candidates running for President — without exception — I see stunted human beings who are self-centered and not at all able to play well with others.

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2015/03/222015/03/22

IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 15: The Pledge

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IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 15: The Pledge

Independent Voter Network, 18 April 2012

The Pledge was conceived by others reluctant to press upon the Members a full-up Electoral Reform Act of 2012. While I strongly disagree — we cannot delay on the specifics — I respect the intent and below put the full text of the Pledge.

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