This is a reply to Steve’s informative posting about the increasing digital divide. Michel Bauwens: Dear Steve: Â Thanks for this interesting contribution, which points to a major paradox in our times. That as the technical means for distribution of intellect, computers as means of production, and finances are lowering the access thresholds; our social… Continue reading
Date archives "April 2006"
Morality and Peer Production
In a recent posting, Tim O’Reilly refers to a contribution by Doc Searls about the various kinds of morality. Doc Searls recognizes the following three kinds of morality: – Morality of self-interest. This gives us “owning”, “domination”, etc. The Old School. Industrial Age shit. Still prevails in many business plans that are just for killing… Continue reading
Questions on virtuality and development?
We found the following set of questions on a site referring to the World Social Forum meeting in Karachi at the end of March. They are quite stimulating so I thought I should share them with you. If any reader of this blog wants to tackle them, or stimulate me in doing so to start… Continue reading
Steve Ediger on the Digital Divide
Steve Ediger, has posted a reaction to chapter seven of our manuscript, see for his contribution on the discussion page here. We copy it verbatim. “It is true that P2P has a more fundamental potential to make social change than it’s precursors of cooperation, barter, etc. However, there are some problems. We need to start… Continue reading
Purpose-driven media, quarternary economics, asymmetric competition
This entry is inspired by a presentation in Standblog on purpose-driven software projects, which in turn refers to Tim O’Reilly’s take on purpose-driven media, and the notion of asymmetric competition from Frank Hecker. The latter is a very interesting description of the nature of competition between a for-profit player Microsoft and a purpose-driven player, the… Continue reading
Liberal Communism, Zizek, and Dale Carrico’s Technoprogressivism
I am a big fan of Dale Carrico’s blog Amor Mundi, who has recently posted an extensive analysis of a essay by Zizek, deploring the new liberal communist ideology exemplified at Davos, and which claims that the market is compatible with widespread participatory practices. The Zizek essay is here, and Carrico’s analysis here. In my… Continue reading
A P2P News Aggregator on MyToday
I recently wrote an overview of the best blogs on peer to peer, the kind of sources that you should or could monitor to keep abreast of developments in this area. Some time ago, I was contacted by the founders of My Today, a neat service which allows you to read all your blogs on… Continue reading
First Thai Bloggers conference
Better late than never. Two weeks ago I attended a very stimulating conference of thai and ‘farang’ bloggers in Bangkok, Thailand. As I lost my own report on the event, which showed the vibrancy of many local initiatives, almost all aimed at making the world a better place, here’s a trio of resources: 1) a… Continue reading
Flash Tribes in a Flash Society
Matt Boggs of the always thought-provoking Digiblade blog has posted an interesting recap and commentary of the ideas of flash tribes, i.e. a society that is centered around the self-organizing of affinity groups, which organize life solidarity aided by the new generations of technology. This scenario, although in a less rosy context, was described by… Continue reading