Kevin Carson is continuing his work on Organization theory , and has published added drafts and excerpts for chapter 13 and 15. I have always liked Kevin’s work because, though it is libertarian and in his own words, ‘free market fundamentalist’, his brand of mutualism is not based on a justification of the exploitation of… Continue reading
Date archives "May 2008"
Are higher transportation costs reversing globalization?
Michel Bauwens recently sent this link in an email to the p2plist: http://research.cibcwm.com /economic_public/download /feature1.pdf Along with the question: “Are higher transportation costs reversing globalization?” My own answer: Globalization was never a self-sustaining system to begin with. Globalization began in part (after WWII) precisely because local systems were too efficient for market mass producers. They… Continue reading
What happens next after the great neoliberal unraveling?
Do you also have the impression that we are witnessing the great unraveling of the neoliberal period, and that we are entering a period that is akin to the long crisis period that came after the Great Depression in the 20’s and 30’s of the last century? If this would be true, then a further… Continue reading
Bits and Pieces from the Idea Predators (part 1)
I am suggesting a new series in this blog, describing Anti P2P Practises in various industries, exploiting users ideas, times and efforts in ways that are clearly immoral, while taken for granted and legal by their promotors. To begin with, I found a little note on a site of a commercial software company (The Omni… Continue reading
Video: Open Source Ecology Project
“Interview by Vinay Gupta for the first of the Global Swadeshi Dialogues weekly interview series. This interview is perhaps the most clear description to date of the essence of our experiments with Open Source Ecology, and its implementation lab – Factor e Farm. If you can bear the 54 minutes of time, this will definitely… Continue reading
Some ethical concers regarding Google searches and subsequent email advertisement
Something strange happened to me today, and I wonder if any of you can explain to me how this could possibly happen. Yesterday, I undertook a google search on the topic of summer camps in Italy, for a friend of mine in Italy. I did not contact any of the people behind the pages I… Continue reading
Video: Evolving the network: Politics, Culture and Consciousness
“On March 28, 2008 Reality Sandwich/Evolver sponsored a panel discussion on the capacity of digital technology to transform our reality. As moderator Ken Jordan put it, “What’s going to emerge from this digital soup?” The panelists were Laura Dawn, cultural director of MoveOn; Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, musician, writer, and filmmaker; Daniel Pinchbeck,… Continue reading
Objects with consciousness are necessary to the survival of our planet
One of the great insights of science fiction author Bruce Sterling, is how intelligent objects, i.e. that know and can telll you where they come from, are necessary to create a world of zero waste. Before presenting that argument, a recap of the vocabulary of the P2P-Objects, and a summary history of their evolution. This… Continue reading
Hierarchy and peer to peer – a recap
(note: also proposed as a discussion on our Ning network site) Though there are many kinds of networks , they all seem to have a hierarchy This seems to be the logical conclusion from recent research reported in Nature We quote: “researchers at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) have shown that it’s possible to extract… Continue reading
On the primacy of intersubjectivity
(note: I rediscovered this in our archive, it was mistakenly labeled private and does never saw the light of day, back in 2006) Some interesting quotes to think through, selected from this essay by Evan Thompson: “When we consider ourselves, taking what is usually called a first-person perspective, just what do we see ? We… Continue reading
The business case for a User Data Commons
When I was with Robin Good in Rome last week, one of the items we discussed was Data Portability, and his certainty that it was inevitable. It made me think that one of the key principles of the peer to peer economy will be that value will not be derived from proprietary intellectual property, but… Continue reading
Ethan Zuckerman on Homophily, Serendipity, and Xenophilia
From an extensive blog discussion by Ethan Zuckerman, this touches a key problematic of the internet, how to avoid that “like seeks like” and therefore shows no interest in the other, even though he is more present on the internet than he/she was ever before. Finding out alternative voices has turned from a problem of… Continue reading
Your email belongs to Facebook
From an interesting thoughtpiece from Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0, where he compares strengths and weaknesses of Google vs. Facebook, the latter interpreted as a closed environment. Here’s a review (direct quote) of the main arguments, with the scary part being what you sign away using Facebook: Scott Karp: * Google is a gateway to… Continue reading
B.J. Fogg on Mass Interpersonal Persuasion and the end of marketing
Those of you who have attented my p2p lectures, will have heard one of my key arguments about the political/social importance of the internet as an enabling technology, which allows the global scaling of small group dynamics. This notion is akin to the concept used by Stanford professor BJ Fogg, recently featured in Fast Company,… Continue reading
A P2P Object Infrastructure in our own hands? The QR code
Via Weblogky. Sounds important for its potential. John Lebkowsky: “The QR Code is a the next-generation bar code, already popping up here and there. Says Rob Walker in his NY Times Consumed column, The traditional bar code is most familiar as the Universal Product Code on practically every packaged good we buy. The series of… Continue reading
The future of the web: semantic, or just structured?
Michael K. Bergmann has written a very useful technological history of the web, which also presents a thoroughly argued vision of the future. If you are like me and think the vision of a fully semantic web is premature, then this vision of an intermediary state called the Structured Web will resonate. It’s a more… Continue reading