April 30, 2009

On Chasing Plastic

Category: Ultimate Frisbee — Biella @ 1:09 pm

Anyone who knew me prior to 2000, knew me as a fanatic Ultimate Frisbee player. I was (mostly) all about chasing a plastic disc on lush green fields. Ultimate Frisbee, which took my attention and soul my first year of college, commanded my attention, time, and body for years.

The New York Times just ran a nice short piece piece about the UPA and older players should seriously “skool” the younger generation on the danger of injuries. It is an extreme sport that requires extreme care. Tournaments are usually composed of 4-7 games over the course of 2 days. If that is not demanding enough, the body gets pretty intimate with the the ground while “laying out” and then there are there all those sprained ankles and broken bones and ligaments from collisions.

Today I suffer from bouts of knarly neck pain, for example, which is due in part from playing without taking proper precautions. One of my best friends, who was a stellar player in college, also suffers from pretty devastating back pain. It is an extreme sport that requires extreme care. I say toss out the pride in pain/injuries and in place, instill a healthy sense of fear of the injuries so that people get proper long term and sustained care for their injuries so that they can keep on playing the world’s best sport.

PS– For those that don’t know, UF also revolves around an ethical philosophy Spirit of the Game, which unfortunately the article makes no mention of, despite its centrality to the sport.

Feel the fear and do it anyway

Category: IP Law,Politics — Biella @ 7:21 am

Feel the fear and do it anyway

April 29, 2009

bie!!a

Category: Uncategorized — Biella @ 8:36 pm


bie!!a, originally uploaded by the biella.

Today I found out that some of my students refer to me as “Enid,” a name which has rarely been used to call my attention but now circulates almost daily to my students whenever I post a message on Blackboard. It was a little mortifying to find out as I don’t identify much with Enid, though it has always tagged quietly along with my other names.

BB, which we use for readings, our discussion forum,and email messages, spits out my legal (tax) name, which bears the full Enid Gabriella Coleman. Although I have tried, somewhat persistently, I have failed to change it to the E. Gabriella Coleman that I would rather use. While I find it hard to embrace Enid as I just don’t feel like an Enid, at least yet (and may break it out when I write fiction or when I turn 65), I have always liked having the name Enid in so far as it pays homage to my Aunt Enid whose life ended far too early, soon before I was born and from all accounts, she was one stellar woman.

My parents chose to tack it on for commemorative purposes, intending to call me Gabriella after some Italian cabaret singer my mother loved. The plan, however, was immediately foiled by my older sister who apparently blurted out something like “Biella” when she saw the scraggly “rat-like baby” (as my mom used to describe me) that was christened her younger sister.

Biella, like Gabriella, also has Italian roots: it is a beautiful town in Italty and a less than beautiful but so-ugly-it-is-kinda-cute Italian Pug.

Perhaps the lesson in all of this is to tell students about my name and finally ditch BB, which is the software equivalent to Soviet style communist housing, and move over to another platform.

Enid Gabriella “Biella” Coleman

Category: Uncategorized — Biella @ 7:52 pm

Today I found out that some of my students refer to me as “Enid,” a name which has rarely been used to call my attention but now circulates almost daily to my students whenever I post a message on Blackboard. It was a little mortifying to find out as I don’t identify much with Enid, though it has always tagged quietly along with my other names.

BB, which we use for readings, our discussion forum,and email messages, spits out my legal (tax) name, which bears the full Enid Gabriella Coleman. Although I have tried, somewhat persistently, I have failed to change it to the E. Gabriella Coleman that I would rather use. While I find it hard to embrace Enid as I just don’t feel like an Enid, at least yet (and may break it out when I write fiction or when I turn 65), I have always liked having the name Enid in so far as it pays homage to my Aunt Enid whose life ended far too early, soon before I was born and from all accounts, she was one stellar woman.

My parents chose to tack it on for commemorative purposes, intending to call me Gabriella after some Italian cabaret singer my mother loved. The plan, however, was immediately foiled by my older sister who apparently blurted out something like “Biella” when she saw the scraggly “rat-like baby” (as my mom used to describe me) that was christened her younger sister.

