eCulture

"acebook has finally revealed the details of its cryptocurrency, Libra, which will let you buy things or send money to people with nearly zero fees. You'll pseudonymously buy or cash out your Libra online or at local exchange points like grocery stores, and spend it using interoperable third-party wallet apps or Facebook's own Calibra wallet that will be built into WhatsApp, Messenger and its own app. Today Facebook released its white paper explaining Libra and its testnet for working out the kinks of its blockchain system before a public launch in the first half of 2020."

"The Microsoft Alternatives project (MAlt) started a year ago to mitigate anticipated software license fee increases. MAlt's objective is to put us back in control using open software. It is now time to present more widely this project and to explain how it will shape our computing environment."

"The Open Artificial Pancreas System project (#OpenAPS) is an open and transparent effort to make safe and effective basic Artificial Pancreas System (APS) technology widely available to more quickly improve and save as many lives as possible and reduce the burden of Type 1 diabetes. OpenAPS means basic overnight closed loop APS technology is more widely available to anyone with compatible medical devices who is willing to build their own system. We believe that we can make safe and effective APS technology available more quickly, to more people, rather than just waiting for current APS efforts to complete clinical trials and be FDA-approved and commercialized through traditional processes. And in the process, we believe we can engage the untapped potential of dozens or possibly hundreds of patient innovators and independent researchers and also make APS technology available to hundreds or thousands of people willing to participate as subjects in clinical trials."

"They shared this code online as OpenAPS, and "looping," as it's called, began to catch on. Instead of micromanaging their blood sugar, people with diabetes could offload that work to an algorithm. In addition to OpenAPS, another system called Loop is now available. Dozens, then hundreds, and now thousands of people are experimenting with DIY artificial-pancreas systems-none of which the Food and Drug Administration has officially approved. And they've had to track down discontinued Medtronic pumps. It can sometimes take months to find one."

"Truly effective, synergistic, collaboration is an elusive beast at the best of times and the idea of making it work at scale, for decentralised projects and organisations, is possibly the essential challenge of our times. If we want to work out how to work together more effectively, to build an equitable and abundant world for all, it seems important to recognise, what hinders collaboration, to identify great examples of effective collaboration and to at least attempt to identify if there are any key themes which we can build on and incorporate into our work."

"Depuis la généralisation d'Internet dans tous les domaines de la société, la problématique des logiciels propriétaires, opposés aux logiciels libres, est devenue cruciale, quoiqu'encore ignorée par la grande majorité des utilisateurs. Par définition, le logiciel libre peut être exploité, amélioré et distribué par tous. Or, la plupart des logiciels auxquels nous recourons quotidiennement sont dit "propriétaires" : leur code source appartient à de grandes entreprises, qui en tirent des bénéfices conséquents. Les résistants de l'open source y voient ainsi un enjeu philosophique autant qu'un choix de société : les nouvelles technologies devraient être contrôlées par leurs utilisateurs, plutôt que de limiter leur liberté à leur trouver des alternatives."

"Cloud services have become the default tools many people use to get their work done. But this can mean giving up privacy and control. Some open source alternatives are now offering tools to put people back in charge."

"Government Technology Policy, Social Value, and National Competitiveness Harvard Business School Strategy Unit Working Paper No. 19-103"

"PATTRN IS A TOOL TO MAP COMPLEX EVENTS - SUCH AS CONFLICTS, PROTESTS, OR CRISES - AS THEY UNFOLD."

"Promise Tracker is a citizen-monitoring platform designed to help communities track issues they care about and use that information to advocate for change with local government, institutions, or the press. More than a data collection platform, Promise Tracker is a civic process designed to gather groups of citizens to discuss critical issues in their communities, collect actionable information to better understand those issues, and engage in dialogue with local actors in order to develop solutions."

