Midi Digi

No Worries IT Ltd are an IT Solutions & Support company who have a community learning project called Heritage Hackers. Heritage Hackers engage with all people from all walks of life with short, mid and long term hacks: using Open Technology, Open Education and Open Doors.  The goal is always to improve your health and well-being, your family and community health and well-being, and hopefully World change!

 

We believe technology is merely a tool that should enhance our experiences as human beings.  Steve Wozniak equated technology to running and the invention of geared bikes, etc.  It’s still like moving your legs like running, but the technology makes you go faster, uphill easier, and so on.  The amazing period of invention of the late 19th and early 20th Century is what I believe we’re all capable of now.  The geared bike was only introduced in around 1920 by the way.  The (geared) Antikythera mechanism is estimated to be over 2,000 years old.  All invented by human brains, not by Google, or ChatGPT, but human brains like mine and yours.  So-called modern humans, with brains like you and me, have been around for over 150 thousand years.  All with innovative thoughts and inventions.

 

Coincidently the first public radio broadcast was in 1922: two years after the geared bike.  It was in East London and called 2LO practically nobody had the equipment to receive the signal and listen to it, but in 100 years that haunted media has led to here.

 

I describe myself as a Radicalised Fundamentalist Open Source Evangelist: normally to raise an eyebrow or two.  But, there’s many true words spoken in jest!  I really am! I believe that everything should be Open Source: Open Education, Open Government, Open Medicine, Open Everything, everywhere.

 

The Open Source Directive aligns well with the co-operative principles!  Co-operation is at the core of the Open Source movement.

Open Source and Co-operatives

1. Free Redistribution (OSD) vs. Voluntary and Open Membership (Co-op)

• OSD: Software must be freely distributed without restrictions on who can receive it or how it is shared.
• Co-operative Principles: Membership in a co-op is open and voluntary, ensuring that anyone who meets basic requirements can join.
• Comparison: Both emphasise openness and non-restriction, ensuring accessibility for all, be it software users or co-op members.

 

2. Source Code (OSD) vs. Democratic Member Control (Co-op)

• OSD: The source code must be available to users so that they can understand, modify, and improve it.
• Co-operative Principles: Co-ops are democratically controlled by members, who each have a say in the decisions affecting the co-op.
• Comparison: Both emphasise transparency and empowerment. Open source allows users to directly influence the software, while co-ops give members direct control over decisions.

3. Derived Works (OSD) vs. Member Economic Participation (Co-op)

• OSD: Users can create derived works from the original software and share those works freely.
• Co-operative Principles: Members contribute financially to the co-op and receive a share of its economic benefits.
• Comparison: Both encourage participation and sharing of benefits. In open-source, contributions to the software improve it for all users; in co-ops, member investments benefit the whole organisation.

4. No Discrimination (OSD) vs. Autonomy and Independence (Co-op)

• OSD: The software licence cannot discriminate against individuals or groups or restrict fields of use.
• Co-operative Principles: Co-ops are autonomous and self-reliant organisations, independent of external control.
• Comparison: Both emphasise fairness and freedom. Open-source software cannot discriminate, ensuring equal access, while co-ops maintain independence to ensure that they serve their members’ interests.

5. Distribution of License (OSD) vs. Education, Training, and Information (Co-op)

• OSD: The rights attached to the software must be passed along to all users, ensuring they retain the same freedoms.
• Co-operative Principles: Co-ops must educate and inform members about their rights, responsibilities, and the functioning of the co-op.
• Comparison: Both stress the importance of spreading knowledge and rights to all participants. In open-source, users get the same freedoms as the original creators, while co-ops ensure members are informed and capable of participating fully.

6. No Specific Product (OSD) vs. Cooperation Among Cooperatives

• OSD: The software licence must not be tied to a specific product, ensuring that the software remains usable in various contexts.
• Co-operative Principles: Co-ops work together to strengthen the co-op movement and serve their members.
• Comparison: Both principles promote the idea that systems should be flexible and collaborative. In open-source, software can be adapted for many different uses, while co-ops collaborate to strengthen their shared mission.

