Did open source culture become mainstream without us knowing it?

“Openness” is becoming mainstream in culture and policies:
It somehow started with open data initiatives done by international organizations and governments in EU, US, UN, WorldBank, ITU, etc…Then somehow came in “Open Education” in lead universities like Harvard, Yale, Caltech.
Open Education became available through websites like Academic Earth and Khan Academy to name just two and not to mention the “topic specific” learning websites.
Soon enough government and big organizations joined the same spirit of “Open Education” by using a slightly different word: “Open Knowledge”.
Under “Open Knowledge” – research papers, processes, best practices that sat on dusty shelves became available on the internet.

If the “Open source” keep going that way, new grounds are being prepared for open budgets (Netherlands, worldbank is opening up their budgets in what seems to be a first step to start bullying countries to do the same)
Open budget simply sets the ground for open development, which in other terms democratizes economy or attempts to.

This is all hip and cool – but what does it have to do with my tech blog?

I was thinking about “when was the first time we saw openess in design and delivery/implementation/feedback? which industry?”

As hard as I thought – only one answer came to mind: Open source software development…Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review, transparency of process to create community driven and shareable/free to use and re-use/morph software.

In all the above we see tech as a main component in delivering open data, open knowledge , open budget…Also the same mechanisms, processes and patterns are being re-used but with a different terminology. It is far more than a coincidence if you look at it.

From the looks of it, by connecting the above dots in “openness” history – open-stuff is a spin off of the open source culture/cult – it first started with code, then data (nerdy natural thing to become open) and moved to education/learning (which is what actually open source is about) – now it is being applied to other business and governance processes.

I know i am probably biased and applying my tech perspective to life – but as I seriously ponder again on examples of open design/license/development – i fail to find it in medicine or manufacturing for example… the only other exception I could find is: cooking.
Cooking is the earliest form of “open source” (designing a meal and sharing it via recipes – taking the pride in it)
Who knew our geekness could be a spinoff from mum’s kitchen?
and have we – the open source geeks – started that butterfly effect that might change or at least twist the world and not noticed it?

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I was tasked to shortlist and test different types of ICT tools that can be used in governance. Since mobile penetration is really high worldwide – I started investigating SMS polling and survey tools. mobile (85.5%) vs internet (32.35%) – worldwide graphs – ITU
After some research – here is the shortlist I ended up with – I made sure to diversify the tools. I didn’t want to end up with list of stuff that do the same thing but under different logos. Other factors were that those tools had to be robust enough for big implementations… easy to use, open source, can be extended etc. I know that probably there are some amazing software that i skipped – this is a shortlist after all – not an extensive one – so feel free to share in the comments your favorite tool… I could have missed it and if it is awesome, I will re-add it. In each review I will share:

• Background info on the tool, how it started, why, by whom, links to their sites or social media or further readings.
• Where it was used and by whom.
• Ease of use, installing experience, personal feedback.
• Scenario based recommendations – comparaison vs other tools.

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Jun 13, 2010

As we move into an era of a digital (r)evolution we are facing new questions and challenges that touch our very intimate human privacy and rights.

Like never before, we are able to store and process data in huge amounts and like never before our reliance on computer and digital systems is increasing exponentially. We are not only using computers to manage our money, assets and wealth but also to help us in our health challenges or in our everyday life:no business can exist without heavy reliance on information systems, each one of us is now having an online presence through a blog ( personal or professional one ), we are tweeting what we eat, how we feel, where we are or sharing pictures of what we did, who we were with.

Naturally big questions that arises : Who is gaining control over all this data? How much privacy do we have left ? What guarantees do we have over no future mis-use of our personal details ? and the funniest question is : How is the government going to protect us and who is going to protect us from our government ? because let us face it , all governments are information hungry. Intelligence/security/economy/……/health/social analysis systems all need information in order to predict trends, avoid security breaches, build studies or just for the most basis principle governments feed on : power.

While you may say having those “worries” over privacy in itself is “suspicious” or “unjustified” , Only criminals have stuff to hide, right? , or as recently google CEO has –sadly- repeated twice : “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

As right as those arguments are – their main fail point is that they accept the idea that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It’s not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

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Yes a plain big FUCK YOU goes to the Lebanese Govt, Lebanese Telecom Minister and to each and every person in the decision making process in Telecom industry – min kill albeh – to every and each single one of you – FUCK YOU – even tho you don’t really need that since you are already fucking each other and on the way fucking up our life, careers and start-ups …

The reason behind this rage : We are all aware that Lebanon has the 5th slowest internet on earth despite being located in the middle of this planet – we are not in some remote area where connectivity is hard, no we are in the middle of it ! yet our govt is failing  – yet again – to provide us with basic internet connectivity !

Mada signs regional cable network agreement to transform telecom in Middle East

Originating in Fujairah (United Arab Emirates) the 12.8 Terabits per second fiber optic cable will pass through Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Amman (Jordan), Tartous (Syria) and will end in Istanbul (Turkey).

Original link http://www.ameinfo.com/252143.html (take a minute to read it )

Imagine it – it is going around us !