Law enforcement agencies across the country have failed to provide us with even basic information about the lives they have taken. And while the recently signed Death in Custody Reporting Act mandates this data be reported, its unclear whether police departments will actually comply with this mandate and, even if they do decide to report this information, it could be several years before the data is fully collected, compiled and made public. We cannot wait to know the true scale of police violence against our communities. And in a country where at least three people are killed by police every day, we cannot wait for police departments to provide us with these answers. The maps and charts on this site aim to provide us with the answers we need. They include information on 1,131 known police killings - including 1,067 arrest-related deaths (according to Bureau of Justice Statistics definitions) as well as 64 unintentional, off-duty and/or in-custody deaths - that occurred in 2014. They also include information on 1,080 police killings in 2013, 1,131 in 2015, 1,129 police killings in 2016 and 1,147 killings in 2017. 93 percent of the killings in our database occurred while a police officer was acting in a law enforcement capacity. Importantly, these data do not include killings by vigilantes or security guards who are not off-duty police officers.

Having a clearer shape of a problem is not the same thing as having solutions. It's important if only so we don't collapse in the face of a task that often seems insurmountable: making sense of how the current media environment prepares citizens to be effective civic actors. I'm hoping that naming and framing these problems can make the task easier for my friends on the Knight commission and everyone wrestling with this challenging tangle of problems.

"The Digital Gap Between Rich and Poor Kids Is Not What We Expected America's public schools are still promoting devices with screens - even offering digital-only preschools. The rich are banning screens from class altogether."

"The creative industries workforce requires employees that use ICT applications to solve the knowledge related tasks at work. The aim of this research is twofold: (1) to see if previously cited twenty-first century digital skills are suited to the creative industries workforce and (2) to investigate the extent to which skill development get attention in current organizational practices. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of 24 managers and senior executives of creative organizations based in the Netherlands. As a guideline for the interviews, a conceptual twenty-first century digital skills framework was used. This framework presented the following seven core skills supported by the use of ICT: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. The following five contextual skills that play a role when using ICT were also presented: ethical awareness, cultural awareness, flexibility, self-direction, and lifelong learning. The results support the importance of twenty-first century digital skills, however, there seems to be insufficient attention to the levels of these skills; they play a minor role during the selection and evaluation procedures. Often it is assumed that existing digital skills are sufficient. Managers are encouraged to improve on developing requirements necessary for future employees as well as measurements to ensure current employees skill levels. The developed framework might be used as a management tool for indicating skills that need to be assessed among professionals working in the creative industries."

"Communities of Practice as a Professional and Organizational Development Strategy in Local Public Health Organizations in Quebec, Canada: An Evaluation Model"

"GNU Kind Communications Guidelines"

"Net Generation (Tapscott, 2009, 1998; Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005), Generation Y (Zhao and Liu, 2008; Halse and Mallinson, 2009), Millennials (Howe and Strauss, 2000), Homo Zappiens (Veen, 2003) and i-Generation (Rosen, 2010). The labels used to describe the generation of young people and their relation with technology are numerous. Over the past few years, one of the notions, which might have had more echoes among parents, teachers, and policy-makers is those of "digital natives" introduced in 2001 by Mark Prensky. The metaphor has had enduring influence on how the educational system perceives students and technology. Most scholars do not like it, for various reasons. Among other problems, the term implies that technological abilities are innate rather than taught and learned. The aim of this contribution is not to join the existing debate about the existence of digital native but to examine if there is any empirical evidence to support the use of that metaphor in the first place, questioning its usefulness to depict particular generations of young people"

"Pourquoi la technologie n'est pas démocratique et comment elle peut le devenir"

"La notion de « Communs culturels » s'est construite en réaction à certaines évolutions de la propriété intellectuelle, perçue comme un phénomène « d'enclosure » par les défenseurs des Communs[1]. Modelé à partir de la matrice des « Communs de la connaissance » ou des « Communs immatériels », le concept de « Communs culturels » présente une morphologie découlant pour une grande part de ce rôle « défensif » qui fut originellement le sien. D'une certaine manière, on peut dire que la propriété intellectuelle a même « informé » le concept de « Communs culturels » en surdéterminant ses traits principaux."