Contribution by Andy Robinson on the p2p research list, which I’m upgrading, because of its thoughtfullness, to a full blog entry. (please note though that I strongly disagree with the use of the concept of fascism to explain both China and some western states – mb) Andy Robinson: “The Chinese political model is very close… Continue reading
Date archives "April 2009"
Dama: the Malian gift economy
6 minutes, worth watching:
An update on the c,mm,n open source car project
Jaco Lammers was at the Oekonux 4 conference, talking about the status of the Dutch open source car project. Here’s a brief telegram summary for those who are curious on the progress: a brief summary: – c,mm,n has been run like a project in 2007, aiming at that year’s Amsterdam Motorshow. – That year c,mm,n… Continue reading
Digital Economies and the Politics of circulation
A report from our Columbian IP expert Carolina Botero. For all the links, go to the article here. Carolina Botero: “This cycle of conferences held in New York on 3 and 4 April 2009, was focused on the idea of circulation and to think circulation in the frame of the digital era and as means… Continue reading
Douglas Rushkoff on the history of centralized currencies
From an article in H+ Magazine, Hacking the Economy, an excerpt giving a useful summary of the history of contemporary currency. Do watch the video at bottom, it’s really worthwhile. Douglas Rushkoff: “The economy we live in is a rigged game, established around the time of the Renaissance in order to promote the welfare of… Continue reading
Self-designated storytelling: how social media is influenced documentary film-making
In an interview with Cause Global’s Marcia Stepanek, Cara Mertes, director of the Sundance documentary film program, says that “self-designated storytelling” by amateur filmmakers stepping in to fill the void left by a weakening of mainstream production. Excerpts from the interview: What is the climate for documentary film in today’s world? Right now, in this… Continue reading
Mash the State
From the Mash the State website We are a grassroots campaign to encourage UK government and public sector organisations to make their data available to the general public. What is Mash the State? We’re a new national campaign to encourage government to release its data to the public. It’s not a new idea but we’re… Continue reading
Nine proposals for Finance 2.0
Yesterday’s finance cannot power tomorrow’s prosperity. Bailouts, taxes, nationalization, regulation are what your discussions this week are focused on. These can limit the depth and intensity of the crash. But what they cannot do is build a radically more efficient, productive, and effective financial system. That requires a better kind of finance altogether — one… Continue reading
Beyond the Open Cloud to Free Network Services
Free Software has to become Free Network Services in order to be relevant in the age of cloud computing. That’s the philosophy of the Autonomo.us group which has brought us the Franklin Street Statement. They have recently been critiquing the Open Cloud Manifesto, which is a corporate open standards drive spearheaded by IBM: OCM writes… Continue reading
How does real change occur: P2P Theory vs. socialist theory
Marxism, and other forms of socialism based on a ‘a priori’ political struggle to take power and achieve change ‘afterwards’, are in my opinion wrong in their understanding of how fundamental social change can be achieved. I would summarize my interpretation of their key ideas as follows: capitalism creates a new class, which, due to… Continue reading
Embracing Piracy
Erica Naone recently wrote about “Embracing Piracy” on the MIT Technology Review Embracing Piracy How to make money from online content, even after it gets loose on third-party website Trying to control how articles, videos, and video games spread online could be the definition of a losing battle. One unauthorized video comes down, and two… Continue reading
The sad sad story of Horacio Potel
Argentinean professor charged criminally for promoting access to knowledge By the CopySouth Research Group: “A philosophy professor in Argentina, Horacio Potel, is facing criminal charges for maintaining a website devoted to translations of works by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. His alleged crime: copyright infringement. Here is Professor Potel’s sad story. “I was fascinated at the… Continue reading
Critical Information Studies For a Participatory Culture (Part One)
Henry Jenkins posted this today about participatory culture: APRIL 8, 2009 Critical Information Studies For a Participatory Culture (Part One) Last Saturday, I spoke at a conference being organized by the Media Studies Program at the University of Virginia, Connections: The Future of Media Studies. Among the others speaking were Jeff Alexander, Michael Delli Carpini,… Continue reading
Towards a ‘conscious modularity’ for open science
Since this is such a crucial contribution, we’re reproducing it in full. The original with links is here. Michael Nielsen: “I’ve recently been reviewing the history of open source software, and one thing I’ve been struck by is the enormous effort many open source projects put it into making their development modular. They do this… Continue reading
Physical Design Co. – Putting the ‘fab’ in ‘prefab’.
The description of the Physical Design company, which promises to ‘3D Print’ ‘real houses’, is impressive to the untrained eye, but to make sure I asked our house p2p-architectural expert Eric Hunting for his comments. First a general description, then the commentary by Eric. From Daniel Smithwick in the Mass Customization blog: “The central idea… Continue reading
Spanish Internet community unites against new anti-P2P Minister of Culture
banners against the new Spanish Minister of Culture Just a day after the announcement of her position as minister of culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, former president of the Spanish Academy of Cinema has much of the Spanish Internet community against her. Over 6,000 people have joined the Facebook group Ángeles González-Sinde pírate and the blogosphere has… Continue reading