Starting a superstructure is only the beginning. The real task is envisioning what it can do, how it will work, and who you need to work with. If you're not a member, consider joining now. If you are a member, be bold, jump in, and use the superstructure to start organizing for survival. Edit it, add to the vision, and make it real, online and off. And don't forget to rave.

More about Superstructures

  • Open Source Scientists

    Paid for thinking, not for thoughts
  • Founder: infrarad

    art, open source, education, science, engineering, economics, philosophy,

  • Who We Need
    programmers, philosophers, economists, copyright and intellectual property lawyers, academics, scientists, mathematicians, industrial designers, disaster relief experts
  • How to join
  • Mission
    • To promote open source methodologies in science and engineering;
    • To change how technology and knowledge are distributed, with the goal of making the distribution more equitable;
    • To use the power of open collaboration to solve scientific and engineering problems better, faster, and more cheaply.
  • What we can accomplish

    • As open source philosophers, we will gather and share information on successes, failures, and beneficial mutations of the base open source concept, and we will piece together new visions of what lies at the kernel of open source.

      As open source artists and teachers, we will educate the public about how open source can (and has) improve lives for the better.

      As open source scientists and inventors, we will use our ideas as test pilots of new economic models. There will be crash-landings and setbacks, but in the process we will discover what Just Works, and what Just Doesn\'t.

       Open source thinkers will also be able to accomplish the benefit of thinking for a living. Employers of open source thinkers can benefit by possibly having this revolutionary idea implemented in the company and start rolling in cash. 

  • How this superstruct works
  • Other information
  • Discuss this superstructure

    • The classic challenge of open source is: how does a company profit from paying their workers, but not getting to sell what the workers produce?  Often, a resolution comes in the form of selling support contracts, and selling "business class" products (e.g., alternative licensing terms for businesses).

      A challenge to address here is: how does broad science in the grander scheme sell "business class" products, without marginalizing those who probably most need it?  There is no such thing as "business class chemotherapy" and "community class chemotherapy."  Many technologies and products simply can't be divided that way.

      Is it not possible that we, as open-source programmers, could benefit companies by refining and tweaking products to do what the customer wants?   Suggestion: hire the software pirates and open source programmers to create software that the customer would be willing to pay for.

       

      One way that  I see working is to subsidize the software development expenses through sponsorship.  This would be similar to the privatization of space flight.  For example, companies sponsor (provide monetary assistance) to OSS.  The OSS creates a product that is free and open to the public.  That product has advertising space built into it.  This advertisement/marketing space can be linked to IDs, loyalty-card, augmented reality ubiquitous computing.  I thought of this after re-watching Mission to Mars last night and seeing the Dr. Pepper slogan on the space craft.  How much is it worth to a company to have their logo on a product that will reach millions of end users, and may save Humanity?  -- abodadu

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