Monthly Updates - December 2014

1. Though there were long holidays, we used the time for family and friends, of course. In our terms, I've continued to build up what has now become TransforLab. It also mentions Enspiral and the Open Apps Ecosystem. We also held an initial TransforMap Open Space which is to be documented thoroughly.
2. We're constantly upgrading our infrastructure and welcome new members at our non-profit hosting association Ecobytes. We're also finishing up an Horizon 2020 meta consortium incubator with Assemblée Virtuelle and go into application writing soon.
3. I'm blank, getting out of my company, have huge hanging bills and debts + love to work for the commons, thus I don't like money I don't take care.
4. To be unreasonably ideosyncratic, I love to watch me think these days. I still cannot believe that I'm exactly working on the things I'd love to.

1. We got the Value Equation up and running. Has not been used for real yet. Two networks pretty much ready to do so, but first, they need to do their own testing on top of what we've already done.
2. Getting the Value Equation used in the real world, and starting to think about a visual language for the fabled OVN LOD Vocab.

We're also connecting to some other groups, which we'll say more about if and when it happens.
3. As before, nothing the Scrum Master can help with.
4. The world wide OVN web continues to live in my dreams.

1. I pulled down the cobudget org and fixed the unit test scripts, will push the code up once I get the first tests running.
2. I'm focusing on the Dev Academy linked data protocol for defining open learning resources and creating some screencasts on basic concepts. Once we have some stuff to share I'll post up in the group.
3. Time, but now that I am focusing my Dev Academy work and dropping a lot of responsibilities I should be able to start making progress.
4. Seeing what other people are doing and having a crack at building protocols instead of building platforms.

@joshuavial - I'm looking forward eagerly to your posting of the Dev Academy linked data protocol. We're still trying to get our heads around LOD, and more examples from more domains help a lot.

@joshuavial - I’m also looking forward to your posting on linked data! I'm going to start picking up the LOD thought process and notation in my spare time. :) I'd like to contribute in that area in the future, but gotta get some skills. Got some good recommendations from @elfpavlik. Others suggestions are welcome too.

1.Just published protein, a simple code generator for javascript.

1. & 2.I continue to work on metamodeling tools because I believe that we need to create models of coordination for massive p2p processes. And to do that, we also need software that will be generated that performs that coordination based on those rules.

2. Time.

3. I am thinking of the 25% unemployment Greece has and how those people manage to survive.

@xekoukou - got any examples of models and rules for P2P coordination? (Very interesting to us.)

I only have the processes that require modeling at the moment.

Here are some massive p2p collaborations:
1. An open Uber/lift.
2.A p2p amazon store.
3. p2p farming and distribution with 2.

Open Uber seems ripe to me (in the sense of feasible and about time somebody did it).

P.S. I don't know how to solve the rape and robbery problems, though. Not that Uber does it so well...

But these are exactly the reasons why p2p can't happen. So we have to provide ingenious solutions to those problems.

For example, one idea is to have GPS always on and to be able to detect abnormal behavior. We could have fixed routes that would trigger an alarm if not followed. In the end the passenger might be required to respond that he arrived well. At night, that could be mandatory.

Legal documents must be provided.
The screening process is also important. Here I have no idea how to do that.

This gets back to that centralized-decentralized discussion. Some problems require some degree of centralization. Can't make a fetish out of one form of organization.

Short update for Metamaps:

1. we're launching a metamapping initiative with the OuiShare community at the end of the month to map out their network

2. we have scheduled a hack session this weekend with @elfpavlik and @tiborkatelbach to work on being able to pull JSON from a URL and visualize it using Metamaps

3. we've started a mapping initiative with Michel Bauwens to lay out the foundations of P2P - we'll be publishing one map a month with him.

4. we're having meetings with different strategic innovation firms for paid pilot projects

5. we're also exploring the application of Metamaps in the context of education, as a collaborative learning environment. there's some professors who are using it to track learning by their students as well as research related to their thesis work.

6. Connor has taken a full-time job so we're more limited on development bandwidth currently, but we have high-res designs and some scope laid out for chat functionality as well as audio and video chat using WebRTC, and creating relationships with other developers.

7. We've been working through a manual value equation/distribution process with regards to the money that's come in from our partner/client Metamaps, and have been making slow strides, also integrating parts of the process that Sensorica and Tibi have laid out.

wow totally missed the prompt up at the top of this...sorry about that guys.

i think I covered the first two points, the last two are:

1. development resources and financial sustainability.

2. the utility people are finding in using Metamaps and what they're using it for is continuing to provide a lot of fuel for me personally to continue on this project.

@ishanshapiro - I liked your update except for Connor taking another job. Sorry to hear that.

What have I done since last month?
Mostly I've been on holiday. I've been contributing to WebCola to get it ready to publish as an npm module. I plan t use it for the graph-visualisations in directory app. I've also been working on the Loomio API Proposal which I just started a discussion about in the Technical subgroup.
There's a lot of energy around the API which came out as part of the 1,0 release. People have already started to fork loomio to modify and use the API despite it not being documented.

What will I do until next month?
@samsonootoovak (welcome!) is keen to help out on directory app. @ahdinosaur and I are throwing away the mercury frontend code (I know) and writing it in React and AmpersandJS with him which i much easier.

What is blocking me from moving forward?
I will have to find a contract or get funding at some point.

What motivates me most in this process at the time?
Everyone is going nuts for graphs

What have I done since last month?
Working on deepening my understanding of Javascript and it's communities.

What will I do until next month?
As @simontegg mentioned I met with him and @ahdinosaur the other day. After talking to @simontegg a few days ago I realised some of my personal project interest and goals aligned with some of the Open App work. As such I am trying to figure out a way to contribute to existing projects (like the Directory app) and/or add my own apps to the ecosystem. Currently I am playing around with AmpersandJS and I would like to see if I can get a simple "Facebook Wall" type app working with secure-scuttlebutt.

I also see some future overlap in @simontegg graph visualisation work with a learning/goal mapping app I have had in mind for a little while (think Final Fantasy X sphere grid).

Finally, at some point I would like to try my hand at a web based open source Siri. But that isn't this month. :)

@simontegg - I just took a look at WebCola. They say they have fixed the jitter (more like flailing about) in D3,js force layouts. Great! I might have to get back into graphs myself one of these days...

But first, I am excited by and studying that loomio api proposal!

Good luck on the funding. Wish I was able to help.