Date archives "April 2008"

“Philanthrocapitalism”: An oxymoron with promise?

Writer Micheal Edwards’ recent book http://www.justanotheremperor.org/ takes a critical look at the hype surrounded the emerging phenomenon that some are calling “philanthrocapitalism”: using business and market systems to affect social change. The main criticism from Edwards can be summed up in his opendemocracy.net article: “My worry is that the hype surrounding philanthrocapitalism will divert attention… Continue reading

Video: Matt Mason on the ‘pirate’s dilemna’

“Matt Mason’s keynote on The Pirate’s Dilemma, his book on how to compete with piracy, filmed at The Medici Summit, March 3rd 2008, Scottsdale, Arizona. Mason discusses why piracy can be an opportunity as well as a threat, how pirates innovate outside of the marketplace and how legitimate businesses can respond. Using examples from music,… Continue reading

Clay Shirky on the cognitive surplus that drives the emergence of participation

We’ve never even talked about Clay Shirky’s landmark book Here Comes Everybody. I guess the reason is that it was already so present everywhere, that I did not feel it needed added backup from our own limited means. Nevertheless, it is of course a hugely important book. To give you an idea, here Clay introduces… Continue reading

Does peer production hamper the monetary economy?

Does peer production hamper the monetary economy? With Adam Arvidsson, I have been developing the concept of a crisis of value that will increasingly affect the workings of the current money-based system. The way I interpret this trend, is that while peer production causes the creation of use value to grow exponentially, only a part… Continue reading

Open Festival: Let’s the audience determine the details of a music festival in Scotland

“Last week Tennent’s Lager launched Tennent’s Mutual, a new music venture that will ultimately result in a live music festival this fall, in which fans select artists, debate locations for gigs and call the shots on ticket prices. To kick off the effort, Tennent’s created a start-up fund of GBP 150,000. Fans who sign up… Continue reading

The mutual interdependency of Business and the Commons

David Wiley, who just founded the open textbook company Flat World Knowledge, and is known as an open education activist, comments and quotes from an article on philanthrocapitalism by Mark Surman. He quotes the following factoids: “Who are the top funders of Wikipedia? Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla and Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite. Who funds… Continue reading