Some of our friends in Finland, such as Agatino Rizzo and Michail Galanakis, are organizing a conference in Helsinki in May 2009 (Urban Studies Days, University of Helsinki, 7-8th May), to discuss the evolution towards new forms of urbanism, that will be strongly impacted by p2p influences, as explained here: “Insofar, we believe that in… Continue reading
Date archives "April 2009"
Women’s Contribution to Free Software Development
One of the aspects covered by the recently passed Oekonux conference (27-29 March, 2009 in Manchester, UK), was the Women’s Contribution to Free Software Development. Speaker Christina Haralanova presented in a summary the recent research made in Montreal area, Canada on women active in software production. A 15% margin of female participation was noted in… Continue reading
Marshall Ganz and Sally Kohn: The Future of Community Organizing
Laura Flanders recently interviewed Marshall Ganz and Sally Kohn on Grit tv Community organizing has become “cool,” at least according to the New York Times, but will the Obama movement survive and flourish after his electoral victory? Will grassroots activism and organizing expand? Is the movement a field of wild flowers or a controlled garden?… Continue reading
Franz Nahrada on blended work for global villages
Via WorkNet: Franz Nahrada echoes our vision of combining more local production with global open design communities and applies it to the prospect for global villages. (it refers to a particular project but is readable for its general idea) Franz Nahrada: “The Economy of Global Villages is in my view a blended economy of local… Continue reading
Criminalizing the Informal Economy through Cost Plus Regulations
One of the key arguments in Kevin Carson’s landmark book on Organization Theory. I find this argument addresses one of the elements of the dynamism and ‘industrious development’ of East Asia, where in many countries, these regulations either do not exist or are not applied vigorously enough to make any difference. In a country like… Continue reading
A call to economic activism
Excerpted from Taylor Ellwood in Reality Sandwich: “Economic activism focuses on the idea of using one’s wealth to represent one’s values. For the purposes of this article wealth is represented in two different ways. The first way is the financial resources, savings, stocks, bonds, etc. that a person has. The second way is the resources… Continue reading
WarszawaGratis.info – free culture in Warsaw, Poland
In Helsinki’s Pixelache early April, this was one of the presentations who caught my attention. Free culture exists in two senses, free from copyright, but also free as in post-monetary sharing. The latter is the free culture that Wojtek Mejor is addressing with his Warszawa Gratis project, which could serve as a basis for a… Continue reading
Sam Rose on the end of Walmart
Part of a discussion on alliances between peer producing communities and corporate backers, this is an interesting prediction by Sam Rose. Sam Rose: “My 2 cents on Walmart (this is not an argument for, or against anything anyone has said here already) is that, from a *systems* perspective, they cannot sustain their size and methods… Continue reading
Going after the meltdown/bailout profiteers
Via Scott Zimmerle and Metafilter: “Meet financial advisor Mike Morgan. He started an anti-Goldman Sachs website to examine “what part Goldman Sachs and their executives played in the current Global Economic Crisis.” The investment bank and its lawyers told him to cease and desist. So Morgan sued Goldman (pdf). The response has been overwhelming. Morgan… Continue reading
Pirate Bay Found Guilty, 1 year in prison
what happened post Grokster should give you an indication of what will happen here: basically, the entertainment industry will gleefully declare victory, and make statements about how this is a major victory against “piracy.” But, in actuality, the exact opposite of that will occur. Unauthorized file sharing continues (or even increases) and it becomes that… Continue reading
Where does bigness come from?
Good summary of the main thesis of the excellent Organization Theory book by Kevin Carson, which I’m in the process of reading. Kevin Carson: “The rise of mass-production industry did not result from the “ineluctable economic logic” of superior efficiency. In fact, I believe that with a few exceptions, small-scale factory production on the Emilia-Romagna… Continue reading
Scred: Open accounting and meaningful banking for communities
While I was participating in Helsinki’s Pixelache’s festival this early April, one of the presentations that most impressed me was by Kristoffer Lawson, co-founder of Scred, a banking project geared to communities. It allows you to create MiniCorps and monitor funding and expenses for a group of people. Details are from Kristoffer himself, but he… Continue reading
First European Open Data Summit: 5-7 May, Brussels
Jack Thurston posted this on FollowTheMoney.eu First European Open Data Summit: 5-7 May, Brussels The people who brought European Union farm subsidy payments into the open (and who are behind the FollowTheMoney.eu website) are proud to announce the first European Open Data Summit, 5-7 May, in Brussels. The Summit will bring together the farmsubsidy.org team… Continue reading
Crowdsourcing + generative tools = crowdgeneration
Recently posted by Uselog.com – read the full article for all the links Crowdsourcing + generative tools = crowdgeneration Crowdgeneration Asus and Intel take a shot at crowdsourcing. You can now design your dream PC at www.wepc.com. Having people design their dream product is a tried and tested way to discover user needs and preferences…. Continue reading
Survey of online business models of web applications
From Box UK (via the long tail blog): “a survey of business models used by the top Web apps, most of them variations of ad-supported Free and Freemium. In the chart below, the largest segment (ITA) is ad-supported, the second largest (ISV) is Freemium. After that is referral (ITR) and then the sale of virtual… Continue reading
Evolver: a social network for change
Most popular social networks are designed to support what media critic Thomas de Zengotita has called the “flattered self,” constantly craving attention. The main purpose of these networks is to make a profit for large corporations. When I initially heard about about Evolver.net, launched by Daniel Pinchbeck and his Reality Sandwich crew, I was initially… Continue reading