How could I have missed this? There are still huge holes in the alerting services that I use!! I have long had a question: to what degree does the fact that free software programmers now get paid, change the internal dynamics of peer production? The following debate, taken from Linux Journal, effectively answers that question,while… Continue reading
Date archives "July 2008"
P2P and Disaster Preparedness
John Robb at Global Guerrillas says: “Our tightly interconnected global system is increasingly prone to large shocks from a variety of man-made and natural causes. These shocks can disrupt flows of energy, food, commerce, and communications to produce widespread wealth destruction (at best) and famine/death (at worst). The best way to mitigate these shocks is… Continue reading
New book: Abstract Activism
A nice complement to Christopher Kelty’s Two Bits. Together with Hacking Capitalism and Decoding Liberation, we now have four complementary books discussion the political implications of hacking strategies! Here’s the description of the intriguing Abstract Activism: “In recent years, designers, activists and businesspeople have started to navigate their social worlds on the basis of concepts… Continue reading
From user to producer: what’s the right conceptual framing?
A discussion on terminology by Doc Searls, who like George Lakoff, is well aware of the power of framing, inspired me to do a search on the concept of the user in our wiki. In this contribution, Doc proposes to shift our vocabulary from user-centered, which implies doing something for the user, to user-driven, but… Continue reading
Book of the Week: Christopher Kelty’s Two Bits
Better late than never, here’s a presentation and excerpts of the important book by Christopher Kelty which is a history and discussion of the cultural significance of free software. (Christopher Kelty. Two Bits. Duke University Press, 2008) You can buy and read the book here, and we recommend reading the conclusions on the ‘cultural significance… Continue reading
Local Agriculture: Growing locally given a helping hand in Bay Area
With the price of oil increasing each week and the realization that in Western nations, supermarkets due to the nature of efficient warehousing techniques and transportation (powered by petroleum) generally stock enough food only for 3 days before the need for replenishment, it’s good to see capacity being built at the local level. Is this… Continue reading
Starting our 2008 fundraising drive
Dear friends, Some of you may have noticed our donate button at the right hand side of this blog. We need you support to strengthen and sustain our activities. Here is a more formal appeal. If you read this, are willing to support us, please also forward it to 10 of your contacts, so that… Continue reading
Un-globalization and the prospects for the Chinese economy
In my presentations on open business models, when I mention the emergence and future potential of open design communities linked to more relocalized production facilities, I always present the hypothesis that, if on the one hand the information globalization will continue and is sensible, on the other hand, the worldwide transportation of far-away goods is… Continue reading
Is the internet empowering Chinese workers?
Intriguing story from a Taiwanese newspaper about the conditions in Southern China. Excerpt: “The factory closure last November was a scenario that has been repeated across southern China, where more than 1,000 shoe factories — about a fifth of the total — have closed down in the past year. The majority were in Houjie, a… Continue reading
Action Alert: European legislation threatens internet rights
Via the Open Rights Group: “Could Europe be drafting a new law to disconnect suspected filesharers from the internet? MEPs have already signalled their condemnation of this approach. But last-minute amendments to telecommunications legislation could bring the so-called “3 strikes” approach in by the backdoor. If you want your MEP to stick to their guns… Continue reading
We participate, therefore we learn
John Seely Brown describes the shift to social learning, then gives an example of its effects, in his essay Minds on Fire (via Bokardo) 1. The shift to social learning John Seely Brown: “The emphasis on social learning stands in sharp contrast to the traditional Cartesian view of knowledge and learning—a view that has largely… Continue reading
Mobile vs. Internet: what transcends what?
I have always felt uncomfortable with arguments like those of the Communities Dominate Brands blog, that argue that mobile is to the internet, as TV is to radio. I intuitively feel this is a wrong approach, without being able to argue it coherently so far. My first arguments would be that yes, mobiles are a… Continue reading
Mushin on the Emerging Spiritual Commons
From our Ning community discussion: Mushin: “Taking John Heron’s ideas into account I would think the purpose of Open Source Spirituality to be “to support an Emerging Spiritual Commons.” I moreover envision this ESC to be composed of people practicing their basic beliefs – what John Heron calls Code 1: basic beliefs and practices. The… Continue reading
Measuring mind assets – preliminary conclusions
I want to conclude, temporarily, the dialogue we had with Yihong-Ding. Not because the issue is exhausted, but because we have achieved a new clarity in exactly the issues that we converge, respectively diverge on. Yhong-Ding’s new contribution is here and is entirely recommended for deep reading, as it is somewhat complex. What it offers… Continue reading
Jeremy Rifkin on the Inter-Grid and the Inter-Net
Jeremy Rifkin is predicting a third industrial revolution that combines distributed power and distributed communication. Via Beppe Grillo’s blog, who has an extensive interview with Jeremy . Rifkin: “let me say that the great economic revolutions in history occur when humans change the way they organize the energy of the Earth – number one –… Continue reading
Mark Pesce: From hypermimesis to hyperpolitics – the future looks nothing like democracy
Mark Pesce has written another extraordinary lecture-essay. 1. Hypermimesis In the first part, he recalls the 3 key moments in the speeding up of human history. The birth of civilization after the invention of symbolic processing, the Gutenberg print revolution, and todays internet-enabled global Human Network. The latter, he argues, convincingly, collapses fifty thousand years… Continue reading