Open Data Study Substantial social and economic gains can be made from opening government data to the public. The combination of geographic, budget, demographic, services, education, and other data, publicly available in an open format on the web, promises to improve services as well as create future economic growth. This approach has been recently pioneered by governments in the United States and the United Kingdom (with the launch of two web portals, www.data.gov and www.data.gov.uk respectively) inspired in part by applications developed by grassroots civil society organizations ranging from bicycle accidents maps to sites breaking down how and where tax money is spent. In the UK, the data.gov.uk initiative was spearheaded by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. The report finds that in both the U.S. and U.K., a three-tiered drive was at play. As Tim Berners-Lee observed in an interview, "It has to start at the top, it has to start in the middle, and it has to start at the bottom."
Open battle: Nintendo, MS and Sony face new players in the console wars | Technology This is how console development usually works: a major consumer technology corporation spends several years and millions of dollars in R&D, putting together a piece of hardware that's jammed with high-end proprietary components. The tech is launched region by region over a period of months, and it is then left unmodified until a smaller, cheaper-to-produce model is rolled out some years later. This happens every five years until the company runs out of money. That is the past. This is the future. And now there's this thing called Kickstarter where offbeat tech projects can be funded by enthusiasts. 12 months later, Playjam Announces the GameStick, it hits Kickstarter and with 18 days to go has already made four times its initial $100,000 target. GameStick, of course, is not alone. "There's a multitude of reasons for Ouya and GameStick's success on KickStarter," says Patrick Goss, editor-in-chief at news site, TechRadar. Certainly, two important factors have co-aligned here.
society & values Gamers OUYA OUYA is a powerful, beautifully-designed game console for the TV. It’s priced at $99, and all the games are free-to-try. Shooters, platformers, sports games, arcade classics and indie games just feel bigger and better on a TV screen. OUYA will offer a broad range of games from all the genres you love. Plus, every game is free — well, free-to-try. OUYA has great games and great apps. Lastly, OUYA is powerful. “The prospect of an affordable, open console — that’s an idea I find really exciting.” — Adam Saltsman (Semi Secret, creator of Canabalt) Legal The west's crisis is one of democracy as much as finance | Slavoj Žižek In one of the last interviews before his fall, Nicolae Ceausescu was asked by a western journalist how he justified the fact that Romanian citizens could not travel freely abroad although freedom of movement was guaranteed by the constitution. His answer was in the best tradition of Stalinist sophistry: true, the constitution guarantees freedom of movement, but it also guarantees the right to a safe, prosperous home. So we have here a potential conflict of rights: if Romanian citizens were to be allowed to leave the country, the prosperity of their homeland would be threatened. In this conflict, one has to make a choice, and the right to a prosperous, safe homeland enjoys clear priority … It seems that this same spirit is alive and well in Slovenia today. Last month the constitutional court found that a referendum on legislation to set up a "bad bank" and a sovereign holding would be unconstitutional – in effect banning a popular vote on the matter.
Science and technology policy OECD Home › Science and technology › Science and technology policy › Science, Technology and Innovation for the 21st Century. Meeting of the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy at Ministerial Level, 29-30 January 2004 - Final Communique 1. The OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy met at Ministerial level on 29 30 January 2004. 2. 3. 4. 5. Connecting science to innovation 6. 7. 8. 9. Adapting IPR regimes 10. 11. 12. Building a highly skilled and mobile scientific workforce for the future 13. 14. 15. International co-operation in science and technology 16. Access to research data 17. Sustainable development 18. Biotechnology 19. Global Science Forum 20. High-energy physics 21. Neuroinformatics 22. Enhanced safety and security 23. Areas for further OECD work 25. adopted on 30 January 2004 in Paris Recognising that open access to, and unrestricted use of, data promotes scientific progress and facilitates the training of researchers;
Brutus Trimfit - Home page economic and political Blue Monday: a depressing day of nonsense science (again) | Dean Burnett | Science Today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. Except for the fact that is definitely isn't. It is if you go by what the media and the concept's originator says. It isn't if you go by what science, psychology, evidence and sanity in general say. I have a long history with this "Blue Monday" non-phenomenon. Exactly a year ago, I wrote a piece for the Guardian about my humiliating experiences with the persistent myth of "Blue Monday", and why it's all complete corporate-sponsored gibberish. It went better than was anticipated, as evidenced by the fact that you're reading this on my dedicated Guardian blog. Given that I'm still approached to discuss it as if I take it seriously, it suggests I've been too subtle in the past. This claim is incorrect. The equation itself is farcical. Even if you could combine these things, you'd get nothing useful. I'm not saying there isn't a most depressing day of the year, I'm sure there is one. It would require a fairly big study.
Science & technology Empoli Empoli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈempoli]) is a town and comune in Tuscany, Italy, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by this river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The commune's territory becomes a hilly one as it departs from the river. History[edit] Archaeological finds have revealed that Empoli was already settled in the early Roman Empire times, and continued to exist until 4th century AD. Since the 8th century Empoli consolidated as a town around the castle, known as Emporium or Empolis. Later Empoli became an important fortress, and was therefore repeatedly sacked and attacked. Main sights[edit] The Piazza Farinata degli Uberti, also known as Piazza dei Leoni ("Lions Square"), is marked in its centre by a fountain by Luigi Pampaloni (1827). In the frazione (hamlet) of Pontorme is the house of the painter Pontormo. Notable people[edit] Sport[edit] Twinnings[edit] External links[edit]
Environment Earth Observations from Space: The First 50 Years of Scientific Achievements The following HTML text is provided to enhance online readability. Many aspects of typography translate only awkwardly to HTML. Please use the page image as the authoritative form to ensure accuracy. Earth observations from space demonstrate the successful synergy between science and technology. As scientists have gained experience in studying Earth through satellite observations, they have defined new technological needs, helped drive technological development to provide more quantitative and accurate measurements, and have advanced more sophisticated methods to interpret satellite data. The concept of open data access was adopted by the IGY when establishing the World Data Center System 50 years ago, and it is even more meaningful today than at the time of the Cold War. The first 50 years of Earth observations from space imparted the fundamental lessons that everything—land, ocean, and atmosphere—is intricately intertwined and that the Earth is a complex and dynamic system.