Last night I met Quiddities‘ Margaret Rosas who was awarded a grant in the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge for Radio Drupal, a project to create open-source internet radio software for streaming and community engagement to be possible even for small, locally-based radio stations. The web is struggling to be democratic, in part because publishing content […]
Category Archives: free & open
design for durability
The OLPC has driven important innovations in open software, hardware, universal design and environmental sustainability in order to be cheap and durable enough for widespread use in developing countries. At this week’s unveiling of new designs for second-generation laptops, I spotted this interesting exhibit on the design touches that make the OLPC stand out in […]
Also posted in children, conviviality, customization, environment, fabrication, futurecraft, open objects, product design, supply chain, universal design, upcycling
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open threads 3
Burdastyle is an open-source sewing resource where members upload patterns and visitors can consult instructional references (below) or download pdf patterns (above). By providing instructions for how to sew at the same time as open source ‘code’ for what to sew the site is a real open source free fashion resource. As with free software, […]
Also posted in blogogracy, customization, fabrication, fashion, futurecraft, materials, open objects, product design, soft/glowing, universal design
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open threads 2
The concept of making source code Open Source typically refers to opaque products whose construction cannot be discerned from their appearance – but even seemingly transparent products, such as buildings or clothes, hide a code of their own. The project Hacking Couture seeks out the hidden aesthetic code and its history in order to liberate […]
Also posted in customization, fabrication, fashion, futurecraft, open objects, product design, soft/glowing, upcycling
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open wide
As Mako Hill argued in his presentation at CHI 2008, the best software is made by users and not by designers. The best examples are targeted applications made for niche applications, such as odontolinux, a free and open dental office management software based on Debian. Together with Open Dental (pictured), another open-source (but not free) […]
Also posted in open objects, universal design
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