If we were to summarize the political goals of the P2P Foundation it would be fairly easy to pin them down by saying the following: – What we need to achieve a sustainable world, not a perfect one or an utopian one, is to reverse the current combination of pseudo-abundance in the natural world (i.e…. Continue reading
Date archives "May 2007"
Support Korean request for defense of free culture
We received the following message from South Korea, where the new proposed Free Trade agreement with the U.S. would represent an unprecedented assault against social innovation and free culture. Sent by Kim Jeong Woo of the Korean Progressive Network ‘Jinbonet‘ Email at [email protected] Announcement: The full text of Korea US FTA was openned, last Friday…. Continue reading
Podcast: Preparing for reboot, Michel Bauwens talks with Nicole Simons
As 2007 installment of Reboot comes to fruition this year, we find Nicole Simon interviewing participants including Bauwens on his ideas. Check out other podcasts on her blog, Cruel to be Kind, including Stowe Boyd and Thomas Madsen_Mygdal (founder of reboot).
The short term and long term effects of political transparency
U.S. civil society organizations are creating powerful tools that inject transparency in the political system. The New York Times Circuits columns gives the example of two websites that dramatically illustrate the connection between money and voting in the U.S. political system. It is to early to say what political effects such information will have, but… Continue reading
Lifelogging explained to the older generation
If you are like me, in your late forties, or up and down in that neighbourhood, some of the new behaviours of younger people might be puzzling. I must admit for example, that even live chatting is not natural or preferred for me. Another puzzling thing is the total openness of quite a few in… Continue reading
Open business developments update
Open Business continues to produce remarkable work investigating the ongoing developments of open business models, under the leadership of Christian Ahlert. Recently, we came across the following: – Interview with the founder of Freebase, a project to have a Wikipedia for data, which Tim O’Reilly calls “huge” in its implications. See URL = http://www.openbusiness.cc/2007/05/23/wikipedia-for-data-freebase/ –… Continue reading
What comes after ideology?
I often try to characterize my attempts at a P2P Theory (a theory which can explain the emergence of the p2p relational dynamic and practically ‘advance’ it as well), as being post-ideological. I was prompted to think again about this aspect, after an email dialogue with Vasilis Kostakis, who is working on a Laser Theory… Continue reading
The vision behind the Ponoko personal manufacturing platform
We discussed and presented Ponoko before, but here is a presentation sent to us by one of the founders, Derek Elley: About us Ponoko is the world’s first personal manufacturing platform where anyone can click to make, buy and sell digital products. The brainchild of software entrepreneurs Dave ten Have and Derek Elley, Ponoko was… Continue reading
Virtual Financial Markets soon to be real
Francois Rey has sent us the following commentary concerning this news item. Francois Rey: Anshe Chung Studios, one of the most prominent virtual business, “is preparing to launch a virtual financial market, financial products and a set of services that are going to, for the first time, allow direct capital flow and investment across virtual… Continue reading
Networked Proximity
Ulises Ali Mejias, a researcher who works on p2p-relationality issues, has released his report on Networked Proximity. Abstract Networked Proximity: ICTs and the Mediation of Nearness The network as a map of interconnected elements or nodes has become a favored metaphor for describing a wide variety of social systems in our age. But the network… Continue reading
Video: Ray Anderson on sustainability
Ray Anderson discusses corporate responsibility and the environment. Extract from The Corporation – 2004. “This is a most moving video with Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, explaining his realization that his company was plundering and destroying the earth, and committing himself to zero harm by 2020.”
Open access to the democratic process: the Open House project
The Open House project in the U.S. is a bipartisan effort that formulated 10 proposals to insure that the delibative and legislative processes of the U.S. Congress are open and transparent and open to all. They are formulated am executive summary of their report available in pdf format, and you can also watch the following… Continue reading
New Index to P2P Videos
Our index to nearly 400 videos and webcasts on P2P themes was getting unwieldy, so we spent a few hours indexing it. You can now access the videos through 4 main thematic portals: – P2P Business and Economics – P2P Media and Culture – P2P Internet Technology – P2P Politics
Finally: a multiperspectival textbook on economics
I spent regular time thinking about epistemological issues, i.e. how do we know what we know, and how is that process of knowledge production and validation, changing at the present juncture. My view is that hierarchical ways of knowing (hierarchical knowledge tree, power pyramids, after having been replaced by decentralized modes (facetted databases, group negotiation… Continue reading
How to reform the public sector?
Dave Pollard continues his reflections on democratic governance, and here discusses ways to reform the public sector. Dave Pollard: “I want to explain what many governments are doing to try to make themselves more efficient. They are dismantling (slowly) large departments and replacing them with a combination of three types of small, semi-autonomous public organizations:… Continue reading
The next Buddha will be a collective, part two
Yesterday’s contribution by Mushin was based on an earlier contribution by Helen in her Zaadz blog (a platform I normally dislike because of its explicit endorsement of capitalism) and I would like to reproduce some significant excerpts of her thoughts on the matter above. After describing the emergence of pattern cohorts, affinity groups working around… Continue reading