Category: Technology

Manifestos that shape the use of manmade devices

Michael Widenius: The Hacking Business Model

Creator: Michael Widenius, one of the founders of the MySQL database, co-wrote this manifesto.

Purpose: “…Rules for running a company based on egalitarian and sustainable principles.” (Jansson)

Manifesto

Purpose

• Create a sustainable business model that can be adopted and adapted by others.

• Create a fair and democratic company that is owned by the workers.

• Have long-term, trustworthy and meaningful relationships with our staff and customers.

 

Principles

• Egalitarian: The belief that all people should be treated equally. This includes equality, non-discrimination and inclusivity.

• Sustainable: We have a long-term view on our business. We watch our profits & spend wisely, we take care of each other, we support the things we depend on.

• Transparent: We communicate in an honest and genuine way. Any information or process that can be made open, will be made open.

• Fun: Create a workplace where people can have fun and want to work.

• Agile: Be flexible, receptive & adaptive, especially when dealing with staff and customers.

 

Methods

Concrete tools for helping us live according to our principles, including:

• Consensus-based decision making.

• Corporate transparency – any information or process that can be made open, should be made open.

• Licensing that helps benefit our company, our staff, our customers, our partners and society at large.

• Profit-sharing with staff, contributors and worthy causes.

• Don’t try to change people. Focus on getting the best from their strengths. Develop ways to work around their weaknesses.

• Prefer to work with people who share our values.

• Work against patents and other legislation that harms individual rights.

 

Additional Sections

Default Employee Rules

The Rules of the Company

 

Source

Blog Post by Mattias Jansson: http://altdevblogaday.org/2011/05/21/the-hacking-business-model/

Originally posted on Zak Greant’s Blog: http://zak.greant.com/

Ted Kaczynski: The Unabomber Manifesto

Ted Kaczynski: The Unabomber Manifesto

Creator: John ‘Ted’ Kaczynski is also known as the Unabomber is most famous for engaging in a mail bombing campaign in the US from 1978 to 1995.

Purpose: The Unabomber Manifesto is titled ‘Industrial Society and its Future’ and it speaks to the “erosion of human freedom necessitated by modern technologies requiring large-scale organisation.” (Wikipedia)

The Unabomber Manifesto

Introduction

(Opening Sentence only of the Five Points in the Introduction)

1 The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

2 The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break down.

3 If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful.

4 We therefore advocate a revolution against the industrial system.

5 In this article we give attention to only some of the negative developments that have grown out of the industrial-technological system.

The Manifesto contains 232 Points in Total

Here are the headings within the Manifesto

  • The psychology of modern leftism
  • Feelings of inferiority
  • Oversocialization
  • The power process
  • Surrogate activities
  • Autonomy
  • Sources of social problems
  • Disruption of the power process in modern society
  • How some people adjust
  • The motives of scientists
  • The nature of freedom
  • Some principles of history
  • Industrial-technological society cannot be reformed
  • Restriction of freedom is unavoidable in industrial society
  • The ‘bad’ parts of technology cannot be separated from the ‘good’ parts
  • Technology is a more powerful social force than the aspiration for freedom
  • Simpler social problems have proved intractable
  • Revolution is easier than reform
  • Control of human behavior
  • Human race at a crossroads
  • Human suffering
  • The future
  • Strategy
  • Two kinds of technology
  • The danger of leftism
  • Final note

Source

Complete Manifesto: http://cyber.eserver.org/unabom.txt

About Ted Kaczynski: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

 

The Pirate Press: No Google Manifesto

Creator: Alex Dearmond, Graphic Designer, Publisher and Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Wisconsin – Stout.

Purpose: A rebellion against the use of computers and a return to zine-making by hand.

Made-By-Hand, No Google Manifesto

No Google Manifesto

Source

Alex Dearmond: http://www.alexdearmond.com

Manifesto: http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2010/05/made-by-hand-no-google-manifesto.html

 

Mozilla: The Mozilla Manifesto

Mozilla Manifesto

Creator: Mozilla is a global, non-profit open-source software building organisation that is best known for creating the web browser Firefox

Purpose: To ensure the Internet is developed in a way that benefits everyone. The principles in this manifesto are seen to be critical for the Internet to continue to benefit the public good.

The Mozilla Manifesto

Introduction

The goals for the Manifesto are to:

  1. Articulate a vision for the Internet that Mozilla participants want the Mozilla Foundation to pursue;
  2. Speak to people whether or not they have a technical background;
  3. Make Mozilla contributors proud of what we’re doing and motivate us to continue; and
  4. Provide a framework for other people to advance this vision of the Internet.

These principles will not come to life on their own. People are needed to make the Internet open and participatory – people acting as individuals, working together in groups, and leading others. The Mozilla Foundation is committed to advancing the principles set out in the Mozilla Manifesto. We invite others to join us and make the Internet an ever better place for everyone.

Principles

  1. The Internet is an integral part of modern life–a key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole.
  2. The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.
  3. The Internet should enrich the lives of individual human beings.
  4. Individuals’ security on the Internet is fundamental and cannot be treated as optional.
  5. Individuals must have the ability to shape their own experiences on the Internet.
  6. The effectiveness of the Internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.
  7. Free and open source software promotes the development of the Internet as a public resource.
  8. Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability, and trust.
  9. Commercial involvement in the development of the Internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial goals and public benefit is critical.
  10. Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the Internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention and commitment.

