The document discusses applying open source principles to improving places and communities. It suggests that if place is viewed as a system, an open source approach could involve: 1) Users identifying issues and reporting them 2) Making progress on solutions transparent and viewable by all 3) Allowing anyone to suggest solutions and, if agreed upon, implement them to address issues This differs from existing tools by facilitating cross-department cooperation, increasing visibility of improvement processes, and opening up to unconventional solutions. Open knowledge and data are also noted as important to the approach.

1. If place is a system… let’s make it
an open source one
Devon County Council
12 November 2012

3. People + Process > Technology

4. Strategy
Training
Development

5. @davebriggs
dave@kindofdigital.com
kindofdigital.com

6. Computers are interesting things

8. "wholly new forms of encyclopedias will
appear, ready made with a mesh of
associative trails running through them,
ready to be dropped into the memex and
there amplified"

10. “The mother of all demos”
Video conferencing
Real time collaborative editing
Hypertext
Dynamically linked documents

12. Hypertext

13. Hypertext
Hypermedia

14. Hypertext
Hypermedia
Intertwingularity

15. Project Xanadu:
"the longest-running vaporware
project in the history of
computing"

17. Hacker culture
Rise of the software industry
Gnu (1983)
FSF (1985)

18. Free as in speech, not as in beer

20. Open source (1998)

22. “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs
are shallow”

23. Most contributors to FOSS are
users, not developers

24. The bug tracker

25. 1. Identifies
2. Prioritises
3. Solutionises
4. Reportulises

26. An open source approach to place?

27. (If we view place as a system,
albeit rather a complicated one)

28. 1. Users spot bugs and report
2. Progress is open and viewable
3. Anyone can suggest, and (if
agreed) implement solutions.

29. Not “Fix My Street!”

30. 1. Helps with cross-service issues
2. Visibility of process
3. Potential for left-field solutions

31. Don’t forget:
Open knowledge
Open data