So other than more and never ending frustration – just think about it ! Think of the unfair growing gap between Lebanon-Syria-Jordan-UAE-Turkey-KSA ! In an information age, this is litterally like people upgrading to Ferraris while we are still using only its logo aka horses/donkeys without even organized roads.

It is not in the best interest of Syria and Jordan to sell us later – so by crippling lebanese tech sector, theirs is flourishing – and if they do sell us, they will sure sell at way higher prices – they will have control…. and this is the best case scenario.

This whole infrastructur-ing thing and cabling is going to have effect for years to come – so seriously, honestly, deeply FUCK YOU – I am keeping an eye on any public appearance for those d**** – Will make sure they hear my opinion in person even if it gets me arrested.

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This post was supposed to be about the tech sides of WikiLeaks, but for some reason ended up on Moral reasoning – i just couldn’t help but write this instead at 5:30 in the morning – so i may regret publishing this in the morning

Moral reasoning is individual or collective practical reasoning about what, morally, one ought to do and behave

in other words, moral reasoning is what happens whenever you are talking with someone about some values you have – or whenever you are trying to persuade someone of joining some course of action (demonstration,boycott…)
people reason with themselves: what is the correct thing to do or to believe in ?

so understanding moral reasoning can be an important key for strategizing and for “reasoning” with people – specially about “basic moral values”.

google says, When it comes to moral reasoning, there are 2 main categories :

Consequential reasoning that locates morality based on the consequences of the action

Categorical reasoning that locates morality in duties,rights and judgement.

I will give very basic example of how the 2 things work :

Let’s assume you are back in the 18th century and your activisim is about abolishing Slavery (and since we are at it, let me assume that you are wearing one of those dresses where the boobs pop out, with the funny hair and make up )

• so, while abolishing slavery – if you are using a consequential reasoning strategy (morality is based on the consequences of the actions) – then you can build your campaign based on pictures of workers working from hunger, underfed, pictures of orphan kids. You basically tell to people : omg omg omg see what slavery is doing, can you see its consequences , slavery is bad, slavery needs abolishing.

• Now, if you are using a categorical reasoning strategy – your campaign will be based on human=human and on the irrevelance of skin colors and how all men are created equal and have equal rights – you can as well bring God into your campaign and tell people that we are all created on the same image as god and we are all his sons and daughters and we shall love each other.

Both approaches to moral reasoning are quite effective, powerful and can not be compared (there is no “which one is best”) .

It is my personal observation that consequential reasoning works well and fast with the masses or with the most “stubborn” individuals, however, on the long run it may not be a good idea : how many times have you seen people shrug at images of kids dying from hunger, how many times you felt frustrated at people simply not caring about civilians being killed and houses destroyed?

what happens is that you are showing people consequences and expecting them to react to them, but people hear the stuff everyday – the consequences of war and hunger will always be there – they get tired and sick of trying to fight it or at least feel there is no progress or it just becomes a daily routine – “there is always hunger in africa, stop nagging”

On the other hand, categorical reasoning with people will give you the most loyal,tireless, innovative and “convinced” army of new fighters for your cause. it is a lot of pain,worth the trouble. yet how slow it is makes it not suitable sometimes and it doesn’t work with the really stuborn people specially if they were smart! (or think they are :P)

So, the point of writing all this – if you are an activist, i hope you become aware of the process and “how reason works” – it may prove to be useful the next time you are strategizing in a campaign.

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If it wasn’t for earthquakes, humans wouldn’t have innovated architecture
They wouldn’t have looked into new ways of building homes, but the problem is that we got good at it – good to the points our homes won’t be destroyed frequently enough aka they won’t evolute frequently.

If you look around you, there is very few free space -  and in those spots you find big centers being eradicated everyday – safe and resistant enough – specially to earthquakes – what on earth will take down those inefficient dumb primitive beton monsters and make room for better buildings in the future ?

So the problem behind this is the ever expanding gap between technology and architecture : our homes will always be behind technology/progress – they will be always less optimal.

I can only imagine how better the earth will be if our houses were “smart” or modern enough – it is not science fiction – the way we build stuff is very retarded to say the least when it comes to the material used, energy saving, what a home can “do” and it is just not possible “business wise” to say : ok, let us destroy and rebuild.

Before, nature took care of this, slowly and “less painfully”

As little earthquakes happened, our primitive cities got “devastated”, we rebuilt them in a better way but the costs were small.
We kept gradually improving till our cities became resistant to medium/high earthquakes.

We reached this point of the graph where things slow down, become stable – it is cool not to have the tragedy and misery of earthquakes, but on the other hand there is the hidden and expensive cost of stability and non-progress. It is invisible and super slow but as devastating in its effect as that 2 minutes tragedy called earthquake

Our homes are costing the earth dearly and suffocating it – we need earthquakes to give engineers another better large-scale chance/try.

Before I start sounding too embarrassingly enthusiastic about earthquakes and destruction, here is a link on list of earthquakes – it has

1. Main lists of earthquakes
   • Historical earthquakes (before 1901)
   • List of 20th century earthquakes (1901–2000)
   • List of 21st century earthquakes (2001–present)
2. Lists of earthquakes by country
3. Largest earthquakes by magnitude
4. Deadliest earthquakes on record

Enjoy the read !

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