A diverse group of writers has released the first version of the “Definition of Free Cultural Works.” The authors have identified a minimum set of freedoms which they believe should be granted to all users of copyrighted materials. Created on a wiki with the feedback of Wikipedia users, open source hackers, artists, scientists, and lawyers…. Continue reading
Date archives "March 2007"
Overview of P2P technology
Here is a great summation of P2P technologies as opposed to P2P cultural phenomena which is what we mainly write about here. Most people know the word P2P from its technical definition. (reblogged from read – write web) “Written by Can Erten and edited by Richard MacManus. This is the first in a 2-part series… Continue reading
P2P Book of the Week, Excerpt 3: Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, by Allison Fine
We’re pleased to present the third and final excerpt from Momentum today, following Ms. Fine’s introduction on Monday, the first excerpt on Tuesday, and the second excerpt yesterday. Today, the author demonstrates the power of the synergy of Online & On-Land, of Meeting Up and Moving On, of taking it from cyberspace to the streets…. Continue reading
P2P Book of the Week, Excerpt 2: Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, by Allison Fine
We’re pleased to present the second excerpt from Momentum today, following Ms. Fine’s introduction on Monday and the first excerpt on Tuesday. Today, the author gives us a real-world example of how a small network came together to ignite social change. Free Schuylkill River Park!  The Free Schuylkill River Coalition used e-mail advocacy, blogs,… Continue reading
Adventures in Local Knowledge Production
Interview with Otto von Busch by Regine Debatty on his social art project, Roomservices. [This is a collaboration ]with Evren Uzer, an Istanbul-based urban planner and a PhD candidate, on roomservices, a series of practical research projects that explore urban and rural issues and transgress the borders between urbanity, social reorganization, design co-location, applied socio-geography… Continue reading
Actics, a way to measure the social impact of companies and organizations?
Most companies today are aware that a substantial share of their profits and market value will ultimately depend on the affective relations that they are able to construct among their stakeholders and the public at large. This is true also for non-profit organizations who will find that their ability to attract funding to a large… Continue reading
Peer to Peer Identity and OpenID
I stumbled upon a blogpost that just should be mentioned. Source: http://www.shadydentist.com/wordpress/archives/2007/03/26/changing-openids-metaphor-to-p2pid/ OpenID support announcements are everywhere. The Wikipedia is in, Microsoft is in, AOL is in, Digg is in, WordPress is in. OpenID is the best idea in ages but it has a problem. Nobody wants to trust somebody like Microsoft, AOL, Digg or even beloved… Continue reading
P2P Book of the Week, Excerpt 1: Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, by Allison Fine
Following Allison Fine’s introduction to her book yesterday, we’re pleased to present the first excerpt from the book here, in which she describes the power of networks today. Social Networks Networks are an ingrained part of our lives—so much so that we’ve almost stopped noticing how prevalent they are. Physical networks like electricity grids, facilitative networks… Continue reading
Experts vs. amateurs: what we can learn from Citizen Science
The dynamics between experts and amateurs is one of the big governance issues in peer production. If not done right, giving power to the experts can crowd out the amateurs, and kill the dynamic of the project. Adam Glenn, in a description of the Christmas Bird Count, shows how some citizen science projects have evolved… Continue reading
P2P Book of the Week, Introduction: Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, by Allison Fine
The following introduction to this work is from The Drum Beat, a weekly electronic publication exploring initiatives, ideas and trends in communication for development. In this piece, Allison Fine, author of “Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age” and Senior Fellow at Demos: A Network of Ideas and Action, considers the use of new… Continue reading
Philippe Aigrain: what are the conditions for the commons to thrive?
Philippe Aigrain, a regular guest contributor to that most excellent of blogs, On the Commons, has a key contribution, where he asks: what is needed, in terms of policy and social conditions, for the commons to thrive. He strongly links the emergence of the commons to the existence of the welfare state, and gives a… Continue reading
P2P Money Inquiry
At http://barcampbank.com, we’re trying an open research social media experiment, called an Organized Inquiry where we query many different online communities about a subject that is related to their interests (in this case, were asking questions related to the possible creation of an open source software tool for money pooling and revenue sharing). So here… Continue reading
Invitation to the Open Business Community
This is an invititation to anyone interested in creating new and non exploitative ways of doing business to contribute and use the Open Business Models WikiHive. Especially those interested in the development of RevenueSharingModels, and OpenSource software development for Open business applications. OpenBusinessModels (OBM) WikiHive is an Open Project initiated by Michigan, USA based Social… Continue reading
Danah Boyd on Narcissism
Danah Boyd has a very, very, interesting meditation on narcissism, the current millenial generation, and social networking sites such as MySpace. She introduces the concept of micro-fame to distinguish it from mass media celebrity culture. In one part, which we excerpt, she makes an overview of current narcissim research, but the entry then goes on… Continue reading
Guaranteed Income conference, Cambridge UK, April 28
You are invited to attend a one-day conference on the subject of “GUARANTEED INCOME: Theories and practices of workplace remuneration and resistance in the age of cognitive capitalism” If you wish to attend the conference, or wish to present a paper, please write to ed.emery [@] thefreeuniversity.net It will be held in the Palmerston Room… Continue reading
Video:Jean Baudrillard over Grand Theft Auto
This is kinda philosophical geek material. A video mashup, and a worthy epithet to the memory of a loved figure. Go in peace Jean Baudrillard.