Featured Projects
Roman Latifundium in Australia
The idea is to build an Ancient style farm/small village in rural Queensland or New South Wales which follows as closely as possible the mode of operation of a Roman latifundium 2000 years ago, as described in details in the books "On Agriculture" by Marcus Porcius Cato Maior (Cato the Elder), Marcus Terrentius Varro and Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella.
A "latifundium" was in essence a farm, but significantly more than our modern farms: it was also a mini-village for everyone employed there (usually dozens of people) and was as self-sufficient as possible. The enterprise produced its own food, made its own clothes, most instruments, building materials etc. and was thus very diverse.
In our case, it will also incorporate a tourist/educational element, where an important part of income will be derived from visitors who want to learn about or experience the Ancient lifestyle.
The latifundium will welcome external guests in a tavern/hotel complex and a small market for foods, arts and crafts. Ancient re-enactment groups will also use it as a base for their "total immersion" events.
Project status: Currently, the project is still only an early-stage wild idea. There is a concept and a draft prospectus, and nothing else.
People's Economy
The project seeks to start a new company which will create a "parallel economy" owned and controlled by its members, with the express aim of making their lives better.
Project status: not specified
Open Source Dreams
This site, Open Source Dreams (or OS Dreams) is itself a project which needs participants in order to grow and improve.
Project status: Currently it is in a very early stage, trying just to get a functional web site going.
Applied Philosophy
In Ancient times people studied philosophy not to get a PhD but in order to understand the important things in life - like "what is good". The idea behind that was not some abstract knowledge; the idea was to define "good" so as to be able to lead a "good life". They then shaped the way they live based on this knowledge. In other words, philosophy was the ultimate applied science.
Project status: not specified
Independent Knowledge Base
We live in a world where mass media exists in order to influence us and not to inform us and make our own decisions for our own good. Governments have also started to apply censorship ever more aggressively, and to to disappear information that does not support their main narrative.
Project status: The project is in a very early stage, trying to find people willing to do research and publishing.
Livius
This project aims to create an intelligent knowledge-base of historical primary sources to assist research of the past.
The idea is to index available books (by Livy, Tacitus, Plutarch, Dio etc.) in terms of: people mentioned in them, facts, places, events and the relations between them so as to allow complex queries like "which persons have been consuls in period X who were also friends of person Y" or "which Roman commanders and on what occasions have enlisted slaves for soldiers", "what were the laws on X in year Y" and so on.
Project status: not specified
Steampunk Mobile Phone
I need help to create a Steampunk-style mobile phone. It needs some design and research, and then the actual production can be outsourced.
Project status: not specified
Bring back the passenger airship!
According to Wikipedia, airships (also known as "dirigible" or "zeppelin") lose out to airplanes because "a practical limit is reached around 80–100 miles per hour (130–160 km/h). Thus airships are used where speed is not critical." Well, if I travel for leisure, this is all right with me - when on holiday, I want to be able to travel "in style" and enjoy the view. Why does no travel company give me that choice? Let us find a way to make it feasible again!
Project status: not specified
Online Coin Club
The goal of this project is to create a comprehensive database of the world's coins: known characteristics, mintage, design, pricing etc. For collectors and dealers, it should also provide facilities to manage collections, sales and exchanges between members.
Project status: not specified
Direct Democracy Party
The current political system originates from countries such as England or France, where people elected members of Parliament and then these representatives went off to the capital city to sit in that Pariament and vote. The capital city was far away, communication with the electorate was rare so these representatives just came up with a program before the election and then, when elected, started working on it. The presumption is that they cannot ask the voters for everything they should do - a presumption based on a lack of communications, which is not the case in the age of the internet. Why does this system still persist? With our current means of communication, representatives of the people should do just that - represent the people. The people decide what has to be done - the representative does it. On every single issue, the people CAN decide, by an online micro-referendum. Every elected representative will a) announce in advance what decisions have to be made, b) publish all information that may be relevant to them, c) ask the electorate how the vote should go, and d) vote as the people say. We need 500 people (registered voters) to register a new party in Australia and try to do this.
Project status: not specified
Intelligent Web Exploration
This is a project to develop the Intelligent Web Exploration paradigm from my PhD thesis, for which a prototype currently exists. It addresses several shortcomings of the current web search model, some of which have been detrimental not only to the model itself but also to the Web as a whole.
Project status: not specified
b2p (beer-to-peer) Platform
The idea is to create a combination between a virtual currency and a social network, where people pay for services by sending "tips" to people they like, who have done them a voluntary service, which tips then get "cleared" through a virtual banking system which promotes face-to-face meetings for beer (or coffee). This will enable people to send tangible tips to strangers - or, in other words - create a B2P (beer-to-peer) network.
Project status: not specified
Intelligent Personal Online Reality Manager
The idea of this project is to create a tool to intelligently manage the "online reality" of every person - e.g., record what the person sees and does on the internet, create some order in it and assist the person in his/her online interactions.
Project status: not specified
Organic Farm in NSW, Australia
The plan is to buy a property in Northern NSW and convert it into a community-run organic farm.
Project status: not specified