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"Fonts, like any other digital asset on your computer, come with their own rules for licensing."

[New hacker ethics Steve Mizrach of the dept. of Anthropology, University of Florida, analyzed several recent hacker texts in the paper Is there a hacker ethic for 90s hackers? (1997). He summarizes his findings in a new set of ethical principles. Above all else, do no harm. Do not damage computers or data if at all possible. Much like the key element of the Hippocratic Oath.]

[Areas of inquiry once reserved for historians and social scientists are now studied by neuroscientists, and among the most fascinating is cultural conflict. Science alone won't provide the answers, but it can offer new insights into how social behavior reflects -- and perhaps even shapes -- basic human biology. An upcoming issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B features a collection of new studies on the biology of conflict. On the following pages, Wired looks at the findings. ...]

"Sustainable open source projects are those that are capable of supporting themselves. Simply put, they are able to meet their ongoing costs. However, from the viewpoint of selection and procurement, sustainability also means that the project is capable of delivering improvements and fixing problems with its products in a timely manner, and that the project itself has a reasonable prospect of continuing into the future. Elsewhere on our site you can find articles describing some of the many formal approaches to evaluating open source software as part of the Software Sustainability Maturity Model."

" ...Basically Windows XP and Vista users were enticed into trying out the "Insider Preview" version of Windows 10 to help Microsoft find bugs and react to feedback. ... As a reward for their input into Windows 10, the "Insider Preview" users were to be given a free upgrade to the full version when it has been fully released. Except of course now they aren't. Microsoft has changed the terms. Only Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will receive a free upgrade to Windows 10. "

Allison Randal on the future of open source software development ""I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being."

"Just as defenders find their feet, lawmakers move to outlaw security research entirely. by Sebastian Anthony - Oct 5, 2015 10:15am CEST"

"Would you be better off paying for online newspapers like this one? Should you feel guilty about downloading free music? Is the Web's "information-wants-to-free" culture hurting writers, musicians and the rest of the "digital peasants," as Jaron Lanier calls us, now providing unpaid content to be exploited by the "lords of the clouds" like Google? In my Findings column, I discuss Mr. Lanier's new book, "You Are Not A Gadget," a manifesto decrying the Web's effect on individual creativity. (You can see excerpts of his criticism at Edge and at Cato Unbound.) Mr. Lanier mentions this newspaper as one of the victims as well as the promoters of the Web's ideology. "The New York Times," he writes, "promotes so-called open digital politics on a daily basis even though that ideal and the movement behind it are destroying the newspaper and all other newspapers. It seems to be a case of journalistic Stockholm syndrome." Mr. Lanier also faults himself: "

Objective. Sociologists of technology propose that not only a technological artifact, as such, but also patterns of usage should be considered when studying the social implications of technologies. Accordingly, we explore how people's online activities are influenced by users' socioeconomic status and context of use. Methods. We analyze data from the Allensbacher Computer and Technology Analysis (ACTA) 2004 survey with uniquely detailed information about people's Internet uses and context of usage to explore this relationship. Results. Findings suggest that highstatus and low-status individuals cultivate different forms of ''Internet-in-practice.'' High-status users are much more likely to engage in so-called capital-enhancing activities online than are their less privileged counterparts. Conclusion. Results suggest differential payoffs from Internet use depending on a user's socioeconomic background. Digital inequalities might be mitigated by improving people's Internet equipment and digital experience, but they do not account for all the status differential in use.

""This is a deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness" - Naomi Klein. Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing," Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. He reveals the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger (as much as $200), and asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our democratically bankrupt political system. If part one asks how we can rebalance society and limit markets, part two answers by showing how social organizations, in America and around the globe, are finding new ways to describe the world's worth. If we don't want the market to price every aspect of our lives, we need to learn how such organizations have discovered democratic ways in which people, and not simply governments, can play a crucial role in deciding how we might share our world and its resources in common. This short, timely and inspiring book reveals that our current crisis is not simply the result of too much of the wrong kind of economics. While we need to rethink our economic model, Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers a fresh and accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society."

needed: * The trend-spotter, who finds a promising innovation early. * The evangelist, who passionately makes the case for idea X or person Y. * The superspreader, who broadcasts innovations to a larger group. * The skeptic, who keeps the conversation honest. * General participants, who show up, comment honestly, and learn.

