Metaphors and analogies are always somewhat dangerous: can the governance of a distributed system be compared to a system based on the hierarchical allocation of resources? Here is an old item from Joi Ito’s blog , by Vinay Gupta, one of the pioneers of the open design movement. I’m reposting it because it is an… Continue reading
Date archives "October 2007"
Is actics the new facebook?
My friend Adam Arviddson is very happy about the increasing uptake of the ethical tool Actics, which a Digg item says “will be as big as Facebook! A social network for individuals and companies to demonstrate and live up to their ethical values.” The original article by Peter Scholtus at Treehugger gives a good explanation… Continue reading
The “In Control” Open Healthcare experiment
Charles Leadbeater, the author of We Think, and Hilary Cottam, have written an essay, which is also the start of a research project on open healthcare by Demos, on a significant social care experiment in the UK, which puts patients in charge of their care, according to what we would call a Partner State model…. Continue reading
Political introduction to peer to peer
Robin Good has published an excellent, illustrated, version of an essay on the political implications of peer to peer theory. Part One is here. Part Two is here.
Are bloggers changing politics?
In These Times reviews a significant book by Matt Bai, The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, the author being the New York Times Magazine’s leading political journalist, ITT writes that Bai “has written an entertaining narrative that combines serious analysis with an often rollicking mix of humor and political gossip…. Continue reading
Swarming people to work
Joi Ito posted an interesting report on a new approach to engaging young japanese to go to work. “Last week I met Mr. Sunagawa from LocationValue Inc. that runs Otetsudai Networks. Otetsudai Networks is a very cool service that is one of these “perfect for Japan” things. Because of the advanced aging population and the… Continue reading
“Social Publishing” talks coming up
(Via Panarchy “Social Publishing” talks coming up | Panarchy.com) Fellow P2P Foundation blogger Paul Hartzog will be in the UK in November to talk about the exciting topic of Social Publishing Nov 14, de Montfort University, Leicester, U.K.; Institute of Creative Technologies IOCT Co-presenter: Richard Adler, Michigan State University “Social Publishing” This talk will focus… Continue reading
Peer production in the physical world: Book in print
Christian Siefkes’ book about peer production in the physical world, is now available in print through this order page. The book has 156 pages and costs 9.50 EUR; the shipping fee is just 2.50 EUR
Research Fest 4: Peer interaction amongst young consumers
At the University of Lund in Sweden we met researcher Jon Bertilsson, who is doing a detailed analysis of peer interaction on forums, specifically related to the interaction of young people with brands. The 20-page research paper can be downloaded here. Here is the abstract: “This paper deals with how young consumers learn the logic… Continue reading
What’s next for the Global Village movement?
Marcin Jakubowski’s Open Source Ecology project, which aims to create concretely existing physical Global Villages, but in the context of fully open global design communities, is taking more and more shape. Here below is Marcin’s vision for an organizational strategy. More info in his dedicated wiki: The focus of our Global Village Construction program is… Continue reading
Research fest 3: Complex Communication Networks
We asked Jonas Andersen, whom we met at Copenhagen’s Advice University to provide us with a summary of his Master’s Thesis on ‘Complex Communication Networks’ Common platform, common goal My approach to p2p dynamics is through communications and medium theory. This result in two levels of interest: 1) The physical level of media and distribution… Continue reading
What’s next for the Open Source Appropriate Technology movement?
At the very moment when venture capital is concluding that open source software is now simply the default option and proprietary software is no longer sustainable as an investment strategy, open source as a development strategy and commons-oriented framework is also fast moving in the field of ‘physical production’, particulary in the field of appropriate… Continue reading
Research fest 2: A framework for immaterial valuation
Francois Druel has done an in-depth investigation on how to evaluate immaterial resources as to their ‘value’. His PhD thesis on the topic is available here at http://homepage.mac.com/fdruel . He uses “use two axes : attractivity and perennity. To determine each axis a total of 18 criteria are used. For establishing the weight of each… Continue reading
P2P as new paradigm for communication professionals
A spinoff from a lecture in Copenhagen, at Advice University, this interview by Mikkel Holm Sørensen focuses on the impact of P2P for communication professionals: Mikkel Holm Sørensen (MHS): Thanks for taking time for this interview, Michel. Let’s start from the top. We are going to talk a lot about P2P processes, so please briefly… Continue reading
Couchsurfing emerging as a case study in company-community foul up
I have no time at present to research this in-depth. But it transpires that Couchsurfing is emerging as a case study on how a company attempts to mobilize volunteers but then botches up the relation with the community, offering them no real power of participation, considering them merely as free labor; or at least, this… Continue reading
Research fest 1: A framework for mass collaboration and stigmergy
Mark Elliot has finished his PhD research with flying colours, with a recommendation by Howard Rheingold that it ‘ought to be a book’. You can find various links with info and a download address here. Here’s a summary of the topic: “The core insight of the thesis is that mass collaboration (Wikipedia, open source software,… Continue reading