solvitur ambulando
So I finally decided that Google had more than enough information about what I liked and disliked, that the laggy Google Reader interface was much more trouble than it's worth, and Google Reader meant a separate and completely unnecessary inbox, which was playing havoc with my workflow. So instead of going for a specialized RSS … Continue reading Goodbye Google Reader
Although it may be simple to conflate the Apps for Democracy and Apps for America contests with the exciting new Apps for Army contest, they really couldn't be more different. Together they represent an exciting experiment in what it takes to pull communities together around a problem. Though they all offer cash prizes to the … Continue reading Developers for Glory
[I first presented this at the GTC Southwest conference in Austin on February 13, 2010.] Hundreds of thousands of open source software projects are capturing an unprecedented amount of innovation and effort from contributors around the world. These projects vary in quality, but represent, in the aggregate, one the largest collective efforts in the history … Continue reading Failing Faster: Lessons from the Open Source Community
Michael Daconta at GCN has posted a brief call to arms for the software industry. Here's the gist: Although I am a believer in free markets and the benefits of competition, industry has a responsibility to work together on the foundational layers to build security, quality and reliability from the ground up to advance the … Continue reading Software isn’t a skyscraper
Like most of Jonathan Ive's work, the iPad is beautiful. Like most of Apple's work, it also makes me uneasy. I was planning to write about this feeling of unease, so imagine my delight when I discovered that Timothy B. Lee and others have already done the work for me. In "Why Geeks Hate the … Continue reading Education and the iPad’s Architecture of Control
In case you needed more evidence that IA is a chaotic, arbitrary, and disorganized activity in the DOD, this map tries to impose order on the process. Lulz ensue. Driptray rightfully declares this mess a "glorious misuse of the portable document format." HT: The inimitable Mr. Carr
On the heels of the Open Government Memo of January 21st, 2009, the Obama Administration has issued the Open Government Directive. The Directive tells agencies what they must do to meet the expectations set by the Memo. The directive names many deadlines for agency compliance, most of them around reducing FOIA backlogs and increasing the … Continue reading What the Open Government Directive Means for Open Source
In mid-October, the U.S. Department of Defense CIO released a memo on the use of open source software in the DOD. The Clarifying Guidance Regarding Open Source Software (OSS) was hailed as tremendous leap forward for open source software in the US Government. And indeed it is. At its heart, the memo is fairly simple. … Continue reading What you need to know about the 2009 DOD OSS Memo
Higher education is now almost absurdly expensive. In an effort to reduce the cost of developing and delivering educational material, there are a number of initiatives around open curricula right now. The idea is that content generated by the academic community can be made freely available so that professors and publishers don't have to reinvent … Continue reading Open Courseware Runs Afoul the Free Market
[via ffffound.]
a technology job is no excuse 