We are republishing an interesting contribution by Frank Pasquale. This first item is a critique of Google, while in the follow-up, Frank will tackle a ‘public’ alternative. Frank Pasquale: “Like Robert Darnton, I look to the upcoming Google Book Search Settlement hearing with a mixture of wonder and trepidation. The prospect of constructing a digital… Continue reading
Date archives "July 2009"
Guernsey’s Monetary Experiment
This article by Louis Even was published in the January-February, 2004 issue of “Michael”. It is illustrative of how a local community could create “sufficient” and non-inflationary money streams to revive the economy. Louis Even: “Guernsey is a small island located in the English Channel. An Anglo-Norman population. This island is located closer to the… Continue reading
Wikipedia and Conflict
Wikipedia has become a prime example of really existing mass cooperation with low barriers to entry; perhaps the most important example. This is why it is important for researchers to map its operations. I want to focus on situations where governance is most apparent: in situations of conflict, when direct negotiation fails, insults fly and… Continue reading
Technologies of Flocking in Iran (and elsewhere): lessons to learn
A contribution by by Jaap van Till: “Only from the heart can you touch the sky.” (from Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Persian Poet) Jaap van Till: (references are below) “No, they could not twitter Ahmadinejad out of his presidential palace, but the Iranian netizens did surely demonstrate that the internet is mightier than the pen, to… Continue reading
Before the “downfall”: A secret meeting of the RIAA uncovered
Brad Templeton had a peek into a secret meeting of recording industry execs planning their campaigns against filesharing. Here are details by the author (an EFF Board member), as well as commentary on the ‘bunker meme’ and fair use on the EFF blog.
Classical capitalism, peer production, and the consequences of limited demand
What we can at best hope to do is shift the emphasis away from the fourth path (post-scarcity technology used to create artificial scarcity) and towards the first three (a basic income, a gift economy, and/or peer production — all using post-scarcity technology to create abundance). A meditation by Paul Fernhout, who distinguishes four reactions… Continue reading
The trap of Communicative Capitalism
Communicative capitalism is a concept put forward by Jodi Dean in a to be published book of the same title. It is also a previously published essay, Communicative Capitalism: Circulation and the Foreclosure of Politics, in the book, Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times (2008) According to Dean, the Web 2.0 is a… Continue reading
A field typology for intersubjective development
When people work together something arises that is not located within any particular person but in the intersubjective field between them. P2P facilitator Mushin has been working with such fields, and offers an interesting typology. Mushin’s Typology of Fields: Physical Field “A field in physics is an intrinsic part of each point in space-time; we… Continue reading
Peer to peer and its alliances
Whom should P2P movements ally with? This question was discussed in our p2p research list, and below is the contribution by Andy Robinson. It starts with an analysis of the U.S.-libertarian ethos, well represented amongst software professionals, then goes on to link the forces for ‘virtual peer production’, with the forces that defend the natural… Continue reading
This is our world: A participatory nomadic documentary
Via Synnove Mathe: A call for participation in a new documentary: “A group of young people (16 – 19 years old) going to surf the world traveling in a sustainable way, just visiting free and public spaces, participatory events and iniciatives, knowing artivists and nomadic persons and projects, hubs, co-working spaces, etc. We will know… Continue reading
Meeting with Amelia Andersdotter of the Swedish Pirate Party at Citilab
Meeting with Amelia Andersdotter of the Swedish Pirate Party at Citilab Amelia has been invited by the Virtual European Parliament (VEP) research programme Amelia Andersdotter, member of the Swedish Pirate Party will be in Catalonia on the 7th, 8th and 9th of July at the invitation of the research programme Virtual European Parliament (VEP)a project… Continue reading
The difference between the public domain and the commons
Andrew Rens reminds us of an important distinction. He starts by quoting James Boyle: “The term “commons” is generally used to denote a resource over which some group has access and use rights—albeit perhaps under certain conditions. … Some would say it is a commons only if the whole society has access. That is the… Continue reading
Workshop: Can peer production make washing machines?
Years ago, Graham Seaman asked himself the theoretical question: Can peer production make washing machines? This July, French artist Jean-Noël Montagné will test this proposition in practice, during a Belgian festival of DIY hardware hackers. Here are the details: “The open source washing machine project aims to rethink the way we wash clothes around the… Continue reading
Open source community for liberating gov data | DIYcity
From DIYcity Hi DIYcity The City of SF has undertaken an experiment to develop an open source platform with the community that will help improve public access to raw government data in machine readable formats. We see a great opportunity to work with other cities and developers in creating technology that is re-usable, free and… Continue reading
Program – 4th Inclusiva-net Meeting: P2P Networks and Processes – Medialab-Prado Madrid
Program – 4th Inclusiva-net Meeting: P2P Networks and Processes place: Medialab Prado · Plaza de las Letras, C/ Alameda, 15 Madrid Program of presentations, lectures, and roundtables of the Inclusiva-net: P2P Networks and Processes at Medialab-Prado from July 6 ot 10, 2009. Moderated by Juan Martín Prada. This international seminar will focus on an analysis… Continue reading
The Portuguese digital and collaborative learning revolution
Interesting reportage in the Wikinomics blog, about the recent experiences in Portugal. (however, do read the comments for more sceptical accounts from the field itself) Don Tapscott: “A modest country across the Atlantic that’s turning into the world leader in rethinking education for the 21st century. That country is Portugal. Its economy in early 2005… Continue reading