As presented in the DINAcon 2023 talk by Stefan Barac and Markus Stolze

Key Learnings

1. all people are disabled: Explanation using the example of age groups
2. 99.9 % of today's products and services overload target groups
3. this is cognitive load and what it means for sales and people centring
4. how to combine physical and digital experiences to create inclusive experiences
5. a11y tests the best way to stay solvent while learning if you offer inclusion
6. two examples of systems that support the implementation of web accessibility

See also Bachelor Thesis by Mathias Lenz (autotranslated to English here)

We invite our peers and colleagues, really everyone who is interested in the art & science of Hackathons, Hackdays, Hacknights, and other time-limited / open / collaborative / experimental / hands-on workshops, to join us for a convivial discussion of the past and future of the field.

At Hack:Org:X meetings, we share best practices, followed by group discussion on critical questions and research directions. Our initial meetings have focused on topics like:

• where and how to deploy open tools and infrastructure for better hackathons;
• how to plan interventions that respond to social needs and crisis topics;
• who are the stakeholders, where is the momentum building;
• insights and retrospectives from hackathon crews around Switzerland

On May 4, our meeting in Basel was supported by the ⬢DRIBDAT collective, BaselHack and Baseltech.swiss. We explored ten challenges for hackathon organizers, documenting our thoughts in the comments: from making events more fair & accessible to having a better handbook and issuing certificates. We even started a new cooperative. See also: the recap / the results

This was closely followed by virtual exchanges, and a second in-person meeting on August 17 in Zürich, hosted by MakeZurich and ewz. Here we worked together on a Stakeholder Analysis, and heard from several researchers who are collecting data and making critical inquiries into the topic of hackathons. See also: the recap / the results

Many of our discussions involve topics that were prominent at DINAcon in the past. We look forward to follow-up with further Hackathon Organizers workshops, and a hands-on session at the DINAcon HACKnights! For more information, visit https://hackorgx.dribdat.cc/

Yannic Kilcher presented Open Assistant at the DINAcon 2023, sharing "A brief insight into the open source world in the field of artificial intelligence and where the data for it comes from."

See also:

• Mastodon post
• OpenAssistant on HuggingFace

Recommended intro resources from the LAION team:

• Contrastive https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2021-05-31-contrastive/
• Embeddings https://rom1504.medium.com/semantic-search-at-billions-scale-95f21695689a
• Diffusion https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2021-07-11-diffusion-models/

Open Assistant is now concluded as a project, so we can no longer use the interactive online chatbot. However, the source code and the model remains accessible through GitHub. We used HuggingChat (LLaMA 2) to generate some HACKnight challenges based on the Open Assistant's README.

{ hacknight challenges }

Create a simple chatbot that responds to basic user queries using pre-defined answers. The chatbot should be able to understand basic natural language inputs and respond accordingly.

Implement a rating system for the chatbot's responses. Users should be able to rate the helpfulness of the chatbot's responses, and the ratings should be used to improve the chatbot's performance over time.

Implement a reinforcement learning algorithm to train the chatbot to generate better responses over time. The algorithm should use the ratings from the intermediate challenge as feedback to improve the chatbot's performance. Additionally, implement a mechanism to allow users to provide additional feedback, such as suggestions for alternative responses, to further improve the chatbot's performance.

The Things Network (TTN) consists of an inclusive and open global community of people, companies, governments and universities who are learning, experimenting and building with LoRaWAN (low power, long-range), typically sensor-based data collection projects. We are supporting a scattered yet active community of open hardware tinkerers in Switzerland through events and Starter Kits. Support TTN and related open protocols by joining the Open Network Infrastructure Association! You can help us to improve bootstraps and badges for next year, and run the next edition of MakeZurich, TTN Bern, TTN Basel, and other activities in 2023.

🛠️ Join our workshop at Glue Software on December 4

💸 Donate at opennetworkinfrastructure.org

🔵 Follow at Open Collective

{ hacknight challenges }

Learn a bit of background about the concept of an open network, the technical and legal issues, and how to get connected. Explore the maps of community gateways as well as TTN Mapper, see how well the coverage is in your part of town. Leave a comment with your observations.

Look for introductory materials from MakeZurich, Instructables, Hack-a-day, to find interesting projects. These will typically have parts lists so you can order the components online. Swiss shops like Bastelgarage, Pi-Shop, Digitec, etc., have most of what you need to get started.

Build something awesome and share the story! Next year we want to open up our platform to include all the DIY tinkering happening in garages across the country. Join the community and reach out through Slack if you have any questions.

See also:

https://hacknight.dinacon.ch/project/7

The Things Network Manifesto

Everything that carries power will be connected to Internet eventually.

Controlling the network that makes this possible means controlling the world. We believe that this power should not be restricted to afew people, companies or nations. Instead this should be distributedover as many people as possible without the possibility to be takenaway by anyone. We therefore founded "The Things Network".

