Author: Luis Villa

  • Maybe "Open Source" Cars Aren't So Crazy After All

    I wrote last week about the case for open source car software and, lo and behold, BMW might be pushing forward with the idea- albeit not in self-driving cars quite yet. 😉 Tangentially, I put “open source” in scare quotes because the car scenario highlights a new but important split in the open source and…

  • Hot Custom Car (software?)

    I’ve found Tim’s bits on life post-driving interesting. I’ve sometimes got a one-track mind, though- so what I really want to know is if I’ll be able to hack on that self-driving car. I mentioned this to Tim, and he said he wasn’t sure either- so here is my crack at it. We’re not very…

  • Cloud(s), Hype, and Freedom

    Richard Stallman’s recent description of ‘the cloud’ as ‘hype’ and a ‘trap’ seems to have stirred up a lot of commentary, but not a lot of clear discussion of the problems Stallman raised. This isn’t surprising- the term ‘the cloud’ has always been vague. (It was hard to resist saying ‘cloudy.’ 😉 When people say…

  • Political Information Overload and the New Filtering

    [We’re pleased to introduce Luis Villa as a guest blogger. Luis is a law student at Columbia Law School, focusing on law and technology, including intellectual property, telecommunications, privacy, and e-commerce. Outside of class he serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Science and Technology Law Review. Before law school, Luis did great work on open source…