Open Source

Having recently moved to a new city, I turn to Yelp whenever I am in need of a new restaurant, store, or even a refrigerator repairman. But as I learned the hard way, while Yelp can help me find the best calamari, it won’t tell me whether the restaurant has been spanked by the local health department.

Remember how the Internet community stopped SOPA?

Come on out to Irish Whiskey this Thursday at 8pm for the official launch of the Internet Defense League (IDL), a network of people and organizations committed to defending the open Internet. The goal of IDL is to sound the alarm quickly to millions of users whenever the Internet is in peril.

Is it working? Evaluating and assessing broadband policy

A by-invitation experts’ workshop

New America Foundation

September 19-21, 2012

This week at the Open Technology Institute, we’re going back to the source of our passion for technology. It’s not about policy objectives or new software features, but rather the inspiration and enjoyment we get from sharing what we know and learning from others. The Allied Media Conference offers a rare chance to interact with an array of community organizers, technologists, and policy folks in an environment that’s all about generating creative ideas and engaging with other participants.

On Thursday May 24th, the corner of 16th and Newton Street NW became the eighth node in the growing Mount Pleasant Community Wireless Network. Several folks in the neighborhood and a few team members from the Open Technology Institute (OTI) joined forces with members of HacDC, a community hackerspace, to install a Commotion-powered wireless router on the roof of St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church.

Originally posted on DanBlah.com and cross posted from the Open Technology Initiative.

While I am by no means a seasoned investigative journalist, I have the good fortune to work with some. Looking ten years back I couldn't imagine a media organization considering geek qualifications a core part of an investigative team. In 2011, turning a geek into an investigative journalist is a no-brainer.

Originally posted on DanBlah.com

While I am by no means a seasoned investigative journalist, I have the good fortune to work with some. Looking ten years back I couldn't imagine a media organization considering geek qualifications a core part of an investigative team. In 2011, turning a geek into an investigative journalist is a no-brainer.

When the Open Technology Initiative presented at the Allied Media Conference in June, many of the participants documented it with posts to Twitter and Flickr. We used Storify, an online tool for compiling social media, to arrange those pics and tweets into a narrative of our workshop and a tour of local wireless networks.

Irrespective of your personal feelings about WikiLeaks, the model it pioneered has challenged traditional journalism models and serves as a harbinger of change for 2011. WikiLeaks-esque tools supporting a new generation of whistleblowers are facilitating fundamental changes in the relationships among sources and journalists. These tools can disseminate exceedingly large amounts of information within remarkably short time frames and challenge journalists, who necessarily must utilize new technologies to vet, manage, source, and expose the needles in the haystack.