 

7. Licence Must Be Technology-Neutral (OSD) vs. Concern for Community (Co-op)

• OSD: No provision of the licence can depend on specific technology or interface, ensuring the software can be used in diverse environments.
• Co-operative Principles: Co-ops work for the sustainable development of their communities.
• Comparison: Both are future-looking, ensuring that practices (software or organisational) are adaptable and beneficial to the broader community, rather than being restrictive or exclusive.

In Summary:

1. Free Redistribution (OSD) vs. Voluntary and Open Membership (Co-op)
2. Source Code (OSD) vs. Democratic Member Control (Co-op)
3. Derived Works (OSD) vs. Member Economic Participation (Co-op)
4. No Discrimination (OSD) vs. Autonomy and Independence (Co-op)
5. Distribution of License (OSD) vs. Education, Training, and Information (Co-op)
6. No Specific Product (OSD) vs. Cooperation Among Cooperatives
7. Licence Must Be Technology-Neutral (OSD) vs. Concern for Community (Co-op)

The key benefit from open source, and internet access, is access to more learning than is humanly comprehensible.  There are sites like EDX.org, P2Pu, and most Universities publish all their lectures online.  It really is an information superhighway.  We have access to all this information and learning resources yet we have numerous literacy problems: not just reading, writing and arithmetic, but Data Literacy, Media Literacy, Civic literacy, nature literacy, ad infinitum.  Big tech companies have been on a mission to capture your attention, and our data.  There are approximately 402.74 million terabytes of user data collected each day.  It has become a weapon of mass distraction.  I recommend a good book that predicted this fleeting attention grabbing lifestyle: Guy Dubord - The Society Of Spectacle.  You can get loads of books free online too, and audio books…

We should/can use this ridiculous information access to empower ourselves with as much knowledge as possible.  This is the golden age of access to knowledge, without any doubt.  Knowledge truly is strength.  The difficulty is staying on a particular learning journey.  Our enthusiasm wanes as the topic gets more difficult.  This is why in-person meet-ups and learning groups are important.  There is normally somebody there to help guide you through those rocky patches.

At The Kilburn Building at The Manchester Computing School there is a relatively new computer called SpiNNaker.  It’s one of the top five most powerful computers in the World: with over one million processor cores.  However, in terms of computing power it only represents 0.01 per cent of the human brain.  If your brain can compute some fantastic ideas in the flash of a neuron, imagine what working together with other people’s brains could achieve?

Without getting too intellectual (i’ll try anyway) we moved from a sovereign system, where the sovereign said how this should be, then to a discipline system, where you have to turn up at a factory, on time, and to work to an accepted standard in the apportioned time, etc.  Now we are in a control system, where you need the right credentials to interact with the system. Our post industrialised (discipline) system was replaced by a service sector: which via technology became a control system.  So, in essence the service sector has become a kind of vending machine.  Our interactions are going to become more and more dependent on our ability to use that control system.  An example of this is they stop your benefits and you have to navigate the online system in order to get them restored, or not.  Booking a holiday, checking onto a flight, taxing your car, they all need us to pass through the control system.  Creating digital learning circles facilitates peer to peer help: if somebody has had to navigate a particular system, they are well placed to guide somebody else.  Community and cooperation are everything!!!

Heritage Hackers also like to teach “code,” or in other words computer programming languages.  It doesn’t matter if you’re not a programmer, or even want to be one.  What matters is the journey of learning “logic” and “process.”  Understanding how systems work helps us better deal with them, and also how to maybe improve them, bypass them, or break them! 

