What is Made Open?

“If we really believe we are fighting for a peoples’ peace, all the rest becomes easy.” – Henry A. Wallace

People have problems. Solutions to these problems require resources in order to produce goods and services. Our generation has inherited two solutions, still in place, to solve our problems. Capitalism and government. If we solve our own problems, we reduce our dependency on these two solutions. Made Open is a movement to solve our own problems.

It is clear that as the People in corporations create more efficient systems, the benefits are absorbed into the corporation as profit and future earnings. As automation increases and the need for human resources decreases, less jobs are available and the gap widens between the rich and poor. This divide causes problems in society that would not otherwise exist. These problems will continue to worsen as corporations take the intellectual property of its human resources and transform it into something that can be controlled. If we, the People, are creating the solutions, then we, the People, should own the solutions. Made Open is a movement to own our solutions.

Resources such as gas, oil, water, precious metals, vegetation, and human are used to create solutions to problems. These natural resources can be controlled using force through capitalism and government. As these old systems are replaced with new, the resources will become available to the People. Made Open is a movement to own our resources.

A new resource is available and wields more power than all the other resources combined. This resource is unlimited and its value is increasing exponentially. Each person has access to an equal amount of this resource and has the basic human right to own it, and employ it. This resource is data. Made Open is a movement to promote data as a resource.

Data as a Resource Promotion

Technology companies allow us to use their resources in the same way that slave owners allowed slaves to use their property. The effort of the People generates content, used by the corporation to harness the attention of the People. Content is a past data point, captured in time by some sensor and recording device. Pictures, video, audio and text are created by People and attract the attention of other people. Planting a seed of content is almost immediately fruitful and seed-bearing. The People plant the seeds, cultivate, harvest, and are left back at the plantation while the owner goes to market to realize profits. It becomes the corporation’s burden to provide the tools of productivity to the People. It is often said that no one is forced to accept the terms of a service, but that is simply the result of the slave (or colonial) mentality.

“Throughout human history, nations and peoples have continuously colonised and been colonised. It is said that when a foreign colonial or imperial power is too strong to be effectively resisted, the colonised population often has no other immediate option than to accept the rule of the foreigners as an inescapable reality of life.” – Wikipedia Slave Mentality

Our reality becomes obvious when we define the self in terms of data. The power of data comes from the intention of the People to return to their stored data (pictures, video, audio and text). The corporations want your attention, so they give you a reason to return, your data. Only it’s not your data any more. You gave that up for a debate about your privacy rights. Technology companies measure their value in terms of the number of users, or their ability to capture a Peoples’ attention. Attention is the single most valuable form of data. Control it.

A Call to Arms

We are at a tipping point. Very soon we will lose control of the basic rights to our data, and therefore, our basic human rights. We have a fleeting opportunity to systematically take over control of our solutions. We can do this now, both easily and peacefully. We can use their game and their resources, to not only beat them at their own game, but fundamentally change the way the game is played. We do not need to condemn these corporations, or their employees, for their intolerance and lack of vision. We can ignore them and allow the market to guide them to their irrelevance. Same rules, better competition. We are hacking capitalism at MadeOpen.com.