Biella, like Gabriella, also has Italian roots: it is a beautiful town in Italty and a less than beautiful but so-ugly-it-is-kinda-cute Italian Pug.

Perhaps the lesson in all of this is to tell students about my name and finally ditch BB, which is the software equivalent to Soviet style communist housing, and move over to another platform.

April 28, 2009

The Politics of Open Source

Category: Events — Biella @ 7:42 pm

Call for papers:

JITP-2010
“The Politics of Open Source”
May 6-7, 2010 – Amherst, Massachusetts

Full Paper Submission Due Date: January 10, 2010

Approach
Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) has made significant advances, both technically and organizationally, since its emergence in the mid-1980s. Over the last decade, it has moved from a software development approach involving mostly volunteers to a more complex ecology where firms, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and volunteers may be involved. Moreover, the production paradigm continues to expand to other areas of digital content (e.g., Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Connexions, etc.). In this conference we use the phrase “open source” to capture this broader phenomenon. The Program Committee encourages disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of open source, broadly defined.

“Politics” in the conference title, can have many interpretations. Political issues closely tied to the free and open source software movement(s) include: national government policies related to the adoption of open source technologies or questions related to interoperability and open standards, software patents, vendor lock-in, and copyright. These are central themes we expect may be discussed in this forum. In this context, we welcome international submissions since differences in the political perspective appear in international contexts. However, topics related to how the concept of openness has led to various interpretations, adaptations, and applications of “open source” in other domains, and political issues that surround these broader innovations, are also welcome. Specific topics might include, but are not limited to:

General topics related to the politics of open source:
+ How open source software or its principles are changing politics
+ Emerging transparencies in software, systems and society
+ Open source in the developing world and other international contexts
+ The political economy of open source
+ Digital divides and open source

Open source and the public sector:
+ Open source software and transparency in government
+ Government policies toward open source and open standards
+ Regulation and open source

Open source and democracy:
+ Open source and democratic engagement
+ Open source voting systems
+ Activism, political mobilization and open source

The expansion of open source into other domains:
+ Understanding how open source collaboration works and how it can be extended into other areas of collective action
+ Policy areas, such as the effects of free textbooks on education policy or the politics of “One Laptop Per Child”
+ The political implications of open source in other cultural domains

Keynote Speakers
We are pleased to confirm Eric von Hippel (MIT) and Clay Johnson (Sunlight Labs) as the daily keynote speakers for JITP-2010.

Paper Submissions
Authors are invited to prepare and submit to JITP a manuscript following one of the six submission formats by January 10, 2010. These formats include research papers, policy viewpoints, workbench notes, review essays, book reviews, and papers on teaching innovation. The goal is to produce a special issue, or double issue, of JITP with a wide variety of approaches to the broad theme of “The Politics of Open Source.”
(more…)

Mobile Phones in Africa: an on the ground perspective

Category: Mobile Phones,Video — Biella @ 11:02 am

Here is a short clip on the topic.

Free Access: Hacker Practice

Category: Academic,Books/Articles — Biella @ 10:16 am

So lately I have not had much luck getting open licenses for my articles (though I have for my book, which I will write about later) but SAGE is offering “Free Access” for the month of April. Alex “Rex” Golub and I have a piece, which is fairly jargony (in the academic sense) on three variants of hacking, which you can download here. The forthcoming articles are more accessible and I will drop a note when they are published.

April 27, 2009

Mr Kelty in Madrid

Category: Events — Biella @ 2:53 pm

I know there are DD’s and other FLOSS folks in Madrid, so don’t miss Chris Kelty’s talk on Free Software and Open Biology on May 5th!

Free as in Beer?

Category: Uncategorized — Biella @ 12:49 pm

Who sent me beer?

April 26, 2009

Oggs

Category: Events — Biella @ 5:09 am

Here are the Winter Camp interviews in Ogg format