Worth a special mention, and I will attend. Via Sasi Kumar: “The Kerala State IT Mission, Society for Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) and Free Software Foundation of India are organising the Free Software Free Society Conference, 2008, at Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) during December 9-11 2008. This conference can be seen to be located at the… Continue reading
Date archives "September 2008"
Cap and share’s basic income also cautiously endorsed by Obama
Via the Basic Income network’s newsletter: USBIG reports that a new movement has sprung up recently in the US that links limits on CO2 emissions with a small basic income. “Peter Barnes, Senior Fellow of “On the Commons”, is promoting the “cap and dividend”, which is basically a resource dividend applied to CO2 emissions. Under… Continue reading
Free Online Course on Connectivism starts September 8
Via George Siemens: “We are offering an open online course on Connectivism. The course begins on Monday and is freely available to anyone with an interest in learning more about the topic. You can sign up for free here. The course outline is also available. And, for a bit more information, I’ve put together a… Continue reading
Value Evaluation of Innovations in the Sharing Era
Research paper: Value Evaluation of Innovations in the Sharing Era : towards a model proposal. By François Druel, Henri Samier, Simon Richir. (request copy from f.druel at pi-lab.net) In the above draft paper, the authors claim that “the value created by online electronic communities can be evaluated: and, if it is the case,” They claim:… Continue reading
Open source, innovation, and legacy infrastructure
Last week we referenced the argument that open source may only be optimal for modular systems, and not for wholistic, systemic, integral innovation (where the parts are too dependent on the whole). Here’s an older argument, expressed by Andrew Morton in 2004, that broadly speaking, open source only works for legacy systems, which would be… Continue reading
A strategy for political transition towards post Peak Oil resilience
The Transition Network is an organisation whos purpose is – “To dramatically reduce carbon emissions and massively increase resilience for all aspects of life that our communities, businesses and organisations need in order to sustain themselves and thrive” Last July they published a strategy document – The Transition Network: a Proposal for Structure, and were… Continue reading
Paid and unpaid work in open source software and peer production
We’ve been recently covering a number of studies that shed light on the influence of the corporate world on peer production. Oekonux has created a page that aims to clarify some of the subtleties that should be taking into account when examining/measuring that influence. In particular, it offers an interesting typology of paid and unpaid… Continue reading
Marcin Jakubowski’s call for a Open Product Forge Design Directory
A call and proposal by Marcin Jakubowski : “We need a Product Forge. At a ready implementation – it could be a place where PHYSICAL product or process development efforts could host their projects. This would be analogous to product forge. It would basically be a one-stop shop for communicating to the world all the… Continue reading
P2P Architecture (7): Vajra, a vision of a Maker Incubator Eco-Village
Eric Hunting: “Thinking more on the concept of a Maker Incubator, I thought I might try to illustrate it with a detailed description of how I imagined such a community to be. Though I am inclined toward the notion that the architecture of such a community should be largely the product of P2P planning among… Continue reading
Abundance and scarcity in Second Life
SL is an interesting laboratory because it is entirely based on artificial scarcity, i.e. making a business through designs that can be easily copied. Jonathan Bailey has an interesting analysis of this, showing that SL administrators fail to enforce copyright, yet many designers are making a living despite the massive breaches. Here are excerpts from… Continue reading
Basic Income and Productivity in Cognitive Capitalism
Essay: FUMAGALLI, Andrea & LUCARELLI, Stefano (2008), ‘Basic Income and productivity in Cognitive Capitalism’, Review of Social Economics, Vol. LXVI, issue 1, March 2008: 14-37. Andrea Fumagalli and Stefano Lucarelli have written an important essay, which explains the basic income, as a payment by society for the increased positive externalities of networked-based social innovation. It… Continue reading
P2P Architecture (6): The Geometry of Control
This is an extended citation from the essay on the Urbanism of Self-Organisation, which we presented yesterday. It contrasts the top-down modernist geometry of control, with bottom-up organic patterning typical of the favela neighborhoods. Excerpt: The Geometry of Control “The psychological process of control influences urban form and the shape of social housing to a… Continue reading
The computer is not a good educator
Flosse-Posse writes, based on a scientific survey, that: “using computers efficiently for educational purposes children needs adults. Actually, children can not constructively achieve any higher-level cognitive skills just on their own, or with peer-support.” Such a conclusion is based on the following study, The Effect of Computer Use on Child Outcomes, which was earlier reported… Continue reading
Samso and the 2,000 Watt society
Yes, indeed, the world can be changed, if citizens constructively take an interest in their lives and the sustainability of their communities. The New Yorker just provides us with a great story on this, about a Danish island, where the population decided to tackle the energy crisis head on: “Then, quite deliberately, the residents of… Continue reading
Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture
An initiative worth supporting, and applicable worldwide: “The movement to create a healthier food and agriculture in the US has been slowly and steadily gaining ground for well over a decade. Those all around the nation who began the work are encouraged by the progress and simultaneously concerned by the pace of change given the… Continue reading
First open-source restaurant
We are familiar with Open source in many different appearances. The most practiced right now is in the immaterial appearances, where open-source software is the most practiced by far. However, and for the good, more and more initiatives appear where open-source is being used for material purposes. An example is the first open-source car. Recently… Continue reading