BiTS FAQ — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation

UK Horizons: FRC — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation

Successful coordinated research programmes, like those at ARPAs, have often resulted from exceptional contractors. Many of the best contractors leveraged organisational models uncommon in academia or VC-funded startups. They combined technical ambition, a willingness to build real technology for actual users, and flexible management structures all under one roof to tackle ambitious R&D problems which made the programs a success. These organisations were driven by the pursuit of an ambitious North Star technical vision, not revenue-maximisation. And they pursued this vision with a mix of contracts and grants. We call organisations that do this Frontier Research Contractors (FRCs). Two of ARPA’s most impactful  programmes, the original internet and autonomous vehicle projects, were both led by FRCs. FRCs are also often referred to as 'BBNs' by researchers, inspired by the early internet (ARPAnet) contractor, Bolt, Beranek & Newman.

Meet the Big if True Science Accelerator Americas Cohort — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation

Renaissance Philanthropy’s Big if True Science (BiTS) Accelerator has launched our Americas cohort, with support from Coefficient Giving . After a highly competitive international selection process, we're delighted to introduce the 14 exceptional scientists and innovators in this cohort. Selecte

Coordinated Research Programs — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation (V2)

In many cases, ambitious R&D problems are not well-suited to individual academic labs, startups, or other existing institutions.

Introducing Sponsorware: How A Small Open Source Package Increased My Salary By $11k in Two Days

<p>After digging deep on SQLite during a pair programming session with a client/friend, I had an idea…</p> <p>About 45 minutes later, a proo...

Big if True Science Accelerator — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation

A part-time accelerator for scientists and technologists to design and pitch ambitious R&D programs. Meet our cohorts here.

values based software talks

Talk #3 Files, algorithms, media, software as lived practice, and personal software

Our Approach to Artificial Intelligence

We are experimenting with using AI tools to extend our work as a small nonprofit, so that we can focus our time on reinforcing human connections, conversations, and communities that have eroded.

Philanthropy 2.0: What the Evolution of For-Profit Investment Tells Us About the Future of Giving

Gaps in philanthropic funding for era-defining science and discovery demand a new approach. In this piece, we look at how learning from venture capital is a game changer for catalytic philanthropy.

Philanthropy 2.0: What the Evolution of For-Profit Investment Tells Us About the Future of Giving

Gaps in philanthropic funding for era-defining science and discovery demand a new approach. In this piece, we look at how learning from venture capital is a game changer for catalytic philanthropy.

Charting AI’s Role in Scientific Discovery — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation

Renaissance Philanthropy, with support from Google.org , is conducting a landscape study of AI integration in scientific research — and we want your perspective.

Welcome to the Relational Design Lab | LX Cast | 19 comments

Today I am VERY excited to share with all of you about my new home, Relational Design Lab! This R&D studio brings together a number of projects and will, I hope, grow to encompass many more. I imagine this lab as a gathering place for curious people who want to think about systems, and not in the typical mechanistic way they are described and implemented in technology. Instead, we'll feel into living systems, fractal ways of being, where the how is as important as the what. Over time, I hope the Lab will be a home or a waypoint for designers, researchers, community organizations, artists, storytellers, and technologists to explore togetherness together. Our 'theory of change' focuses on paradigm shift. Big change takes practice and possibility. Paradoxically, paradigm shift is a result of many small changes and repetitions in our behaviour and belief systems. We embrace emergence, mutual support, collective practice, and storytelling. One thing feels pretty clear, we need technology that is designed in solidarity with mutual care, does not depend on the whims of big corporations or its surveillance, and is joyful to use. To live in this reality, we also need to consider how business, funding, governance, scale, and context affect our work. We need embodied ways of knowing and sharing knowledge alongside our technical reasoning. And we need to face the reality of the consequences of our actions and those of our ancestors. This is not a project that aims to solve all the world's problems, but instead, to nurture the capacity for doing things together. We support and practice responding with curiosity and care, not with answers or attachment to ideals that no longer make sense amid collapsing systems. We are not "hiring" for this project now but there are many ways to get involved and would welcome opportunities to collaborate. Some of the projects we're holding include Folk Tech, Spacious, SEED Founding, and Relational Source License. We're also developing a very cool workshop process to help other organizations explore relational design through a community-driven futurism process. As ecosystem supporters, we are developing relationships with many aligned groups and projects as well. There will be more communications coming! If this all sounds like something you would like to support, contribute to, keep track of, or develop relationship with, for now you can subscribe to our calendar here https://lnkd.in/gPRFW7zC and message me directly! | 19 comments on LinkedIn

Peopleware: productive projects and teams

Demarco and Lister demonstrate that the major issues of…