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Monthly Archives: November 2010
Fiat brings open hardware and crowdsourcing to car manufacturing
Starting with a very basic premise—’What will cars be like in the future?’—car manufacturer Fiat began the Fiat Mio project to capture the many different answers to that question. The project sought to conceptualise and ultimately manufacture a concept vehicle that was informed by the crowd.
Quoted in Contagious Magazine, Fiat’s manager of the Latin American Fiat Style Center, Peter Fassbender, explained:
A good designer tries to realise the wishes of everyone, and with this concept car we were truly working on everybody’s behalf. The group of designers working in the Fiat Mio house were totally open. There was transparency about every decision, which were all communicated online and commented on. This is completely different to the usual design process, which is entirely hidden and secretive.
Fassbender is also featured discussing Fiat’s rationale for the project in this video from Fiat’s YouTube channel:
Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Fiat Mio‘ by Alexandre F. Jorge, CC BY-NC 2.0 Generic.
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Posted in Arts and Creativity, Design Tagged CC BY-SA, Fiat, Fiat Concept Car III, Fiat Mio, Salão do Automóvel 2010, user-centered design Leave a comment
Ideas Australia needs to share – CPD release their first book
The Centre for Policy Development has just release its first book, More Than Luck: Ideas Australia Needs Now (ISBN 978-0-9808356-0-1). Edited by Mark Davis, author of Land of Plenty, and CPD’s Executive Director Miriam Lyons, the volume is “both a collection of ideas for citizens who want real change and a to-do list for politicians looking to base public policies on the kind of future Australia needs.” Featuring ideas from a variety of established and emerging thinkers, it touches on everything: from human rights to taxation, work/life balance to sustainable city planning, and even calls for the end of union and corporate political donations and the Australia Council for the Arts.
The book features authors including Prof Larissa Behrendt, Phil Lynch, Prof Marian Sawer AO, Prof Lee Godden and Chris Bonnor AM, mixed in with CPD Fellows including Eva Cox AO, Prof John Quiggin, Ian Dunlop, Fiona Armstrong, Marcus Westbury and Ben Eltham, who put forward bold new ideas to take Australia forward. More Than Luck is not just ideas Australia needs now, but ideas Australia needs to know!
Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop) of the cover of More Than Luck: Ideas Australia Needs Now by the Centre for Policy Development, CC BY 2.5 Australia.
New biodiversity atlas encourages sharing of knowledge
The Atlas of Living Australia is a new Australian Government collaborative initiative led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Acting as a portal, the Atlas facilitates users to explore, combine and analyse information and data on Australian plants and animals. It includes authoritative species lists and classifications, mapping and identification tools, images, literature and occurrence records contributed by a number of data providers.
To help support that aim, the Atlas encourages contributing data providers to license their contributions under a Creative Commons licence. Specifically, because the Atlas wants to ensure content is open for downstream use, the Atlas does not support licensing under either of the two No Derivative Works licences.
Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Superb Lyre Bird 1‘ by Ian Sanderson, CC BY-NC 2.0 Generic.
Posted in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums, Government, OA Research, Science, Uncategorised Tagged Atlas of Living Australia, Australian Biosecurity Intelligence Network, Australian Museum, Australian Phenomics Network, Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, Biodiversity Heritage Library, CSIRO, Data Observation Network for Earth, Department of Agriculture, Department of Sustainability, Distributed Dynamic Diversity Databases for Life, Education Investment Fund (Australia), Encyclopedia of Life, Environment, Fisheries and Forestry, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Integrated Marine Observing System, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Museum Victoria, National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (Australia), Population and Communities, Queensland Museum, South Australian Museum, Southern Cross University, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, University of Adelaide, Water, Western Australian Museum Leave a comment
News you can use
YouCommNews, Australia’s first croudsourced/funded news site, has published its first people-powered story today. “In search of non-toxic housing for health’s sake“, (pitched and) written by Toula Mantis, chronicles Katherine McIntosh’s extreme case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. With funding received from 17 people (totaling $878), Mantis was able to research and write an article about McIntosh’s chemical sensitivities. It also made possible the production of a complimentary video that accompanies the story.
Running on platform developed by US crowd news service Spot.us, YouCommNews aims to introduce the concept to Australia. The project hopes to engage members of the public in a more active role in the reporting process. This investment is multifaceted; including an investment in the content, by aligning with and financially supporting a pitch and by suggesting story ideas they would like to see reported on.
Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Stack of News Papers‘ by ♥ Cishore™ – busy, CC BY 2.0 Generic.
Information Commissioner releases Draft Principles on Open Public Sector Information
It’s only been 8 days since the Australian Government launched the new Office of the Australian Information Commissioner but the new agency that encompasses the existing functions of the Privacy Commissioner and the new appointments of Australian Information Commissioner and Freedom of Information Commissioner is continuing to steer the discussion of access to Australian public sector information in the right direction with the release of their first issues paper, Towards an Australian Government Information Policy. Opening with a reminder that “information is a valuable and powerful resource and is at the heart of government,” the paper synthesises much of the policy work that has happened in this area in the past few years and serves to orientate where the new OAIC fits into Federal Government information management processes. It also signals areas of recommendation where the OAIC is seeking public commentary.
Credits—Photo: Screen capture of ‘Population Pyramid – Australia‘ by Australian Bureau of Statistics, CC BY 2.5 Australia.
