Via the Experentia blog: “The Nordic Innovation Centre recently published a report on user-driven innovation in the Nordic region. The 137 page report describes in detail what user-driven innovation actually is, outlines the current state of affairs in each of the five countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), showcases what companies are doing through… Continue reading
Date archives "November 2008"
Is Guifi.net an alternative independent internet?
During a conference the Urbanlabs conference in Cornellà/Barcelona’s Citilab early October, I was fortunate to meet a presentation on Guifi.net, a mostly Catalan initiative to create an internet network that can operate without passing through Internet Service Providers. I asked some of the organizers of the project, mostly Roger Baig Viñas with some extra comments… Continue reading
Book of the Week: Digital Virtues, part one
In the next installment, we will reproduce an excerpt from the author’s (Father Julian Fox) speech during the education and free software conference in Quito, Ecuador, organized by the Salesian (Catholic) teaching order. This introduction is a contribution by Marco Fioretti, co-founder of the Eleutheros Project and the author of the Family Guide to Digital… Continue reading
Stefan Meretz: Seven theses on Common-ism
Via Keimform, Stefan Meretz of Oekonux has nailed seven theses that are thought-provoking. Stefan Meretz: “1. The world will be commonist or the world will not be. Capitalism is in deep crisis, somebody speak about a final crisis. If only capitalism is at stake, this could be gotten over. But we are capitalism, we are… Continue reading
Discussing the Ethical Economy, chapter 1
Three more weeks to go to discuss Adam Arvidsson’s new book on the Ethical Economy, starting with the first chapter. Deadline is December 3. Here’s the announcement: “We’re proud to announce a new website for the Ethical Economy book project. At www.ethicaleconomy.com, you can download a final version of the first chapter that introduces and… Continue reading
Harvard Business Review discovers the Ethical Economy
in a fascinating posting Umair Haque of Bubblegeneration, and now the Havas Media Lab, points at some directions for overcoming this recession. They center on what he calls ‘authentic value’ meaningful, long term. and genuinely productive economic activities: ‘How should boardrooms respond to the macro crisis? Is it just a case of recession-as-usual: budget-paring, personnel-slashing,… Continue reading
The art of creating intentional spaces
A very interesting and important presentation of a research project by Amy Lenzo, reproduced in full below. The project asks the following questions: *Where are these meeting places that have demonstrated their transformational influence? *What are the characteristics and qualities they demonstrate? *How do they contribute to experiences of transformation and generativity? *What is the… Continue reading
Arboricoli, village in the trees, and the seeding of Global Villages
Franz Nahrada went to visit the Vienna presentation of a fascinating global village experiment in the north of Italy. His report: “Dear Lucertola, after your moving talk yesterday I feel we agree a hundred percent that Global Villages are the only viable planetary solution in our times of deep transformation and change, the most dramatic… Continue reading
Research on Open Source Software Foundations
You could say this is the article I’ve been waiting for. Finally a study examining the formal Foundations in charge of open source projects. Thanks, Zhensheng Xie!! The following are excerpts from the research summary which appeared in OSBR. The research here is valuable to study the role of these Foundations in their own right,… Continue reading
Individual consciousness is not enough: the case for virtual collective selves
“Most individuals today do not have healthy selves — they have highly delluded, unhealthy self-constructs. This in turn is reflected in the higher-order self-constructs of the groups, organizations and communities we build. One of the most important things we can work on now is creating systems that provide collectives — groups, organizations and communities —… Continue reading
Healthcare as a Commons
Via WorldChanging, David Bollier reviews an article on the topic. The article referred to appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), June 13, 2007, and entitled: “Managing Medical Resources: Return to the Commons?” David Bollier: “Drs. Christine K. Cassel of the American Board of Internal Medicine and Troyen E. Brennan, a medical… Continue reading
A P2P Power Grid based on Rice Husks for Rural Areas
Via WorldChanging: “Chip Ransler is the co-founder of Husk Power Systems (HPS), a for-profit company that cost-effectively converts rice husks into electricity. HPS utilizes a proprietary technology to run 35-100 kilowatt mini power plants, delivering pay-for-use electricity to un-electrified villages in India’s “Rice Belt.” HPS’ five pilot projects have become operationally profitable within six months,… Continue reading
Open spectrum victory in the U.S.
This has been one of the great fights for a open p2p infrastructure: to open up the spectrum of so-called ‘white spaces‘, (i.e. the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels) for public use as wireless broadband infrastructure. It appears that a major battle has been won through a recent decision of the communication’s regulator FCC,… Continue reading
Why the One Machine won’t take over
“Because humans are the actual witnesses and knowers of what the One Machine does and thinks, the function of the OM will very likely be to serve and amplify humans, rather than to replace them. It will be a system that is comprised of humans and machines working together, for human benefit, not for machine… Continue reading
Digital property forms as a right to access
This is excerpt from a text, The Prospects of Radical Politics Today, by Dr. Slavoj Zizek, which appeared in the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. I always appreciate Zizek and often resonate with his clear point of view, miles away from any postmodern obfuscation. Yet, this essay, which I urge you to read for its… Continue reading
Douglas Rushkoff launches Radio Bottom Up for Obama Era
More details here. Here’s the description of the new radio program: “The point of the whole program, as well as this particular one-off broadcast, is to look at new possibilities for bottom-up, community-directed, decidedly local, or otherwise decentralized progress. My premise is that much of the world we accept as given circumstances is actually much… Continue reading