[ Book: Wolfgang Hoeschele. The Economics of Abundance: A Political Economy of Freedom, Equity, and Sustainability. Gower Publishing, 2010 Contents [hide] * 1 Description * 2 Contents * 3 Excerpts o 3.1 Introduction o 3.2 Oppressive Scarcities (pp. 19-20) o 3.3 Conclusions: Strategies for Change o 3.4 Table 9.1: Coalitions for change o 3.5 Resource Use and Property Rights to Minimize Scarcity + 3.5.1 Contributory resource uses + 3.5.2 Neutral resource uses + 3.5.3 Rivalrous resource uses + 3.5.4 Key References on resource use Description "The "economics of abundance" is based on a critique of our present economic system, which finds value only in scarce commodities - i.e., things which can be sold at a high price because demand exceeds supply. Because this economy depends on demand always outstripping supplies, it also depends on "scarcity-generating institutions" - institutions that either manipulate supply or demand in order to keep us in a constant state of need. An economy of abundance seeks to dismantle or reform these scarcity-generating institutions in such a way as to affirm our freedom to live life as art (self-expression to others), social equity (so that everyone can live life as art), and sustainability (so that all life can thrive into the future). Among other things, this implies a much greater role for various forms of shared property, individual and community-level self-reliance, and participatory decision-making." (http://shareable.net/blog/event-the-economics-of-abundance) ]

[This Site was originally created by the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) as a place where members of the UNESCO OER Community can work together on questions, issues and documents. Over time we can build this site together. Useful pages * About the UNESCO OER Community o List of community members * About community discussions o Access to OER o UNESCO OER Toolkit o OER: Findings from an OECD study o Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) solutions for OER o Exploring the idea of a "DIY" OER development resource o Developing a research agenda for OER * Open Educational Resources useful links * Open Educational Resources glossary * Guide to using and contributing to this wiki * Guide to online translation tools]

"Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries, a Nature investigation finds. UPDATE: see details of how the data were collected for this article in the supplementary information. UPDATE 2 (28 March 2006). The results reported in this news story and their interpretation have been disputed by Encyclopaedia Britannica. Nature responded to these objections ."

"Arne Rogde Gramstad University of Oslo, Department of Economics, Students February 5, 2016 Abstract: The open-source software operating system Linux is a free-of-charge substitute to proprietary systems like Microsoft Windows. By using a cross-country data set, this paper finds evidence that increased piracy of proprietary software has a negative impact on adoption of desktop versions of Linux. The interpretation of this result is that the availability of pirated versions of Windows leads to fewer individuals installing a Linux operating system on their desktop computers. Thus, in the absence of software piracy, Linux would be a more widely used operating system. Number of Pages in PDF File: 11 Keywords: Open-source software, software piracy, intellectual property JEL Classification: L11, L17, O34"

Pete Savage: My open source story When I was 13, our school was hooked up to the Internet-a 28.8 kbps U.S. Robotics modem was all that stood between us and the vast expanses of the Web. As I grew to understand more and more about the fundamentals of HTML and websites over the next couple of years, it seemed to me that you needed to use special tools like FrontPage or the legend that was DreamWeaver to make anything of any real merit."

"To be honest, the answer is No! There is no operating system on earth can be 100% immune to malware and viruses. But Linux still never have such widespread malware infection as it's compared to Windows. But why? Let us find out reasons behind this and destroy all the common urban legends about the Linux security."

Posted 13 Jan 2016 by Aaron Wolf "In this article, based on my talk at SCaLE 14x this year, we'll cover the basics of configuring your Linux system for music making, highlighting what works best and acknowledging the challenges with recommendations on how to find help."

"I firmly believe that in the absence of any intentional organizational strategy a person's workspace becomes a reflection of their mind. Like bits of knowledge stored in the brain, tools and assets instinctively find themselves organized in a way that feels right to the individual."

"Data keeps debunking myths about Millennials and their music. Baby Boomers are famously self-important when it comes to the importance of their generation and the music it created. But a new study shows that the 55+ demographic actually listens to substantially less music than their 16-34 cohorts. In fact, Millennials - loosely defined as those born in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s - listen to 75.1% more music on a daily basis, according to data shared this morning with Digital Music News."