Making Sense of Things

2011-07-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hi again, its been a while since my last post. We were very busy readying Verbol VoiceChat for Wave and we reached the Wave extensions gallery the first week of last August when Google announced that Wave would be shut down. So in the spirit of try try again we are now readying our independently hosted Verbol voice using Google gadgets and starting to preview it. Brian.

Now at verbol.com

2010-01-29T13:19:00.000-08:00

We are now using the demo.verbol.com for our demo voice system and in process of converting our web pages to reflect this. Our voice system uses Verbol Web Server to store information created by Voicechat.

Wave

2009-12-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

We have become very caught up with Google Wave and have a link to our first public wave with VoiceChat and some blog links at demo.verbol.com.

If you have a wave account you can also share a wave with me and I can add our voicechat gadget to the wave so we have a time independent voice conversation.

2009-09-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since our last post. I will follow up with a catch up on the news but now, a demo:-

Demo

I am demonstrating a preview of the ibook voice system V3.0 at voice.ibook.com. If you go there and enter br, you reach my ibook identity which tells you how to call me and leave voicechat messages in my daily journal.

Meet you there. Brian.

NB. Please be aware the demo is open without password restriction though not yet publicised. We have licencing and patents so I am OK with this from a technology point of view. More on how to use the system is at Brian Reynolds ibook identity and this tells you how to call or Skype me free of charge. Please do so if it is not obvious how to proceed.

I am looking for help to takes this further so we can enable voice to be as ubiquitous as text, see Invitation.

Marketing

I just used our voicecht demo to record my thoughts on network marketing and related subjects stimulated by Ray's question, “Have you thought of using a viral marketing approach?” They are playable from my journal page and the red phone link starting at message 2774 should play them to you through your browser and allow you to reply at any point with your thoughts.

Skype case now resolved so this is here solely for interest

I am working on an open letter to Skype and its founders and owners and my thinking relates to the open cooperative approach I am describing in my voice notes as Family Systems' direct market model for Personal Systems (as opposed to our OEM model for selling add-on features to web services companies which I also describe).

In this case I am considering suggesting that Skype support a cooperative add-on to supplement the Joltid proprietary one so the customer can choose and having the choice allows Skype to revert in reasonable stages to the terms of its agreement with Joltid. If you have any feedback please contact me via the ibook voice system described above or email br@ibook.com.

Interesting background, Computerworld comment , Skype at Wikipedia.

2009-04-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

A few things have happened recently.

You may have seen www.brianreynolds.biz and some of the linked pages. Quite a bit has been added to the Voicechat page including an outline of the opportunity to participate now.

I have collected together various design notes into a draft Verbol page which I am in process of editing. The notes were written separately as thoughts occurred to me and I have done some initial editing so they are loosely grouped and have a contents list for navigation so they are OK for briefing and talking over the ideas. I am thinking about implementing Verbol in Javascript and would like to bounce some ideas around with a Javascript expert.

A COOPYtunities page has been started, linked to from Invitation which introduces COOPY and some opportunities to cooperate. Some rationalisation with the other pages is needed, but it should give an idea.

I added more songs to uplay2 and created four song pages in a format I am putting forward for feedback. These include Youtube videos of performances with the uplay2 prompts embedded in lyrics displayed as subtitles. I have been told these are more fun to play along to than games as you are making music with a real instrument. These are in effect a prototype of the Family Systems play-along invention and I am looking for cooperation in implementing it further.

Patent news is at the foot of this page Family Systems Patent Filings.
Following the first play-along U.S. Patent 7423214 which was issued in Sept 2008, we have filed two further Playalong continuation patent applications one of which covers the prototype used in Uplay2. We are also working on a response to the examiner's recent rejection of the first Web Collaboration patent filing which he has based on a combination of two separate prior inventions.

If you are interested in contributing, please email me br@brianreynolds.biz and let me know whether you Skype or are available by phone.

Work Experience

2009-01-27T19:15:00.000-08:00

I just created a Work Experience page for www,brianreynolds.biz.

This was signed off by Micro Focus, Paul O'Grady and Stewart Lang.

Creative Commons

2008-12-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

Today I joined CC Network
and sent the following open letter to the Creative Commons cc-info email list.

