The 4th Oekonux Conference is over and it was not just a terribly interesting one (not a single lecture I attended was wasted time, and people were raving about the one’s I missed), but also, I believe, a historical milestone of sorts. First of all for the Oekonux community itself (really an interlocking of several… Continue reading
Date archives "March 2009"
Energy descent and the Transition Town strategy
I think that there are at least two approaches to social change, in terms of the ‘size’ of the object. One is a global approach, to think about how to change the world for everybody. The other focuses on saving a particular community or vanguard from the globalized dislocation. But even if we choose the… Continue reading
Best keynote of the year so far: Sascha Meinrath on Policy Hacking
1. Instead of demanding fundamental changes, too often we have donned chains of silver and declared ourselves free. How else can we fool ourselves into declaring that everything from AT&T and Verizon’s networks, to the iPhone and the Android phone to be open? Open, really [laughs], not at all – how is it that we’re… Continue reading
Uk investments in renewable energy in sharp decline
According to George Monbiot in The Guardian today, Uk investment in wind power ‘is melting away faster than an Andean glacier’- a combined effect of the financial crisis and cheap fossil fuels. Shell has pulled out completely. Centrica, E.ON and BT are reviewing their plans. Sun Microsystems has suspended its projects. The Spanish company Iberdrola… Continue reading
Open-Source Healthcare
The healthcare industry is a textbook example of what Ivan Illich (in Tools for Conviviality) called a “radical monopoly.” The central function of the government’s “safety” and “consumer protection” regulations, in most cases, is either to exclude competing providers of a good or service from the market, to circumscribe the areas of competition between them,… Continue reading
Vinay Gupta on Ending Poverty With Open Hardware
Talk delivered at the 4th Oekonux conference, an open source hardware type conference in Manchester in March 2009 “This is the talk I delivered at Oekonux, an open source hardware type conference in Manchester this weekend. Here is an MP3 audio version of the talk. Here are the slides. They ask the questions that the… Continue reading
User-led Science – A special issue of the Journal of Science Communication
Call for articles via Alessandro Delfanti: “Science is increasingly being produced, discussed and deliberated with cooperative tools by web users and without the istitutionalized presence of scientists. “Popular science” or “Citizen science” are two of the traditional ways of defining science grassroots produced outside the walls of laboratories. But the internet has changed the way… Continue reading
Extractive vs. Productive Anti-meltdown measures
Douglas Rushkoff makes a very important distinction in the following post at Arthur Magazine: (the original has links and is more comprehensive than this excerpt) “First off, and I can’t stress this enough: Commerce is good. Commerce is not the problem. Monopolies are. Except in a few rare cases, corporate charters and centralized currency were… Continue reading
Dave Pollard: a meditation on a world without property
Interesting thoughcapsule by Dave Pollard: “Pre-civilization and gatherer-hunter cultures have operated successfully for millennia without the concept of property — or what the Bushies hawked for the past eight years as “The Ownership Society”. The objective of such a society is to give you the feeling that you have been given something by the government/powers… Continue reading
Alternative Economy Cultures: Helsinki, April 3 to 5
Still time to jon us if you are in Finland!! To check remaining registration possibilities send email to alt.econ.cult [-at-] pixelache.ac The Program: Friday 3rd April, 10.00 – 18.00 FULL 1-DAY SEMINAR Cultural practitioners, activists, and economic theorists from Finland and abroad, working from different contexts, strategies and institutional backgrounds, have been invited to contribute… Continue reading
Narb: People Filtered Art for the Ubiquitous Museum
You probably all know James Burke as the man operating mostly behind the scenes, almost singlehandedly maintaining our community infrastructure (though with help from experts like Kasper Souren). James has many different hats, and one of his latest is the project Narb, an experiment in People Filtered Art. A recent interview gives details. (in the… Continue reading
The danger of unified globalization
Yesterday, we presented the first part of Thomas Homer-Dixon’s presentation of the panarchy theory of Buzz Hollings. It focused on the contradiction between efficiency, driven by interconnectedness, and resilience, which needs diversity and some degree of separation. There is another aspect to it we want to present today. Each level of ‘adaptive cycle’, such as… Continue reading
Barcelona, March 31: Liberté, égalité, P2P
This event will take place on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 7:00pm, CCCB. BARCELONA Thanks in particular to our friends at Platoniq for organizing it. I hope to see you there!! The Peer-to-Peer – P2P file-sharing networks go beyond the use that is generally made of the new technologies, which is to say exchanges of… Continue reading
The dark side of hyperconnectivity
Panarchy theory helps us understand how complex systems of all kinds, including social systems, evolve and adapt. Of course, it shares similarities with other theories of adaptation and change. Its core idea-that systems naturally grow, become more brittle, collapse, and then renew themselves in an endless cycle-recurs repeatedly in literature, philosophy, religion, and studies of… Continue reading
The Open Rights Group: Telecom Package in second reading – dangerous amendments?
option=com_content&task=view&id=284&Itemid=9 Telecoms Package 2nd Reading ITRE IMCO Amendments http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Telecoms_Package_2nd_Reading_ITRE_IMCO_Draft_Amendments#Amendment_85_–_2 UK government pushes for discriminated Internet (7.03.2009) http://www.laquadrature.net/en/uk-government-pushes-for-discriminated-internet EU citizens: Save Internet from being turned into a TV! … option=com_content&task=view&id=287&Itemid=9 Unblock the Internet for consumers: BEUC’s fight for net neutrality (18.03.2009) http://docshare.beuc.org/docs/1/GOCCADAAPAOEOHHKPKMALAKIPDBG9DBYEG9DW3571KM/BEUC/docs/DLS/2009-00269-01-E.pdf EDRI-gram: Open letter to the European Parliament – Telecom Package (17.02.2009) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/campaigns/open-letter-telecom-package [From The Open Rights Group : Blog Archive » Telecom Package in second reading – dangerous amendments?
Continue readingUmair Haque and Douglas Rushkoff on the Geithner plan
Umair Haque writes: – the Geithner plan is morally bankrupt, economically toxic, and ethically questionable. 1) Banks are already gaming the plan. 2) Why? Because Geithner has just written a put option. 3) Using your money. 4) Will the government sell you a put option? Nope, you’re not rich enough. Only hedge funds are eligible…. Continue reading