In just the last two weeks, America has begun to take strenuous action to slow the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam made a private call for us to answer this challenge, and Bruce Fenton (unknown to me) made a public call. Since Monday I have been working full-time (and a bit more) on this. Having the advantage of …
Working on the Ventilators shortfall of the COVID-19 pandemic Read More »
LibrePlanet2020 is a leading conference on ethical software; it has been virtualized due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, it is totally free! You can watch here: https://libreplanet.org/2020/live/ . Public Invention is going to be speaking at 4:20 on Sunday, (Eastern time). We will be presenting these slides: slides, check them out.
If you would like to help promote Public Invention, feel free to print or reused this business-card sized image:
You Don’t Have to be an Engineer to be a Public Inventor Engineering skills are useful in many invention projects, but many of the people already working on Public Invention teams do not have an engineering background. Part of the rationale for Public Invention is that technical developments in the last couple of decades (including …
“80% of projects are trivial. 20% are impossible. We must work in the thin boundary between these two classes.” — Edsger Dijkstra (quoted from memory) Public Invention fosters project-based invention teams that work “In the public, for the public.” Experience has shown this is a great way to learn, although learning is a secondary benefit …
What Makes A Good Public Invention Project? (long form) Read More »
Science is about truth; engineering is about compromise. At Public Invention, we do both, but perhaps more engineering than science. Our goal is to have a large positive impact on many people; but time and money are always in short supply. How, then, to compromise on which projects to prioritize? In order to be able …
The Fuller Scale: A Unit of Humanitarian Invention Impact Read More »
The 7-Tet Tetrobot, a Public Invention Many of us hear the song of the maker. As Dorothy Sayers has pointed out in the “Mind of the Maker”, making is a participation in, or at least a simulation of, the divine. It has always been so, but it has never been easier. Today, we have maker …
Mind, Body, Spirit. Strength, Flexibility, Endurance. Faith, Hope, Love. We like to think in threes. Sometimes we want our Mind, our Body, and our Spirit to be in balance; sometimes we just want to assert how something stands. As it happens, I had a bike wreck two weeks ago; right now, my Body is weaker than …
A UX widget for expressing balance: Triad Balance Read More »
Leonardo da Vinci said, “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” But he was wrong — the greatest pleasure is successful collaboration to help others. We can perhaps forgive Leonardo this slip, as no doubt it was hard for him to find co-workers who could keep up with him; I have no such limitation. …
“Oyarsa”, by Robert L. Read I probably should not have taken up oil painting; I have always admired art done with pen-and-ink, which produces very thin, precise lines. It is possible to make thin lines with oil paint, but it is difficult. One must either have a terribly steady hand with a very fine brush, …
Public Invention Project #40: A Wheel for Painting Very Thin Lines Read More »
