Radiohead Says Name Your Own Price for New Album

Wonderful spirit! The spirit of giving is gaining momentum. Endorses the [http://aloha.aardrock.com Aloha] project. Resonates with [http://martien.aardrock.com/2007/09/09/bill-clinton-giving/ Clinton’s Give].

[http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/01/164234 Radiohead Says Name Your Own Price for New Album]: “TechDirt is reporting that the band Radiohead has apparently chosen the path less traveled when it comes to the release of their new album. They are offering two very unique methods of purchase for their new music, the ability to name your own price for a digital download or the ability to purchase a special ‘discbox’ which will contain the album on CD and vinyl in addition to a horde of goodies. Will be interesting to see how this new model works out for them and what it might do to more traditional methods.

(Via [http://slashdot.org/ Slashdot].)

Blah-Blah Text: Keep, Cut, or Kill?

Cherry-pick from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox for October 1 on [http://www.useit.com/alertbox/intro-text.html Blah-Blah Text: Keep, Cut, or Kill?].

Summary:
:Introductory text on Web pages is usually too long, so users skip it. But short intros can increase usability by explaining the remaining content’s purpose.

Enjoy being inspired by Nielsen’s [http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/ writing for the web].

Lenige planning

De term ‘planning’ heeft behoorlijk verschillende betekenissen voor iedereen. Menig mens heeft er bijna een trauma aan overgehouden—met name van de strakke, dogmatische, volg-de-planning-of-ik-schiet-versie die met ijzeren hand gevolgd dient te worden.

Tijd dus om ‘planning’ nieuw leven in te blazen en te ontdoen van haar negatieve lading.

Voor mij betekent planning niets meer en niets minder dan:

”’Planning”’—Het aanbrengen van precies voldoende spanning om het geheel tegelijkertijd een constructieve richting te geven én voldoende vrije ruimte voor creativiteit en persoonlijke inbreng.

In Japan noemen ze dat [[http://wiki.aardrock.com/Hoshin_Kanri|Hoshin Kanri]]—”’hoshin”’ betekent kompas en geeft richting; ”’kanri”’ betekent management of controle.

Dus een lange termijn visie gecombineerd met wendbaar ontwikkelen onder voortdurend voortschrijdend inzicht zodat je continu bij kunt sturen. Want zelfs de veranderingen veranderen.

Zodra je heldere afspraken maakt over het te volgen ”’proces”’, haar uitkomst in de vorm van een product en de ontwikkeling van beiden, kan je echt álles maken en past het geheel zich voortdurend aan veranderende omstandigheden aan.

Graaf dieper op [[http://wiki.aardrock.com/Wat_Werkt_Wel|wat werkt wel]] en [[http://wiki.aardrock.com/Risicoloos_resultaat_en_rendement|risicoloos resultaat en rendement]].

Telekommunisten – the worker-owned telephone company

Worker Owned and Operated

telekommunisten is controlled by it’s workers and committed to staying that way, we believe we can serve our customers best and at the lowest cost by remaining focused on meeting the needs of our employees and customers, not on profits for outside shareholders. Being worker-owned means that all the money you spend on our products goes directly to the maintenance and improvement of the service you receive.

Venture Communism

Venture Communism is a project to research, experiment with, and initiate social enterprises, particularly a rent-sharing based proposed form called a Venture Commune. The project also encourages dialogue and investigation of alternative economies and workers struggle against private property .

The goal is to promote understanding of the relationship between distribution of productive assets, political power and global exploitation and poverty and to investigate how worker-controlled enterprises can contribute to solving this problem, as well as to put such ideas into practise.

Several articles have been written and many on-line correspondences sent describing and discussing venture communism, as well as analyzing the nature of property generally.

Source: [[http://www.telekommunisten.net/about Telekommunisten]]—”’The Revolution is Calling”’.

SixApart: Opening the Social Graph

[http://www.semanticwave.com/blog/archives/000282.jsp SixApart: Opening the Social Graph]:

:We think that the best way for you to manage your network is to stop thinking about all of the little pieces and to start focusing on the big picture: you and the people who matter to you. We think relationships mean more than email addresses or which service you’re signed on to at the moment. So we’ve created an experimental demo based upon open technologies OpenID, the Microformats hCard and XFN, and FOAF that allow you to see your entire network of relationships in one place – across services, across platforms, across the entire Web.

How wonderful! I’ve been wanting this for ages! Even started the [http://wiki.aardrock.com/Campfire Campfire] experiment a couple of years ago to address exactly this issue. I fully endorse opening the social graph.

(Via [http://www.semanticwave.com/blog/ Semantic Wave].)

Enkel met het hart kan men goed zien

Vanochtend mijn schoonouders even opgehaald uit het oogziekenhuis in Rotterdam. Op de vierde verdieping aldaar een prachtige spreuk. Opgeknipt in twee stukken vind ik hem het krachtigst—normaal plakt een komma de twee zinnen aan elkaar:
:”’Enkel met het hart kan men goed zien”’.
:”’Het essentiële is onzichtbaar voor het oog”’.
::::—”Antione de Saint-Exupéry”

SwarmOS Demonstrated at Idea Festival

[http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/17/1724253&from=rss SwarmOS Demonstrated at Idea Festival]: “PacoCheezdom writes ‘Intelligent Life has short summary of a demonstration by MIT professor James McLurkin of his new group-minded robots, which run an operating system called ‘Swarm OS’.

The robots are able to work together as a group not by communicating with all members of the group at once, but by talking only to their neighbors, and model other similar behaviors performed by bees and ants. ‘[http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/17/1724253&from=rss Read more of this story] at Slashdot.

(Via [http://slashdot.org/ Slashdot].)

Bill Clinton: Giving

[http://giving.clintonfoundation.org/ ]
[http://giving.clintonfoundation.org/ Bill Clinton published a book titled ”’Giving”’], focusing on philantropy, charity and volunteering.

I feel very much strengthened by this, as it resonates tremenduously with the core brand click ”'[http://wiki.aardrock.com/Aloha:klik Geef]”’™ from the [http://aloha.aardrock.com Aloha project].

Thank you Bill.

Einstein on Buddhism

Einstein was exploring a new form of spirituality for the future, consider what he had to say about Buddhism:

:”Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion of the future. It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.”

Wonderful.

Via [http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/09/einsteins_god_o_2.html Einstein’s God, or The Hopes for a Secular Spirituality (Part 4)] on [http://www.intentblog.com/ intentBlog].