A vision and project by Steven Vedro, author of Digital Dharma Steven Vedro: “For the last decade or so I have been “tuning in” and giving soul blessings to my dear friends on special occasions such as their birthdays, for healing, and as part of group ritual. I believe that this is part of my… Continue reading
Date archives "October 2008"
Thomas Greco reviews Zeitgeist Addendum
A review by Thomas Greco:, of a movie which “focuses more attention on the “money problem,” economic imperialism, and emerging sustainable technologies.” Thomas Greco: “Back in June of this year I viewed an amazingly good documentary film titled, Zeitgeist. I recommend it highly. Get it at http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ Most of the information in it was already… Continue reading
Herman Daly on why a Steady-State Economy requires 100% reserve requirements
Herman Daly, pioneer of the concept of the Steady-State Economy, has a very interesting reaction to the current meltdown. It’s a long essay covering all the basics, so I will be excerpting only. After the general presentation of SSE, we look at what this means for the financial system. The third section reproduces his transitional… Continue reading
The future of research networking in Europe: towards a pan-national virtual network of peers
Via Bill St. Arnaud: “A committee made of NRENs, researchers and users has produced a very interesting white paper on the future of research networking in Europe. The paper articulates a vision of a network of NREN and pan-national virtual network peers made up of cross border fiber and other direct interconnections, rather than relying… Continue reading
The Dharavi Slum in Mumbai: a case study in new p2p urbanism?
We received this contribution via Nikos Salingaros, whose ideas on peer to peer urbanism we have featured before. Two comments: the peer to peer relational dynamic represents the basic human freedom for humans to connect to each other and engage actions without permissions. It can flourish in global cyber-collectives, but also on a local scale,… Continue reading
A Website with a Constitution
I have recently joined a web project called Independence Year, or iYear for short. We have nearly completed a “civic networking” platform enabling U.S. citizens to influence government by turning their shared vision into collective action. As innovative as our web tools are, they are a distant second to the legal technology we’re developing. If… Continue reading
On not confusing value and money
I have great admiration for the insightful essays of Charles Eisenstein, including his latest for Reality Sandwich on Money and the Crisis of Civilization. It explains clearly why this is the endgame and how the best defense is to focus on value creation, not money creation. Do read the essay in full, here is an… Continue reading
The higher productivity and innovation potential of cooperatives
Kevin Carson’s fifteenth draft chapter of Organization Theory goes into a detailed comparison of the productivity of cooperatives vs. business enterprises. It shows, how the meta-system is skewed against the cooperative format, despite their higher productivity. We recommend you read sections A to D on this topic: A. Self-Employment: Increased Productive Efficiency B. Cooperatives: Increased… Continue reading
The Venus Project as ‘Old’ Futurism?
An assessment by Eric Hunting: “The Venus Project was founded by futurist, architect, and inventor Jacque Fresco sometime in the 1960s but only started publishing media in the 1980s. It is named for Venus Florida, the home of Fresco and the location of his ‘research compound’. It’s quite a lovely place from what the images… Continue reading
Chris Cook: proposal for a new financial system after the meltdown
Chris Cook wrote this before a trip to Iran, so it is addressed to Iranian policy makers, but the points made have a general validity for the international financial system. Chris Cook: “As I have been saying throughout, both privately and in articles published globally, this (western financial) model never was sustainable. Exponential economic growth… Continue reading
Eric Hunting on post-industrial resource-based economic systems with social credit
From Eric Hunting, you MUST read this: “The post-industrial wave is characterized by information technologies and global networking, flexible automation through machine intelligence, miniaturization and ephemerization of technology, and a return to renewable energy in more advanced forms. It’s dominant meme is demassification (reclamation of freedom, identity, self-expression, time, and quality of life through deconstruction… Continue reading
Seven Solutions In Favour of a Free Culture of Citizens Who Share
This text of demands for a free culture is formulated by the Spanish EXGAE, the same people who are bringing us the Oxcars awards for free culture in Barcelona, which we mentioned yesterday. Exgae is the first legal advice service specialised in the liberation of all citizens and creators from the abuses of societies of… Continue reading
Does P2P require institutionalization?
Before turning to the related insights of Kevin Carson, I would like to recall what I wrote about the topic in my book manuscript, back in 2005: “A second important aspect is de-institutionalization. In premodernity, knowledge is transmitted through tradition, through initiation by experienced masters to those who are validated to participate in the chain… Continue reading
Peer to peer, logistics, and culture
Many interesting points are made in this contribution by Eric Hunting. First of all, how our logistical systems steer our lifestyles and cultures and how we need to change the first if we want to facilitate the change of the latter. I’m also fond of the medieval comparison made here. Please do read this little… Continue reading
Nabuur communities, development through online communities
Online communities come in many forms. The most common are where people share an interest and produce something together, of course Linux and Wikipedia are examples that are named first. One of the main characteristics of these communities is that organization is decentralized. Another is that millions of people are contributing, the internet makes that… Continue reading
The Oxcars for a Free Culture
Interesting event in Barcelona: “More than 200 Spanish and international participants from all areas of culture will take part in an awards ceremony and a week full of events, pooling their efforts to demand a stop to culture being treated as merchandise by royalty management organizations and cultural industry lobbies. To demand protection and a… Continue reading