Via the Young Green mailing list: “The European Parliament adopted in first reading yesterday, the 24th of September, the Telecom Package – a group of measures meant to update the Telecommunications Framework Directive. This new packet aims to create a single EU Telecom Market which is supposed to reinforce the rights of telecommunications consumers in… Continue reading
Date archives "September 2008"
The Silent Dance Flash Mob Experiments
Via Digital Natives: “silent dance party involves a large group of people assembling at a given area on a pre-decided time. They mill around inconspicuously, and at the signal (in this case, an airhorn), insert their headphones into their ears, hit play on their portable music player and start dancing as passersbys confusingly look on… Continue reading
Florian Samson: Abusing Open Licenses, a typology
This text is licensed under “Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0)” license. Florian v. Samson here offers a typology of corporate behaviours regarding open licenses, that are not outright abuse, but use liberal and broad interpretations of their possibilities. Florian Samson: “F/OSS-licenses (conforming to the almost equivalent definitions by the Free Software Foundation… Continue reading
A five step strategy to a new kind of business
Umair Haque wants to change business from the inside out, by changing its very DNA, through a kind of moral re-armement based on the recovery of meaning. He rarely said it better than here. Below a liberal selection of the best quotable material, the subtitles are mine. Umair Haque: 1. The crisis is systemic “The… Continue reading
Open sourcing design is crucial for future of the world
When intellectual problems become distributed, the search for solutions becomes collaborative and the research agenda is driven not by multinational shareholders but by the passions of the participants, you get not just better results, you get different results. Though written in 2003, this extended and recently republished editorial is worth reading in full, and is… Continue reading
A strategic drawing board for peer production
A very interesting initiative by Stefan Merten, who has decided to put together a set of questions regarding the present and future of peer production. Here as an introduction is his introduction/motivation. The Drawing Board is here. Stefan Merten: “Since 1999 starting with Free Software the Oekonux project is analyzing the existing phenomenon of peer… Continue reading
Peer production is hyperproductive in politics as well
The usual: light-footed, distributed, collaborative openness beats leaden, monolithic and closed anyday. – Glyn Moody Spotted by Glyn Moody, in an interview by Cory Doctorow, this shows the hyperproductive nature of the peer production of politics: Cory Doctorow: “One of the truly subversive and amazing things the NGOs did is that we set up open… Continue reading
What to think of the bail-outs?
Bush and Paulsen have indicated that they are not interested in a “punitive” bailout. But there is absolutely no choice about that. A trillion dollars is real money, and shoveling it around involves real pain. The question is who is punished, not whether somebody is punished. Will everyday taxpayers who were already screwed by all… Continue reading
Douglas Rushkoff on the two kinds of money
Douglas is guest-blogger at Boing Boing. In his take on the current crisis, he distinguishes two kinds of money, and traces the historical origin of our current system in the Renaissance. What he writes entirely fits with the research I have read from a manuscript of Benard Lietaer. We also quote Douglas’ conclusion, which is… Continue reading
Narrow decision making by capital markets need to be replaced by open and distributed decision making
Absolutely brilliant analysis of the current financial crisis by John Robb. In a nutshell: we replaced centralized decision-making with an extremely narrow form of decentralized decision-making by capital markets, instead of distributing to open decision making involving the broader mass of citizens. This had lead to disastrous choices culminating in the current meltdown. Read the… Continue reading
Does Prana travel the wires? Sarah Palin and the cellphones
According to Sarah Palin’s church, it does through cell phones (check minutes 4:30 and after on the video) I strongly recommend you watch this censored YouTube video, about the nature of Sarah Palin’s Assemblies of God and their seriously theocratic undertone. Sarah Palin’s Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.
Douglas Rushkoff: the real vs. the speculative economy
Not sure I share Douglas optimism that the speculative economy’s meltdown won’t hurt the real economy, but nevertheless a very interesting editorial: “there’s a real economy, and a speculative economy. While they are usually related to each other – even dependent on each other – that relationship changed over the past twenty years. Really since… Continue reading
Stefan Merten’s critique of Siefkes’ Peer Economy concept (2)
We continue the presentation and critique by Stefan Merten of Christian Siefkes proposals and book on the Peer Economy. See for the full article here. Stefan Merten: Issue 2: What is Missing Means of production: Missing After the first two chapters there is one thing missing: means of production. Ok, that is not completely true…. Continue reading
Skype is a closed calling network that refuses peering
Open Letter by Michael Robertson, the founder of SipPhone/GizmoProject to Skype. For more context, see the original explanation at VOIP Watch. Michael Robertson: “I recently saw your letter to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin demanding that wireless companies open their networks. While I concur this would be beneficial for consumers, Skype’s actions do not mirror… Continue reading
The myth of the digital natives
Youth are not as “digital” as we might wish to pretend!! Very important argument by SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN for the Chronicle Review: “As a professor, I am in the constant company of 18- to-23-year-olds. I have taught at both public and private universities, and I have to report that the levels of comfort with, understanding of,… Continue reading
Thomas Greco on the end of the Political Money Regime
Thomas Greco is an advocate of the Credit Commons. Here’s his take on the current financial meltdown. Thomas Greco: “The present disorder in the financial markets and the cascading failures of financial institutions come as no surprise. Those who recognize the impossibility of perpetual exponential growth and who understand how compound interest is built into… Continue reading