Another intellectual amble incoming: linked with my evangelical support of open source.  In open source I create a thing and give it to the World, lets call it a thesis for the sake of this exercise.  People can use it and love it, or some people might hate it, or think it just needs improvements.  They can “fork” it and change it.  They can either merge those changes back into the original thing, or set up an alternative branch. I think of these as antitheses.  When they are merged, or a new branch created, this is synthesis.  Then the process grows and exponentially improves.  There is another metaphor I use in programming, specifically object oriented programming.  All objects have “properties” and “methods.”  I now try to think about all things, objects, opinions, news stories, etc, as having properties and methods: what are the connections between objects, etc. Sometimes this helps build like a mental hologram of connections that you can visualise different connections from different viewing angles. #geekedout

Most digital support/learning is directed at the chauvinistically so-called low hanging fruit ( I hear it in a lot of meetings).  The budgets and grant applications for the real basics are much more readily available (so you can upload your curriculum vitae and apply for low level highly exploitative jobs) than those for lifelong learning and pursuit of quality rare and valuable skills:.  Our goal is to quickly get people to see through that and engage, and enthuse about their projects they imagine and create.  It might become a hustle on their own, an entry into quality employment, or form their own workers co-op.  What we’ve experienced is the confidence it gives them talking about a technology they’ve interacted with, and a project they’re genuinely passionate about.

Education is the best route out of poverty.

One of our recent projects is the Rochdale Mesh: The Rochdale Mesh is a community-driven project designed to provide free civic Wi-Fi to the residents of Rochdale, particularly in areas like College Bank and Lower Falinge. The initiative was launched as a collaboration between Rochdale Council, No Worries IT Ltd, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, and the Co-operative Heritage Trust. Its goal is to improve digital accessibility and reduce the digital divide for local residents, helping them connect to the internet for essential services, work, education, and leisure.

The project was inspired by grassroots efforts, with early versions using homemade Wi-Fi extenders, like "cantennas" made from Pringles tubes, to boost internet signals. However, it has since evolved into a more sophisticated system utilising Ubiquiti Networks' robust open-source technology. The project has been successful, with over 1,400 devices connecting daily to the free Wi-Fi through 47 access points across the region. This has enabled residents to save on internet costs while accessing important digital resources.

The project is also part of a broader mission to promote digital inclusion, entrepreneurship, and innovation within Rochdale, giving people the tools and connectivity they need to thrive in the digital age. Plans are in place to expand this initiative to other areas in the future​.  The Internet should be accessible to all for free.

We’ve facilitated lots of cool electronics projects, from Gas Detectors Alarms (for someone's Nan who often turned the hob on by accident,)  Kinetic Art, which was a painting where the canvas moved as you walked past, while playing Buddhist chants. The painting also contained living plants.  A raspberry pi cam bird box, a people counter, and river flood warning detector, a Gracie From Beyond The Grave fish and chip jukebox, etc, etc, etc.  The learning journey on all these projects was brilliant to witness.

We also support and encourage creating real human communities, using a web platform as the hub.  We’ve used Open Social quite a few times, and it’s brilliant at creating a social media platform that you own. One brilliant open source community project we use is the Drupal Content Management Framework.  They have some great distributions, some of which I was talking about last night.  I’ll link a few good examples here.

Open Social

Opigno

Open Church

FarmOS

Open Public

aGov

Open Outreach

Easy Booking

Conference

Restaurant

 

The list is limitless…  Open Source Applications are even more limitless.  Here's a few of my favourites:

OBS

Blender

Gimp

Inkscape

Sonic-Pi

Ftitzing

LibreCad

Audacity

 

They say a bad workman blames his tools, but if you're aware of all the tools available it makes the job much easier.

So, in summary, you and your brain are brilliant.  You have the knowledge already to solve loads of the World's problems.  We can help provide the (free) tools to rapidly develop your ideas in to real life solutions.  A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step!  It’s your own experiences, projects, creations, that will educate you, because there is no better lesson that the lesson of experience..

This quote is why we facilitate and we don't teach - “If you tell somebody something, you've forever robbed them of the opportunity to discover it for themselves.” - Curt Gabrielson

One final quote to end with is this one attributed to Alan Turing: "Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine."

Paul Woodhead

paul@nowo.co.uk