ryanwold.net

A civic-minded citizen seeking the singularity

Back to Entries

Augmented Citizen

release
Date: 2015-02-11
Tags: opengov civic tech

Tim O'Reilly mentioned an augmented citizen. I think the concept is quite inspirational.

According to Wikipedia, Augmentation means:

the action or process of making or becoming greater in size or amount

When I think about augmentation for a citizen, I think about making the amount of usable information greater. I think about making the ease of interaction greater. I think about increasing each citizen's capacity for change.


O'Reilly, in http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/tim-oreilly-explains-the-internet-of-things, states "The IoT is really about human augmentation." I began to think about augmentation for my role as a Citizen. My role to my family and friends, my neighbors and neighborhood, my city, county, state, and country - those I love. Immersed in a civic fabric,  I'm specifically interested in how to leverage one's impact in the real-world. See Public infrastructure. What is the timeline and budget of this public works project? What are the filed blueprints for the building being built downtown? Who is the contractor that is remodeling the public park? When is street cleaning? In a most general way, all objects in the universe have metadata. Each object has at least a place and a time, and most likely, a whole other set of attributes. I won't get into here, but these are Object-Oriented concepts. Things have Attributes and Behaviors. People are Things too, and they interact with other Things.

Overall, lots of augmentation is already possible. It is just not packaged in a mass-consumable form yet.

By Ryan Wold · © 2015–2026 Ryan Wold

Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0. AI training requires a license — machine-readable terms.

Enjoyed this? — any BSV wallet, HandCash, or plain old dollars.

Leave a tip

Tips go directly to a Bitcoin SV address I control — peer to peer, no platform in between. A few thousand satoshis is a fraction of a cent; it's the gesture that counts.

From any BSV wallet

Scan the QR code with your wallet's camera, or copy the address.

177DwUfSTW8RkFBJzYYcgr1YB8ngbhTYAc

With HandCash or any paymail wallet

Paymail is an email-style address for Bitcoin wallets. Send any amount to afomi@handcash.io

First time using Bitcoin? Yours Wallet is an open-source browser extension wallet, and HandCash is an easy mobile wallet — either takes a minute to set up.

Prefer regular money? Support via OpenCollective.