Open letter to Creative Commons from Brian Reynolds.

I endorse open source and Creative Commons and am in process of creating a cooperative commercial license COOPYshare implemented as CC+COOPY on www.coopy.biz.

Contributors to a work offer a CC license for non-commercial use and adopt Cooperative Principles for fair sharing of revenue earned from commercial use. I am using CC+COOPY for musical enhancements at www.uplay2.org and inventions at www.ibook.com.

This is at a preview stage and I would appreciate your feedback at br@coopy.biz. Thanks and respect to all commoners.

Program for the Future

2008-12-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

On Monday and Tuesday I attended virtually, by Internet streaming video, the Program for the Future conference. The virtual attendees were unable to interact so I sent in the open letter below.

To info@bootstrap.org, please pass this on immediately.

Letter to Douglas Englebart from Brian Reynolds

Dear Doug,

I have just discovered your conference Program for the Future as I was researching how to communicate with Creative Commons to advise them of my CC+COOPY initiative and hopefully gain their involvement.

Your cause resonates with me, in particular the 11.00am Session on Tuesday which I aim to attend virtually. I have been working for some time on answers to the questions posed for the session. and I reproduce your published introduction to that session below with my suggested answers. My web sites I have linked to are under construction at a preview stage and I would appreciate any feedback.

Tuesday 11:00 AM Innovating Innovation Panel

Leveraging People and Technology to Improve and Catalyze Innovation

The introduction poses 4 questions

Q1. How do we best realize Doug Engelbart's vision of combining people and technology to nurture innovation and better humanity, by addressing major challenges as well as creating new industries, products and jobs?

A1. Promote cooperatives in the Intellectual Property sector eg by the COOPYshare initiative (presently implemented as CC+COOPY).

The idea is to retain open licensing and add a commercial element by which sponsors and contributors

share fairly any revenue arising with democratic control. This provides a framework for licensing of copyrights and patents and fair sharing of revenue thereof, thereby the incentive to pool inventions which we must if we are to solve the big problems

Q2. With an ever widening digital divide, how do we ensure that innovation benefits all segments of society in both developing and developed countries?

A2. Build in support to help the less fortunate to participate equally in the information age, in tune with the education principle of the Cooperative Principles and as outlined in COOPY. Adopt our role in the educational objective of the Cooperative movement as being to empower all people with all the benefits of the Internet.

Q3. How can we most prudently and fairly balance innovation risks and rewards?

A3. Adopt Cooperative Principles.

Q4. Who should participate in the dialogue?

A4. All people and institutions.

This means that across the many cooperatives we may need, it is likely that all people of any age or orientation may participate in one or more as may all institutions, be they companies, foundations etc. Their membership must follow the cooperative principles and license rules such as do no harm.

The Big Questions

You mention the big questions and it seems to me we need to cooperate to solve the big problems. The cooperative movement can apply to Intellectual Property and should thrive on the Internet. Cooperatives increase real democracy as they must be democratically run by the members.

There are many inventions and innovations I would like to implement cooperatively. Some are introduced in an open Letter Invitation to Cooperate. In particular, a game changing improvement in technology would be achieved if we could create the socially constructed personas which we can talk to as described in my Web Collaboration invention and add them to web services such as email, Google Apps and equivalents.

I would like to add a Jamaican ingredient as a case study to help level the playing field for the illiterate and would put forward Jamaican Patois as a language alongside English for early implementation. The idea is that those able to speak Jamaican could converse with their personal system in their own language and this could translate to and from English. This is a backstop to the initiatives described in Respect due to Jamaican on www.liftupjamaica.com as Jamaica continues to suffer tremendous problems from illiteracy.

Here in Jamaica we also have a serious crime problem and I would like to see a "Global Watch" cooperative security system whereby anyone with a cell phone can contribute reports, photo and video to a Google Earth based neighborhood watch anywhere and everywhere we need it.

I would enjoy a conversation about these ideas at br@coopy.biz.

Best wishes from Brian Reynolds

May good will enable us to improve what we can,
endure what we cant and
converse with all who might help,
so we cooperate in peace

and assist those in need.

--
All original content by the author of this email is licensed as CC+COOPY at www.coopy.biz/coopy.