David Eaves posted this on his blog vancouver enters the age of the open city A few hours ago, Vancouver’s city government posted the agenda to a council meeting next week in which this motion will be read: MOTION ON NOTICE Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source MOVER: Councillor Andrea Reimer SECONDER: Councillor WHEREAS… Continue reading
Date archives "May 2009"
Filesharing: the cultural flat rate as European solution for funding creatives
While the corporate and legal attacks against filesharing stack up and accelerate, delaying and complicating real solutions that can satisfy both artists and the sharing communities, there seem to be congruent developments pointing to a solution, especially accelerating in Europe. First, I would like to recommend Kevin Carson’s overview article on the issue of intellectual… Continue reading
Video:”Us Now” – How might participation change the way countries are governed?
Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo. A great bloke i know called Ivo Gormley made this amazing film in his spare time. I don’t how he managed to make this on weekends, but it’s an accomplished production. Film Synopsis: The founding principles of [the projects in this documentary] — transparency, self-selection, open participation —… Continue reading
Differences Between “Open Source” and “Open Currency”: Why Cyclos is not sufficiently Open
I had asked the people of the Metacurrency Project, via a comment on their blog, why they critiqued the Cyclos alternative currency software as not being sufficiently open. A combination of two subsequent blog posts provides the answer. In the first, Arthur Brock reiterates the important distinctions and similarities between open source software, and the… Continue reading
The next long wave: what comes next after the current meltdown?
The following is a response to a contribution of Andreas Wittel on our p2p research list, an update of our previous comment on ‘peer money as solution for Sudden System Stop‘, and finally an expanded commentary on the following essay: Badalian L., Krivorotov V., “Technological shift and the rise of a new finance system: the… Continue reading
Case study: Ubuntu and Debian
Interesting 3-page case study at H online magazine, which discusses the relationship between the free software community Debian and its more commercially oriented Ubuntu. An excerpt from the longer article: “Ubuntu is explicitly based on Debian, but this doesn’t come without its problems. From the beginning Canonical, Ubuntu’s holding company, employed a core of key… Continue reading
Gus diZerega: has the liberal tradition underestimated cooperation?
What has seriously weakened the liberal tradition, argues Gus diRezega in his unpublished essay, The Tragedy of Classic Liberalism, is that in its focus on the invisible hand of competition, it has forgotten the collective cooperative infrastructure, that is the basis of any competition. Gus diZerega: “Many of liberalism’s seminal thinkers were fascinated with how,… Continue reading
Peer Money as the Solution for Sudden System Stop
“Bank finance has nothing to do with either saving or investment. Banks create liquidity ex nihilo, and the entrepreneurs’ opportunity to materialize their plans is not an issue that can be decided by savers. In the real world, entrepreneurial plans depend upon bankers’ choices.” The latest issue of the European Journal of Economic and Social… Continue reading
Dale Carrico on Understanding Superlative Futurology
*You will never be immortal or even achieve a longevity sufficiently prolonged that you no longer have to face your present panic at the prospect of death. * You will never be invulnerable and perfectly and effortlessly efficacious or anything near enough to afford the pretense. * You will never overcome through an amplification of… Continue reading
Gus diZerega on The Tragedy of Classical Liberalism
This is a continuation of our coverage of emergent order studies, initiated by Gus diRezega. In a as yet unpublished but privately circulated essay, Gus describes “The Tragedy of Classical Liberalism”, that resulted from its alliances with the neo-conservative forces, started in the 1980’s. The paper ends with this assessment of the crisis: “Classical liberalism… Continue reading
Douglas Rushkoff on the corporatization of life
Interesting views on the emergence of corporations in the Renaissance, in this extended presentation of the author’s new book: Details about Life, Inc., the book: “This fascinating journey reveals the roots of our debacle, from the late Middle Ages to today. From the founding of the chartered monopoly to the branding of the self; from… Continue reading
eBooks and the crisis of value in the publishing industry
unless a very different model evolves, ebooks can never become the dominant version of content sold by book publishers Very interesting analysis by a publishing industry insider, Evan Schnittman: Excerpts: “Publishers are in a funny position. To get top authors, they bid against each other and drive publishing costs through the roof. To recoup this… Continue reading
The emergence of social energy tracking systems
“Open Shaspa makes energy consumption even more Web 2.0 with its “Social Energy Meter”, which publishes power usage online so it can be tracked and analyzed on Facebook, Google, Twitter, and more. Tweet-a-Watt pioneered the attempts to build free software based and socially connected home energy monitoring devices. In Fast Company, Ariel Schwartz comments on… Continue reading
Open Source in Government: status report
The May 2009 issue of the Open Source Business Resource is dedicated to Open Source in Government: “Gijs Hillenius, news editor of the Open Source Observatory and Repository, provides an overview of recent advancements and setbacks in the implementation of open source and open standards by public administrations in the 27 member states of the… Continue reading
Nova Spivack on the transformation of the web into the Stream
Nova Spivack remains one of the most clear-headed analyst of where the internet/web is heading. From a much longer analysis, here’s how he summarizes the current ongoing transformation from the Web into the Stream. Nova Spivack (excerpt): “The Internet began evolving many decades before the Web emerged. And while today many people think of the… Continue reading
Hime Island (Japan): 50 year-old experiment with municipal egalitarianism
The New York Times has an interesting reportage on Hime island in Japan, and its 49-year old experiment with municipal egalitarianism: Excerpt from MARTIN FACKLER: ““Our thinking is, ‘let’s all share the economic pie and get along, instead of giving all of it to the rich,’ ” said Mr. Fujimoto, whose father, Kumao Fujimoto, devised… Continue reading