Via Michael Holloway of the UK-based Open Rights Group Michael Holloway: “Today I’m proud to release ORG’s annual Review of Activities [.pdf]. It’s been a bumper year for digital rights. From HMRC posting half the nation’s bank details to the Darknet, to the ongoing campaign against Phorm, to three strikes and the rightsholder lobby’s so-far… Continue reading
Date archives "November 2008"
How do we evolve to a P2P society: Germ Form Theory (1)
This is a republication of large excerpts from the Oekonux germ form theory, which posits five steps of social transition from one type of society to another. As ‘post-Marxist’ movement, Oekonux theoreticians like Stefan Merten and Stefan Meretz are heavily indebted to philosophies like Hegel’s, as we will see below. By Stefan Meretz and Stefan… Continue reading
Abundance as a field of study (1)
We discussed a major essay by Robert Verzola, in which he outlined the ‘war against abundance in the physical world’, in two parts on the 15th and the 16th. This was in fact his second essay on the topic, as explained here. His third essay is a draft on ‘Studying Abundance‘, and an explicit critique… Continue reading
Banning the Wikipedia bans as a governance tool
This add-on to our comments field is worth upgrading to a full entry. It details another negative aspect of curent Wikipedia governance: the practice of indiscriminate banning without due process. Moulton: “The governance model of Wikipedia was so anachronistic that it took me over a year to place it in the timeline of historic governance… Continue reading
Thingiverse: new open design directory
Via Glyn Moody’s Opendotdot: “Thingiverse is a place for you to share your digital designs with the world. We believe that just as computing shifted away from the mainframe into the personal computer that you use today, digital fabrication will share the same path. Infact, it is already happening: laser cutters, cnc machines, 3D printers,… Continue reading
Shann Turnbull on transforming capitalism through trusteeship governance
Shann Turnbull is an advocate of new forms of network governance such as ‘stakeholder mutuals‘ Amongst his articles and essays are: * ‘Agendas for Reforming Corporate Governance, Capitalism and Democracy’ * ‘The Seven Deadly Sins of Capitalism’ Here, we republish his vision of how to transform the current form of capitalism. Shann Turnbull: “The future… Continue reading
Contribute to: How to rob a bank when money does not exist project
Perhaps worthwhile for readers fascinated or actively engaged in rethinking currency and money issues. A pretty public site by the name of KashKlash is exploring future economic scenarios and is requesting assistance on a public space concerning these questions. There has been a hive of activity taking place on our Ning site on just these… Continue reading
Episcopal Theological Support for the Free Software Movement
This paper was written May 3, 2004 for a course in Anglican Moral Theology by “lab16”, a “a Christian and a hacker, as well as a priest who serves at Grace Episcopal Church in Concord, New Hampshire. His ‘digital theology’ blog is dedicated to: explore the connections between technology and media and Christian theology. This… Continue reading
Jeff Vail on the decentralization of suburbia
Jeff Vail, whose Theory of Power I much admire, is starting a four-part series on the new forms of urbanism we need to survive in a peak oil environment. Only the first part is available as we write this, but I strongly recommend following up. Part four should be right in our p2p alley: the… Continue reading
MyBo: details about Obama campaign’s network strategy
Lessig warns that if Obama wins but doesn’t govern according to principles of openness and change, as promised, supporters may not be so interested in serving as MyBO foot soldiers in 2012. “The thing they [the Obama camp] don’t quite recognize is how much of their enormous support comes from the perception that this is… Continue reading
Untangling a case study of benefit-sharing
In my introduction to open business models, when I discuss the commons model, I offer a triune model of social and economic organisation based on the self-governing community, the for-benefit management of the infrastructure of cooperation by the FLOSS Foundations, and an ecology of businesses that practices benefit-sharing. The businesses involved have a triune relationship… Continue reading
Jeff Jarvis: the Open Internet as a Civil Right
We are republishing Jeff Jarvis call at the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council: Jeff Jarvis: “The internet is a right. We have reached the point at which enabling and assuring open, unfettered, and universal access to the internet should become a hallmark of civilized societies. The Global Agenda Council stands in a position to… Continue reading
The problem with corporate sharing practices …
Scott Leslie of the EdTechPost blog has an interesting piece analyzing why it is so difficult to share in corporate environments, as compared to our personal social networks. He comes up with the interesting disctinction between ‘just sharing’ (which works) and ‘planning to share’ (which almost never works). I would add that ‘sharing must be… Continue reading
Google censors bloggers for copyright police
Via the Palms Out Sounds remix blog: “Google, the IFPI & the RIAA have begun a campaign against all the music blogs hosted on blogger.com – especially high profile blogs, like Palms Out. This first started a couple of months ago, but only hit Palms Out about a month ago. Without warning, Google removed three… Continue reading
Launch of P2P University: how p2p is it?
Via Barbara Dieu: “The P2P Virtual University is about to be launched in February 2009. Similarly to the EVO sessions, the P2PU courses will run for 6 weeks and be open to anyone with a computer and Internet connection. Learning, however, will take place in small groups of 8-14 students and will require the payment… Continue reading
Launch of Resistance Studies Network
Via the steering group of RSN: “In an attempt to remedy the lack of academic study in the field of resistance to power and its social transformation the School of Global Studies at Göteborg University has launched this Resistance Studies Network. With the help of networking, collaborative conferences, research and publication projects and thematic educational… Continue reading