Mozilla Foundation Pledge

The Mozilla Foundation pledges to support the Mozilla Manifesto in its activities. Specifically, we will:

  • Build and enable open-source technologies and communities that support the Manifesto’s principles;
  • Build and deliver great consumer products that support the Manifesto’s principles;
  • Use the Mozilla assets (intellectual property such as copyrights and trademarks, infrastructure, funds, and reputation) to keep the Internet an open platform;
  • Promote models for creating economic value for the public benefit; and
  • Promote the Mozilla Manifesto principles in public discourse and within the Internet industry.

Some Foundation activities–currently the creation, delivery and promotion of consumer products–are conducted primarily through the Mozilla Foundation’s wholly owned subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.

Invitation

The Mozilla Foundation invites all others who support the principles of the Mozilla Manifesto to join with us, and to find new ways to make this vision of the Internet a reality.

Source

Manifesto Page: http://www.mozilla.org/about/manifesto.en.html

About Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org/about/

The Cluetrain Manifesto

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Creators: Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, published as The Cluetrain Manifesto in 1999 by Perseus Books.

Purpose: To spread the word that the internet is changing marketplaces for both consumers and organisations.

Manifesto

Online Markets

Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organisations.

The Cluetrain Manifesto consists of 95 Theses

Here’s the one highlighted on their website as the most important:

We are not seats or eyeballs or end users of consumer. We are human beings – our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it.

Here’s their first ten…

1. Markets are conversations.

2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.

3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.

5. People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.

6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

7. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.

8. In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way.

9. These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.

10. As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.

Sources

Website with all 95 Theses: http://www.cluetrain.com/

Read the entire book online: http://www.cluetrain.com/book/index.html

General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cluetrain_Manifesto

Thanks to Jeremy Samuels for suggesting this one!

Related Manifestos

 

Atlassian : Corporate Values

Atlassian - Corporate Values

Creator: Atlassian – software developers and collaboration tool creators.

Purpose: Core values describing what the company looks for in their employees and the cultural guidelines to keep Atlassian from being just another ordinary company.

Manifesto

What we value

Open company, no bullshit

Atlassian embraces transparency wherever at all practical, and sometimes where impractical. All information, both internal and external, is public by default. We are not afraid of being honest with ourselves, our staff and our customers.

Build with heart and balance

Everyday we try to build products that are useful and that people lust after. Building with heart means really caring about what we’re making and doing—it’s a mission, not just a job. When we build with balance we take into account how initiatives and decisions will affect our colleagues, our customers and our stakeholders.

Don’t #@!% the customer

When we make internal decisions we ask ourselves “how will this affect our customers?” If the answer is that it would ‘screw’ them, or make life more difficult, then we need to find a better way. We want the customer to respect us in the morning.

Play, as a team

We want all Atlassians to feel like they work with Atlassian, not for Atlassian. We think it’s important to have fun with your workmates while working and contributing to the Atlassian team.

Be the change you seek

We think Gandhi had it pretty right when he said “We need to be the change we wish to see in the world”. At Atlassian we encourage everyone to create positive change—we’re constantly looking for ways to improve our company, our products and our environment.

Source

Atlassian Website: http://www.atlassian.com/about/values.jsp

 

The Open Cloud Computing Manifesto

Open Cloud Computing Manifesto

Creator: Developed by and open community of interested parties – vendors and providers.

Purpose: Public Declaration of principles and intentions for cloud computing providers and vendors based on the view the ‘cloud’ should be open.

Manifesto

Open Cloud Computing Principles

1. User centric systems enrich the lives of individuals, education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole; the end user is the primary stakeholder in cloud computing.

2. Philanthropic initiatives don’t work!

3. Openness of standards, systems and software empowers and protects users; existing standards should be adopted where possible for the benefit of all stakeholders.

4. Transparency fosters trust and accountability; decisions should be open to public collaboration and scrutiny and never be made “behind closed doors”.

5. Interoperability ensures effectiveness of cloud computing as a public resource; systems must be interoperable over a minimal set of community defined standards and vendor lock-in must be avoided.

6. Representation of all stakeholders is essential; interoperability and standards efforts should not be dominated by vendor(s).

7. Discrimination against any party for any reason is unacceptable; barriers to entry must be minimised.

8. Evolution is an ongoing process in an immature market; standards may take some time to develop and coalesce but activities should be coordinated and collaborative.

9. Balance of commercial and consumer interests is paramount; if in doubt consumer interests prevail.

10. Security is fundamental, not optional.

Sources

General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Computing_Manifesto

Community: http://www.opencloudmanifesto.org/

Agile Software

Agile Software Manifesto

Creator: In 2001, 17 people from various software companies met in the mountains of Utah.
Purpose: Need for an alternative to documentation driven, heavyweight software development processes convened.

Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan
  • That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Principles behind the Agile Software Manifesto

We follow these principles:

  • Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
  • Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
  • Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
  • Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
  • Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
  • The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
  • Working software is the primary measure of progress.
  • Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
  • Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
  • Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential.
  • The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
  • At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Sources

More details: http://agilemanifesto.org/
Thanks to Chris Curnow for pointing this one out.