[unrev-II] Slashdot: A dozen worthwhile project areas

From: Paul Fernhout (pdfernhout@kurtz-fernhout.com)
Date: Sun Nov 12 2000 - 09:36:39 PST

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    An essay I posted on Slashdot in reply to a discussion (Hacking the
    City)
     
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/12/0511251&mode=thread&threshold=1
    on how to spend technology wealth effectively. Basically it's a
    discussion related to a dot com (Netscape) millionaire deciding to open
    a nightclub as a way to make the world a better place.

    My comment:

    =================================

    Here are a dozen worthwhile project areas which could use more
    assistance whether money or time:

    1. Open source library of knowledge for developing nations (making the
    world's intellectual wealth available to all)
    http://www.oneworld.org/globalprojects/humcdrom/
    http://www.oneworld.org/globalprojects/
    http://www.oneworld.org/globalprojects/humcdrom/copyrigh.htm
    http://payson.tulane.edu:8888/
    http://www.globalprojects.org/
    http://www.humanitylibraries.net/
    http://www.villageearth.org/
    http://www.villageearth.org/ATLibrary/cdrom.htm

    2. Open source knowledge management systems
    http://www.bootstrap.org/
    http://bootstrap.org/colloquium/archives.html
    http://www.bootstrap.org/dkr/discussion/

    3. Self-replicating space habitats (support trillions of humans in style
    without overrunning the earth)
    http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/settle.htm
    http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/spacsetl.htm
    http://www.permanent.com/
    http://science.nas.nasa.gov/Services/Education/SpaceSettlement/
    http://www.luf.org/
    http://www.ssi.org/
    http://www.ssi.org/alt-plan.html
    http://www.spacedev.com/
    http://www.spacehab.com/
    http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/oscomak/

    4. Pursue the "Ecocity Berkley" vision in the book by that name by
    Richard Register and look for related
    visions of sustainable development
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1556430094/
    http://www.co-intelligence.org/y2k_commtyorgs.html
    http://www.fuzzylu.com/greencenter/home.htm
    http://www.ulb.ac.be/ceese/meta/sustvl.html
    http://www.rmi.org/

    5. Work towards ending the drug war and pardoning hundreds of thousands
    of Americans imprisoned on non-violent drug charges. (I believe drug use
    is wrong and should be avoided, and by all means as it is now illegal,
    so don't do drugs! But as with alcohol and tobacco and caffeine, drug
    abuse should be considered a medical problem, not a legal one (except
    when like DUI it hurts or puts at risk others directly)).
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/
    http://www.drcnet.org/facts/

    6. Teaching tolerance and compassion
    http://www.splcenter.org/
    http://www.splcenter.org/teachingtolerance/tt-index.html

    7. Open source educational simulations and simulation construction
    toolkits (one of the most meaningful ways to use computers in the
    classroom).
    http://www.gardenwithinsight.com/
    http://riceinfo.rice.edu/armadillo/Simulations/simserver.html
    http://www.creativeteachingsite.com/edusims.html
    http://www.workingmodel.com/
    http://www.idsia.ch/~andrea/simtools.html

    8. Preserving biodiversity (when it's gone, it's gone forever)
    http://www.tnc.org/
    http://www.environment.about.com/newsissues/environment/library/weekly/aa091700.htm

    9. Develop any specific sustainable technology in energy (e.g. solar),
    recycling (e.g. recycle computers), materials (e.g. plastics from
    starch), society (e.g. participatory democracy & social justice).
    http://www.google.com/search?q=sustainable+technology
    http://www.edf.org/issues/Recycling.html
    http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/

    10. Make corporations more accountable to human needs
    http://www.adbusters.org/information/foundation/
    http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/charter/death.html
    Previous link vanished, try instead:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.adbusters.org/campaigns/charter/death.html+corporate+death+penalty&hl=en
    http://www.cwsl.edu/news/n_corporate_death.html
    http://monkeyfist.com/articles/340
    http://www.chaordic.org/

    11. Reform the "Intellectual property" laws and their related
    organizations, perhaps so that copyrights are for a couple decades and
    most patents are for a dozen years and only for true innovations. Ensure
    that any IP developed with any government money is immediately put into
    the public domain.
    http://danny.oz.au/free-software/advocacy/against_IP.html
    (Lots of other Slashot links!)

    12. If you don't want to get you hands dirty volunteering your own time,
    look around and find good people (not organizations, although the people
    may be in organizations) already doing good things. Pick people with a
    track record of years of fighting for the common good or who have
    already made a major accomplishment demonstrating commitment and just
    anonymously give them $100K without strings attached. Example: Marty
    Johnson at Isles, Inc.
    http://www.isles.org/mileston.html
    Find people just starting a career of public service or a charitable
    venture and struggling to do good things and give them $20K and tell
    them you believe in their promise and cause. Expect a bunch of the money
    to be wasted but give it anyway and learn how to give effectively. For
    ideas, look at the grantees list of any foundation. Then ask those
    people who they know who are just starting out and trying to do a good
    job.
    http://www.beldon.org/grants2000_07.html

    When I was about thirteen, I got about seven books out of the library on
    money thinking I wanted to become a millionaire. Six told me how to get
    rich (start a business and run it well.) One of them asked me "why do
    you want to be rich?" That is the one whose name I remember and the
    ideas in it have changed my life. For advice on setting a direction of
    what to do with wealth, read the Book "The Seven Laws of Money" by
    Michael Phillips and Sally Raspberry, especially the chapter on how
    foundations fail in their mission and how grants go to people who sound
    good but usually can't deliver (i.e. how hard it is to give money away).
    http://www.seeingmoney.com/SevenLaws.htm
    http://www.hallbusinesses.com/biographies_primers/1420.shtml

    My wife and I are working on a few of these issues ourselves (and a few
    example links are to our stuff). We make money contracting and spend it
    to "buy" our own time for making quality software the market can't or
    doesn't seem to want to pay for. Even without IPO riches, any competent
    software developer can make $75K-100K in today's market. Graduate
    students can live on $20K a year, and so can many software developers
    (kids make it harder) if they follow the path of Voluntary Simplicity.
    It's a question of priorities.
    http://www.life.ca/subject/simplicity.html
    http://www.simpleliving.net/slj/
    http://www.scn.org/earth/lightly/
    http://www.thegarden.net/simplicity/

    Voluntary simplicity leaves a lot of funds for doing good deeds - even
    if they are done on your own time by using your own money to take time
    off and develop open source software or do other worthwhile ventures. Or
    take a job that doesn't pay as well but involves helping an organization
    that you believe in.
    http://www.idealist.org/

    There are awesome things happening over the next twenty to forty years.
    According to Moore's law, desktop computers in twenty or so years will
    be a million times faster than today's. Already computers can drive cars
    somewhat well and identify vegetable better than humans.
    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/alv/member/www/projects/navlab_overview.html
    http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/magazine/1999/number_3/machine399.html

    Other breakthrough innovations are happening in technological areas like
    energy, materials, nanotechnology, communications, agriculture,
    biotechnology, and robotics. Use your wealth to think deeply about what
    all this means and do something to ensure human survival with style.

    It is saddening to see people spend so much money on less important
    stuff (another night club in this case). Now if it was a night club
    where these issues are discussed, then maybe it makes sense.

    Capitalism without charity is evil, because capitalism only meets the
    needs of people with money.

    =============================

    -Paul Fernhout
    Kurtz-Fernhout Software
    =========================================================
    Developers of custom software and educational simulations
    Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
    http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com

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