BeeHive - a flexible platform for connecting different sensors and actuators by @amchagas and Ihor Sobianin

https://kitspace.org/BeeHive-org/BeeHive

🎇Happy New Year folks!
👀Check out PhyloPic, an open database of freely reusable silhouettes of life forms. It is totally worth checking these beautiful and realistic images ranging from 🍄and 🍁, to 🐒 and🦋.
By T. Michael Keesey
🔗Link: https://open-neuroscience.com/en/post/phylopic/
#OpenScience #Science

@pkraus
Interesting, but seems there is an underlying different problem in your scenario, which is no funding. Here, we might be forking over millions to one provider and everything is concentrated there. If tomorrow Microsoft decides they will jack up prices, we are screwed. If their servers go down (as they have in the past) we are screwed, if we want to export things out, no dice. Etc.

Other than that, we are so clever over here that we have redundancies in cloud providers, with money being spent on box, gdrive and OneDrive...

Another point is that the world runs on open software. So it is not possible that universities cannot crack this "out incredible complex, never faced before problem"
I am all up for hiring companies to provide services, but if possible it would be great if said companies were not profiteering and providing services that are fit for purpose.

@MayInToronto
Uffs sounds terrible 😔 specially because here in Sussex we are getting "the worst of both worlds" for some reason we have access to OneDrive, Googledrive and box.. who knows how much this costs...

@drmikepj
Do you happen to know if there are laws/rules against "signing bonuses" if a company closes a contract with another one? As in, is there anything preventing shady practices that would benefit individuals if they tip the scale for their company to sign services from a specific company?

@drmikepj
Geez! We have just migrated over to even have our phone system be delivered via VoIP from Microsoft. Shouldn't there be something on the procurement of universities that prevents them from engaging with such providers?!?

@drmikepj thanks for the reply. that sounds very ... illegal? (or should be anyway, in economies and societies that claim to be under a free market?)

Does anyone have a good explanation on why so many #universities in the #uk use Microsoft as their "everything" solution? Email, office software, instant communication, phone, video calls, cloud storage... And more interestingly what is the average cost per university community member?

#academia

@aleabdo
Interesting!
Any chance you might know, or might know someone/some resource that explains why the move and if money saving has been one of the considerations? I'll look for the documents talking about the move on German municipality...

Hivemind! Some random questions for which I would appreciate links/pointers/study cases and books:

1-any examples of large corp/cooperatives/groups that rely on #opensoftware for things like #cloud services, #email, instant messaging and video conferences?

2-based on 1 any place with numbers on if they save money with that and the gains they get from other advantages of using #opensource?

Thanks a bunch!

@leouieda
Obrigado. Legal saber que tem um RN no BR também, vou entrar em contato!

Colegas da #cienciabr! Como estão os movimentos de #cienciaaberta no Brasil? Mais especificamente, quem tá trabalhando com #hardwareaberto? Me dei conta que to perdendo de não saber!
Agradeço boosts!

#openscience #openhardware

@kate
Sorry to hear it is happening close to you too! And thanks for sharing. It always surprises me that universities have the higher concentrations of PhD per square meter but use the same old formulas for everything..
@bright_helpings

@tomstafford
Thanks! It is well put, but as you say.... Not comforting... But then again, sometimes what we need is not comfort.. I don't know. What a week..

PubPeer has received the 2024 Einstein Foundation Award. This recognition celebrates the contributions of our community to scientific discourse. https://award.einsteinfoundation.de/award-winners-finalists/recipients-2024/pubpeer

This award provides a financial boost that we’re reinvesting back into the platform and its users. See below:

@Research_FTW
Uffs. Management. Is it mandatory for them to be terrible everywhere?

Oh my gourd, it’s a plant that spits its own seeds! Squirting cucumbers (related to zucchini and pumpkins) are small, green and hairy, and when they’re ripe you’d better stand back—liquid builds up inside and then launches out in a powerful jet.

In my latest for CNN, I talked to scientists about using high-speed video and mathematical models to understand how the mechanics of the cucumbers’ squirting helps them spread their seeds farther.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/26/science/squirting-cucumber-seeds/index.html

#science

@Research_FTW
Sorry to hear this!
Seems you are 6 months in the future in relation to what we will go through.. was there anything you wish people had done collectively to try to at least make this less bad?

so, we were just hit with news on the new "voluntary leave programme" at the University of Sussex, due to the shitshow that is core funding for #highereducation in the #uk and a big drop in student n#

Past being angry, I would like to know if there are other Unis in the same situation and if people are already past the shock and thinking about what to do to navigate this?

How will the "remainers" (seems we use this term too much in this country) cope with the extra workload, and how due we prevent a downward spiral of "needs for cut -> less people to work -> worst student experience -> less matriculation -> more need for cuts, etc"

Hit me up if you would like to vent, chat, organise, and find pathways to cope...

#ledbydonkeys #academia

@jim
Thanks!