Date archives "March 2008"

The Internet and its hierarchy of needs

Kaila Colbin of the VortexDNA blog has a great series on the evolution of the internet, inspired by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. It starts here and then goes through the five stages separately. Here’s a summary of the main points of the series: “The concept behind a hierarchy of needs is simple: each… Continue reading

Top 5 P2P Books of the Month

1) Web Search: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, by Amanda Spink (Editor), Michael Zimmer (Editor) [via michaelzimmer.org] Web search engines are not just indispensable tools for finding and accessing information online, but have become a defining component of the human condition and can be conceptualized as a complex behavior embedded within an individual’s everyday social, cultural, political, and… Continue reading

Documenting the history of fan communities

As Henry Jenkins shows in his strongly recommended essay on the Moral Economy of Web 2.0, fan communities were amongst the earliest examples of the trend towards participatory or user-generated content, exemplifying many of the contradictions between co-creation and hyper-exploitation. The history of these fan movements are now being documented in a new project, i.e…. Continue reading

Mark Surman proposes a new political compass uniting pirates and communautarians

Mark Surman has an interesting blogpost reviewing various attempts to broaden the left/right divide with the new open paradigm. After a review of the other alternative attempts, he comes up with his own, which is pictured above. He concludes that: “We need both halves of open. And, while each group needs to insist on doing… Continue reading

Distinguishing groups, networks and collectives

Terry Anderson introduces some key distinctions in collective p2p dynamics. It’s part of an essay on networked modes of learning. Terry Anderson: “the model illustrates three levels of aggregation of learners in either formal or informal learning. The most familiar level is the group. Groups are cohesive and often have formal lines of authority and… Continue reading

Explaining Subtle Activism

Can the power of our collective prayers and intentions help to facilitate social healing and global transformation? David Nicol explains the rational behind the Gaiafield Project that we mentioned yesterday: “Conventional approaches to activism, embedded in the dominant modern paradigm of materialism, tend to promote direct engagement in the overt structures of the political arena… Continue reading

Wikiworld: Political Economy and the Promise of Participatory Media

Colleague, researcher, and great guy Tere Vadén (with Juha Suoranta) have new work available: WIKIWORLD Political Economy and the Promise of Participatory Media Juha Suoranta & Tere Vadén University of Tampere, Finland In the digital world of learning there is a progressive transformation from the institutionalized and individualized forms of learning to open learning and… Continue reading

Lawrence Wollersheim on Open Sourcing Spirituality (5): Values and Principles 3

Lawrence continues his inquiry into the values and principles needed as a foundation for an integrative and participatory spirituality. This concludes our presentation, which however does not exhaust the more rich insights all available if you read the full document here. 11.) On Organization and Distribution Humanity’s vast knowledge base of spiritual wisdom will be… Continue reading

Lawrence Wollersheim on Open Sourcing Spirituality (4): Values and Principles 2

Lawrence continues his inquiry into the fundamental principles for a participative spirituality: 6.) On the Questioning of Faith Beliefs and Practices We have come to a new point in humanity’s spiritual history where if individuals or religious organization’s assert to another that their own faith beliefs or practices should be believed or followed as fact… Continue reading