Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Citizen Exploration / far beyond Citizen Science.

Tim O'Reilly on Google+ "This piece is utterly brilliant, an important manifesto on how the DIY movement is enabling a new era of citizen exploration (far beyond the vision of "citizen science.") He is referring to this article titled: Makers: the New Explorers of the Universe by David Lang, 11/02/13 Tim provides One Sample: "People have been talking about the Internet of Things for years. But the aesthetic of the industrial internet always conjured up visions of connected devices that spoke quietly to each other: thermostats that never needed tending, plants that watered themselves and toasters that knew the day’s weather. It was always a promise of convenience (and automation and sleekness). What wasn’t obvious, to me anyway, was that an Internet of Things could usher in a golden age for curiosity. Where everyone, even a luddite like me, was constantly at the edge of what was possible. Where a new adventure — a new set of questions about our world and our place in it — was only a group friends and an internet connection away." Or as Stewart Brand said, in the memorable quote that opens the piece: “[In] the last century, discovery was basically finding things. And in this century, discovery is basically making things.”

No comments: