Here’s a beautiful summary of the “(free) culture wars”, from a writer at the Institute for the Future of the Book. It expresses the key cultural difference between an open and free culture, and the forces that constrain it. My own view is that we will still have different kind of institutions, providing an ecology… Continue reading
Date archives "January 2007"
Eben Moglen quotefest
A selection of quotes from Eben Moglen, chief counsel of the Free Software Foundation, selected by Idealog: On software for social change: “Infrastructure improvement has a tendency to improve matters for the poor more rapidly than other forms of economic development. … Software is creating roadways that bring people who have been far from the… Continue reading
Eben Moglen’s call to arms for the sharing economy: recommended podcast
A quote from this recommended podcast, which could quality as the motto for the P2P Foundation’s own aims: “If we know that what we are trying to accomplish is the spread of justice and social equality through the universalization of access to knowledge; If we know that what we are trying to do is build… Continue reading
Richard Stallman against the concept of intellectual property
I received a number of emails of Richard Stallman, related to the foundational essay on peer to peer that was published in CTheory last year. Most of his comments focused on possible confusion, mistakes on my part, on the precise differences and commonalities between free software and open source. He also vigorously challenged my use… Continue reading
High-tech Warfare
Planing for their future war on poverty and radicalism (according to a recent Navy Review paper,to be fought mainly in ‘feral cities’ – i.e. chaotic slum-dominated urban areas gone long beyond control), the Pentagon pursues its (slightly pre-adolescent) reliance on high tech solutions. Fly-sized micro surveillance vehicles, ‘smart’ grenades that turn on corners and soldiers… Continue reading
User-Generated Media difficult to commercialize.
News Corp’s and Google’s astronomic purchases of MySpace and Youtube might prove difficult to cash in on. User generated media naturally retains its own autonomy when it comes to content. If you censor it too hard, users will go somewhere else- an issue Google faces with IPR issues on MySpace. If you don’t censor, on… Continue reading
Four arguments for an open platform
In an article critical of the closure of the Apple iPhone, Marc Hedlund summarizes the arguments for open platforms, and gives concrete examples for each. “An open platform allows developers to implement functionality the platform provider hasn’t gotten around to yet. An open platform allows developers to reimplement and replace functionality the platform provider has… Continue reading
P2P interview at Open Business: the logic of distributed leadership
Michael Holloway conducted an interview with me for Open Business, a site which is becoming a major resource for anyone interested in the intersection of peer production and its sustainability through innovative business models. The interview covers various topics, I’m selecting the excerpts on distributed leadership. Excerpt: OB: How is the role of project manager… Continue reading
DanceLabs introduces P2P-dancing in Thailand
I recently received an enthusiastic New Year’s message from Chinarut, a passionate young man I had met at the Asia Commons conference in Bangkok. For the last five years, they have been promoting a participatory dance technique in the region. You can read about it here, or watch their video trailer here.
Chavez: on the way to a “value accounting” socialism?
I’m extremely intrigued by the following interview, part of a tradition, a renewal of the socialist tradition in terms of information and complexity economics, that I have not encountered so far. Read the full interview here. According to the interviewee, Heinz Dieterich , it is the background to the recent announcements by Chavez in Venezuela…. Continue reading
Open Knowledge conference in London, March 17
Open Knowledge 1.0: London, Saturday 17th March 2007 For background, see also our entry on Open Knowledge. Event home page: http://www.okfn.org/okforums/okcon/ Event wiki page: http://okfn.org/wiki/okcon/ What On Saturday the 17th March 2007 the first all-day Open Knowledge event is taking place at Limehouse Town Hall in London. Bringing together individuals and groups from across the… Continue reading
Using design as a guidepost
The notion of design is a simple, yet increasingly complex concept to grasp. An overarching question of design remains: what is the most effective manner by which user needs can be captures and how can they be made relevant as long as possible to recognised ‘users’? Some methods are distinct in capturing subjective realities: the… Continue reading
DRM – all or nothing?
The Business Week report ‘Music Fans: Dismantle DRM‘ reviews the current industry and consumer positions on Digital Rights Management (DRM) and the issues are far from resolved. Some DRM schemes appear to be having some success in a limited market (iTunes) yet there are others (eMusic and Amie Street) who are developing thriving music services… Continue reading
Recommended links for the week ending January 14
P2P Business and Economics The Hamlet Economy explained Doc Searls on the Zero Distance economy (podcast), Open source is where the action is in 2007, a review of 10 companies, Social shopping networks are emerging, writes Springwise, mentioning examples such as Crowdstorm and Stylehive, Bloggers are not making money by using Adsense, http://datamining.typepad.com/data_mining/2007/01/do_bloggers_rea.html P2P Media… Continue reading
Top 5 P2P Books of the Week
1) Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age by Alison H. Fine [From the book’s website:] How can we move from serving soup until our elbows ache to solving chronic social ills like hunger or homelessness? How can we break the disastrous cycle of low expectations that leads to chronic social failures? The answers… Continue reading
KRUU-FM: the open radio
Richard Poynder continues his amazing series of in-depth interviews on the emergence of an open and free culture, which we have also been indexing here. This time, he is writing about a new type of open radio station, Just below are some excerpts from the introduction to convey this important trend, but reading the whole… Continue reading