Projects

ASK-Solutions projects arise from philosophical, societal and technical questions. Research, experimental development, knowledge sharing and education take different forms within these projects, sometimes leading to practical applications and new ways of working.

The nature of the work varies from project to project. Research and development can lead to software, hardware, publications, educational materials, new ways of working or practical applications. These may in turn serve as a means of investigating questions, testing ideas or developing an approach further.

Some projects remain active and are being developed further, while others are not currently being pursued. The knowledge, methods and results of earlier projects remain part of the work and history of ASK-Solutions and may continue to be relevant in the future.

Below are the projects currently documented, listed in alphabetical order. The individual project pages provide more information about their background, activities and results, with links to publications, project websites, archives, documentation and downloads where available. The overview will be expanded as more projects and historical documentation become available.

A340GC, libGC and RDDP

not currently active free software and protocol development project

A340GC, libGC and RDDP form a closely related line of free-software development for glass cockpit displays and data exchange. A340GC provided the cockpit displays, libGC offered reusable graphics, audio and communication functionality, and RDDP enabled data exchange between software and interfaces. The components came together in the Cosmicus A340 simulator but were not limited to that application. Their modular design enabled further development and reuse with less dependence on any single simulator or proprietary protocol.

BFX and OpenBus

not currently active free hardware development project

BFX and OpenBus form a continuous line of free interface-hardware development for physical inputs and outputs. BFX emerged around the F.28 simulator as a replacement for earlier interface equipment. For the Cosmicus A340 project, the design evolved into OpenBus, with much smaller, distributed boards and a shared two-wire communication bus using RDDP, alongside two power wires. The hardware, firmware and documentation were not limited to one simulator, but intended to be studied, adapted and reused.

Read more about the BFX-and-OpenBus project…

BackPage

not currently active free software development project

BackPage was an early free software publishing system made available under the GNU GPLv2. It generated websites from structured source files using GNU tooling such as make, sed and awk, solving repeated navigation, layout and site-structure maintenance without depending on desktop web-authoring tools, special upload workflows or server-side publishing extensions.

Bookkeeping

ongoing free software development project

Bookkeeping is a free-software administration platform developed by ASK-Solutions for multiple entities, financial records, relations, projects, inventory and technical processes. Standard accounting packages did not readily offer the required combination of functions and integrations; bespoke ERP and CRM solutions were costly at the time and made further development dependent on suppliers. ASK-Solutions therefore designed an extensible Java client/server system with reporting, API integrations and automation, released under the AGPLv3.

Read more about the Bookkeeping project…

Bōzuki

ongoing experimental development project

Bōzuki is an ASK-Solutions project in which an older Suzuki Swift is being built and further developed in stages. Within the project, the car serves as a lasting demonstration object for practical ownership, design, fabrication, electronics, documentation and technical learning. Bōzuki shows how far safe and responsible modification can go, while sharing patterns, designs, software and knowledge where possible.

Cosmicus A340 Simulator

not currently active educational development project

The Cosmicus A340 simulator was an early educational and social project by ASK-Solutions with Stichting Cosmicus in Amsterdam, funded by the then Dutch Ministry of Education. Building a real flight simulator gave children from different backgrounds, including those with fewer opportunities, a shared goal they could be excited about. For ASK-Solutions, bringing the children together as a group was central: they got to know one another through their contributions. Investigating, designing, building and testing supported technical learning, cooperation and growing confidence.

FSLink

not currently active software development project

FSLink connected Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 to external hardware and software. Simulated Dynamics was an unregistered working name used in the early presentation of the software, but it was not a separate project and was not the name of the later foundation.

Guidance with Stichting Witte Tulp

not currently active educational development project

The guidance work carried out in collaboration with Stichting Witte Tulp combined mentoring and learning support with cultural confidence, history and science, safe internet access and computer infrastructure. Hüseyin used his own knowledge of and interest in subjects including the history of science, mathematics and Islamic civilisation to stimulate interest and motivation. This substantive approach made the project more than ordinary homework support and later partly took on a distinct form within IslamicScience.

Read more about the Witte-Tulp project…

IslamicScience

not currently active research and educational project

IslamicScience was an ASK-Solutions research and educational project on science, engineering and knowledge transmission in and around Islamic civilisation. It compared historical writings, translations and technical accounts with later histories in which earlier contributions were sometimes omitted or attributed differently. The research covered mathematics, medicine, cartography and mechanics, with attention to conflicting sources, dating and the origins of discoveries. Findings informed publications and educational material.

Read more about the IslamicScience project…

Nocterra

current free software development project

Nocterra is a general-purpose free-software CMS for developing, publishing and maintaining websites over the long term. It supports pages, resources and flexibly structured publications without prescribing application-specific content types or presentation. Performance and efficient use of computing, networks and hardware, accessibility in a broad sense, and multilingual publishing with regional and script variants are central design concerns. Its source-based model supports privacy, portability and site-owner control.

Repair and Ownership

ongoing research project

Repair and Ownership is an ongoing ASK-Solutions research project examining the practical meaning of ownership and the control people retain over products and digital systems. It investigates how technical architectures, documentation, interoperability, contracts, licences and legislation affect use, maintenance, repair, modification and continued accessibility. The later emergence of the Right to Repair movement brought wider attention to some of these broader research questions.

Read more about the Repair-and-Ownership project…

Synergos

not currently active free software development project

Synergos emerged from BackPage as a separate project and deliberately adopted a different architecture: a free-software, web-administered publishing and catalogue system with an SQL-backed structure, WYSIWYG editing, products, ordering and payment handling. The first releases were published under the GPLv2 and later releases under the GPLv3. Experience gained from developing and maintaining Synergos later became part of the lessons carried into the separate Nocterra project.

The Owl’s Nest

ongoing research, development and educational project

The Owl’s Nest is an ASK-Solutions research, development and educational project centred on a shareable model for practical learning, cooperation and knowledge transfer. It explores how knowledge and ways of working can be shared and safeguarded beyond the scope of copyright, how activities and environments relate to learning and participation, and how encounters give rise to wider social questions. The Howard Public Licence supports the model’s continuity and transferability, allowing independent operators to apply and develop it locally.

Read more about the The-Owl’s-Nest project…

Visit the The-Owl’s-Nest website…

WasteBug

ongoing, free software development project

WasteBug is a minimalistic free-software developer-oriented bug tracker originally written by Pihlaja Voipio in 2004. ASK-Solutions uses and preserves WasteBug for Nocterra, Bookkeeping, systems administration and other internal work, and documents the recovered original source code, the restoration of lost parts of later extensions, and features such as MySQL support, Task Units and WasteTime.

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