The force is strong with this one.
The White House recently turned down a petition to build a Death Star, so this mysterious Kickstarter creator took matters into his own hands. Behold: The open-source Death Star!
Having backed 178 projects on the site, he’s hoping that a few might lend a hand in return. £19,000 down, £19,000,000 to go!
DIY magazine app.
Exciting progress on Letter to Jane, an iPad art magazine and an open-source code project to build your own.
The preview app has been built and released, and the lineup for the issue is stacked — including features with Wim Wenders, Marc Maron, Miranda July, and many others.
Letter to Jane: Issue 04 List of Contributors
In no particular order:
Wim Wenders
Marc Maron
Miranda July
Whit Stillman
Marlene Marino
Jeff Luker
Katherine Squier
Katarina Šoškić
Sam Smith
Sara Cwynar
Ana Kraš
Lukasz Wierzbowski
Mads Teglers
Neon Indian
Plus more original artwork and features. Coming soon…
Map makers take flight.
Two young cartographers are on a mission to create a hub for exploring the future Patagonia National Park.
As the newest national park in South America, Patagonia is a largely undocumented expanse of wilderness. Kickstarter project creators Marty Schnure and Ross Donihue are using their web-based platform for open cartography, Maps for Good, to share the information they collect about the park with their backers and the wider community of wilderness adventurers.
What’s next for the book?
The Open Utopia is a free, open-source edition of Thomas More’s 16th century classic, reimagined for the 21st.
More’s description of an alternative society hinges on the concept of common property — an open model of collective ownership that resembles new approaches to copyright in the digital age. At least half a millenium ahead of his time, More’s work resonates even more strongly today.
After successfully funding the production of The Open Utopia project on Kickstarter, creator and professor Stephen Duncombe is officially launching the initiative tomorrow evening in New York City. Locals should feel free to join him at NYU — and everyone else can take a look at his revised text on Social Book, a new platform that allows multiple readers to experience a book together.
Open Light.
Chalk one up for the open-developer community.
Light, the web-connected illumination vessel, has started sharing their hardware schematics, as promised, with software code to come in the future.
Another small step for open-source technology, and another leap for dev kind. Techies, tinkerers, hackers and makers can learn how to make your own Light here.
Open source brain control.
MIT Technology Review published an article on the Puzzlebox Orbit yesterday that cuts to the chase: “Flying Helicopter Orb Guided By Brainwaves.”
There’s no misunderstanding a headline like this: It. Is. Awesome. But perhaps the most stunning part of the project is that if fully funded, the creators will make the project open source, releasing code, hardware schematics, and documentation to the general public.
Update #6: Mindsplosion of MaKey MaKey Invention Videos in the Wild. MaKey MaKey, the self-dubbed “invention kit for the 21st century,” is in the hands of beta-testers, who all seem to be using the device to turn every imaginable thing into an instrument — including their own kids! You can watch that video above, but be sure to check out their most recent project update for a slew of other totally awesome uses: like turning vegetables into instruments while cooking them.
“Unreleased Elliott Smith, Deerhunter on Kickstarter Comp for Open Source Project CASH Music”
Helluva headline! If you haven’t already backed the CASH Music project, now might be the time.
Only a few hours left to snag ClockOS, an artful timepiece that paces the minutes with colored, blinking lights. It comes preprogramed with favorites, but you can design and save your own patterns! For more information (and some cool videos) are check out their project page.
KSR IRL: Tomorrow, 9/15 8:30a-8p at the New York Hall of Science, the Open Hardware Summit features a wide range presentations, including the big brains behind beloved Kickstarter projects EyeWriter and Gameduino!!
The Open Hardware Summit is sure to be an epic conference on — you bet your bottom dollar — open hardware. Founded and chaired by Alicia Gibb and Ayah Bdeir, the summit will explore this intellectual, cultural, digital, and mechanical movement, featuring a variety of industry leaders, academics, and critical thinkers in the DIY community discussing hardware as it relates to business, laws, design, creation, and education in an open sourced world. Time to geek the bleep out! And remember: Hack The Planet. Click here for more info and tix.
The guys behind the Pulse Sensor open-source heart rate monitor just got some prototypes back from the factory and they look rad!
