Date archives "November 2008"

Women participation in online communities

Some observations from (Singaporean) commons researcher Natalie Pang, in our forum discussion at Ning. The context was a call to improve diversity in the P2P Foundation participation. Natalie Pang: “My research and observations on online communities and women participation in the digital environment has led me to derive the following thoughts (which are not independent… Continue reading

Xavier Comtesse on the new ‘direct territories’

Direct Territories: concept and report by Xavier Comtesse, summarized by Marc Dangeard. It can be downloaded here (French only). “Territories as defined by government have become disconnected from the ecosystems in which people and business live and work. New ways of communicating have created an additional layer on top of these territories and ecosystems, ultimately… Continue reading

The fifth solidarity

This concludes our discussion of the book by Michael Thompson, Organising and Disorganising, which we already excerpted here. In that entry, we presented the fourfold solidarities: market, hierarchy, egalitarianism and fatalism, and hinted at a fifth integrative position that Thompson calls “Autonomy”. Here’s a presentation of that fifth logic of relationships. Michael Thompson: “Yet, for… Continue reading

Eric Hunting on Adaptive ‘P2P’ Architecture (5): Conclusions

With this contribution, we conclude our presentation of a very important overview that examines the present and future of architecture in a world which must become sustainable. Here are the conclusions of this study by Eric Hunting: “There is clearly great potential in adaptive architecture, not only in terms of collaborative community development but also… Continue reading

The Hub: a place for open-source and peer-to-peer programming

I spoke for The Hub in London and Brussels, and have been absolutely charmed by the energy and dynamics of these interconnected co-working places for social enterpreneurs. Here’s a presentation of the concept and experience by Tatiana Glad in the latest issue of Kosmos Journal: “Freelancers, flexi-workers, nomad professionals and social entrepreneurs are more and… Continue reading

Do resilient communities represent a move towards a higher complexity phase transition?

I often claim that moving towards a peer to peer based society means moving to a higher level of complexity. Thus, we are not advocating a new type of society based on losing any contemporary advantages (broadly speaking), but rather saving the essential achievements and building on top of that. I then further distinguish two… Continue reading

Adaptive Architecture (4): Current Adaptive Building Technology

We continue our serialization of Erich Hunting’s landmark essay on a ‘peer to peer’ adaptive architecture, adapted to contemporary needs, which we started publishing on the 25th. Warning, this part is very long, as it outlines the different types of adaptive architecture currently available. Eric Hunting: “Let us now explore some of the specific currently… Continue reading

New Kosmos Journal issue on Social Enterpreneurship

Social enterpreneurship can be considered as the use of corporate and ‘capitalist’ formats, but to advance real social goals. In this context, profit is no longer the goal, but merely a means to create sustainable organisational forms that are not dependent on hand-outs or state subsidies. The excellent, must-read but mostly closed off Kosmos Journal,… Continue reading

Adaptive Architecture (3): It’s role in collaborate community development

We continue our serialization of Eric Hunting’s essay, which we started on the 25th. Eric Hunting: “Adaptive architecture offers the potential to radically alter the logistics of habitat compared to common contemporary development methods, expanding personal and social control over development and shifting things back to a mode of habitat more akin to that of… Continue reading

Four solidarities plus one: the pluralistic society

Some time ago, we introduced Michael Thompson’s book as Book of the Week, but we did not get the excerpts in time to do a follow-up the same week. As a reminder, this book (Organising and Disorganising: A Dynamic and Non-Linear Theory of Institutional Emergence and its Implications) posits five different solidarities or types of… Continue reading

Eric Hunting on Adaptive Architecture (2): Types of Adaptive Architecture

We continue our serialization of Eric Hunting’s essay on the topic, which we started yesterday. Eric Hunting: “There are basically three ‘schools’ of adaptive architecture; adaptive reuse, functionally generic architecture, and adaptive systems. These further break-down into more specific building systems and design approaches. Adaptive reuse is based on the repurposing of a ‘found’ structure… Continue reading