The Things Network is an open source, free initiative with the following properties:

• It connects sensors and actuators, called "Things", with transceivers called "Things Gateways" to servers called "Things Access".
• The first connection is "Over The Air", the second is "Over The Net". The distributed implementation of these concepts is called "The Things Network".
• Anyone shall be free to set up "Things" and connect to "Things Gateways" that may or may not be their own.
• Anyone shall be free to set up "Things Gateways" and connect to "Things Access" that may or may not be their own. Their "Things Gateways" will give access to all "Things" in a net neutral manner, limited by the maximum available capacity alone.
• Anyone shall be free to set up "Things Access" and allow anonymous connections from the Internet. Their "Things Access" will give access to all "Things Gateways" in a net neutral manner, limited by the maximum available capacity alone. Furthermore their "Things Access" will allow connection of other "Things Access" servers for the distribution of data.
• The "Over The Air" and "Over The Net" networks shall be protocol agnostic, as long as these protocols are not proprietary, open source and free of rights.
• Anyone who perpetrates a "Things Access" or a "Things Gateway" will do so free of charge for all connecting devices and servers.
• Anyone making use of the network is allowed to do so for any reason or cause, possibly limited by local law, fully at own risk and realizing that services are provided "as is" and may be terminated for any reason at any moment. The use may be open for anybody, limited to customers, commercial, not-for-profit, or in any other fashion. "The Things Network" providers will not pose restrictions upon its users.

We invite you to sign this Manifesto, and uphold its principles to the bestof your abilities.

This is an automatic translation (DeepL) of a talk at DINAcon 2023. The original slides will be published shortly.

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Join the Language AI Meetups if you're interested ...

It is a widespread challenge for individuals and institutions in Switzerland to better understand how digitalization in the form of workflows or automation can enhance confidence and productivity. While A.I. technology promises to dramatically expand our horizons, we need to be able to keep control of our data sources, and keep track of the steps along the way. Document-based contracts and archives are likely to stay a constant presence in our working lives.

Proxeus is an open source platform designed and maintained in Switzerland, used for more oversight over the way data-driven decisions are documented. It is based on well known components (LibreOffice, GoLang, Ethereum, Vue.JS) and has been deployed at other hackathons to generate certificates of participation, for evaluation or data collection.

For an introduction to the software and screencasts, check out the user handbook. The story of the project can be found in the blog posts. We also have a short slide deck here, and would be happy to demo it to you at the HACKnight.

{ hacknight challenges }

Create a user account on the sandbox platform. We will give you a link where you can create an account. You could install a Metamask wallet, which would allow you to use all features of Proxeus Core. Crypto-features (signing, validation) are not a strict requirement for using the product, but we can help you get started at the HACKnight. See the Proxeus handbook to learn more.

Once you have played a bit with the user interface, made your first form, template and ran a document workflow: think about a professional need that you could address with automation. Perhaps there is an API whose data you would like to retrieve, or a notification message that you would like to be sent at the right time? There are probably some manual workflows in daily life that you could replace or improve with automation. Or just come up with a random hackathon idea. Mock it up with a basic form and template. Share your idea as a Post on the log here or in the community Discussions.

Fork the starter node and get coding! Connect to your API to extract or push data based on the workflow. See the developer documentation and talk to us about good ways to get started. You will probably want to install a local instance of Proxeus on your machine, so also see the README for set up instructions.

This is an automatic translation (DeepL) of a talk at DINAcon 2023. The original slides will be published shortly.

Notes (by Oleg)

In the realm of open-source companies, transparency reigns supreme. From accounting to contracts, everything is laid bare online. The rationale behind monetizing open source is straightforward: it ensures simplicity, sustainability, and scalability. Many free software developers operate part-time for companies utilizing their products.

Notably, open source has become a lucrative sector, with companies like MongoDB, Elastic, Databricks, HashiCorp, and Confluent, although some face criticism for pivoting away from strict open source licenses. Various open-source business models exist, such as Open Core (offering a free core with paid plugins/services), Hosting (providing the product as a service), Marketplace (akin to Google Play Store with commissions on sales), and Advertising (as seen in Chromium/Chrome/Brave/Edge). Scalability, margins, and defensibility, Pros and Cons, are compared by Stefan in a table.

While the Marketplace model appears promising, the strong network effect ("winner takes all") poses a challenge for alternatives like F-Droid against the dominant Play Store. Distributors like Red Hat or SUSE adopt a service-selling approach, with subscriptions resembling a form of hosting. In contrast to Silicon Valley's focus on exit strategies, the middle-European perspective emphasizes sustainability for smaller companies.

A notable example similar to Friendly's approach is Buffer. An open company, they stay true to their open source foundations - the CTO of Friendly serves as a product/community lead, contributing code and funds to the respective foundations. While rarely questioned about the impact of their transparency, companies like this often express willingness to connect with others and share insights through blogging and other publications.

{ hacknight challenges }

Take a small step towards online transparency by making a key aspect of your business visible to the public. This could be a simplified version of your financial reports, a breakdown of a recent project's success metrics, or an overview of your team's contributions to an open-source project. Share this information on your company website or social media platforms, and encourage feedback from your audience.

Engage with the open-source community by actively contributing to a project relevant to your industry. Encourage your development team to participate in coding sprints, bug fixes, or feature additions. Document your contributions and the impact on the project. Share this experience on your company blog or through industry forums. This not only enhances your company's visibility but also strengthens your ties with the open-source community.

Organize a workshop or webinar on the benefits and challenges of transparent business practices. Share your journey, lessons learned, and best practices with other businesses aiming for transparency. Invite guest speakers from both open-source and traditional business sectors to provide diverse perspectives. Encourage open discussions and create a platform for networking. Document the insights gained from the event and share them through industry publications or collaborative platforms, further positioning your company as a thought leader in transparent business practices.