Cloaked sites, websites that look legitimate yet disguise a political agenda, are like the Trojan Horses of the digital era. These sorts of sites make it possible to smuggle in ideas into current debate that have been discredited, and allow right-wing political operatives to undermine organizations, like ACORN, which are doing hard work on behalf… Continue reading
Date archives "October 2009"
A social cloud for a peer economy
Rafael Pezzi wrote a paper with a proposed infrastructure for a ‘peer economy’: Information Technology tools for a transition economy Abstract: “Although there are growing concerns regarding the eminent energy crisis followed by a discussion that is mostly focused on the development and use of new sources of energy, there is negligible mainstream attention given… Continue reading
Howard Rheingold on the democratic potential of the internet
Video: “Rheingold recounts how the development of communication technology has removed the power top transmit messages from a tiny elite, and had been a force for democratization. Following Benkler’s idea of peer production he explains how the diffusion of many-to-many communication technologies enables new forms of collective action.”
The Vow of Wealth: living with only free currencies now
Jean-Francois Noubel has taken the Vow of Wealth, to live exclusively from gifts and free currencies. You can find details about this courageous initiative here as well as background on the flowspace free currency here. The Vow of Wealth: “I decide to welcome and embrace all the Wealth that is given to us, be it… Continue reading
Why personal consumption politics are not enough
I want to be clear. I’m not saying we shouldn’t live simply. I live reasonably simply myself, but I don’t pretend that not buying much (or not driving much, or not having kids) is a powerful political act, or that it’s deeply revolutionary. It’s not. Personal change doesn’t equal social change. In Orion magazine, Derrick… Continue reading
Distributed Manufacturing (2): the potential of the Multimachine
Our second, and last, excerpt from Kevin’s excellent overview of current trends in distributed manufacturing. Essay: The Homebrew Industrial Revolution. Kevin Carson. C4SS, 2009 (for citation sources, see original essay, which we recommend reading in full) Kevin Carson: “When it comes to the “Homebrew” dream of an actual desktop factory, the most promising current development… Continue reading
The Five Capitals Model policy framework
Very useful framework for policy-making and proposals, found at the Forum for the Future and inspired by the book: * Capitalism as if the World Matters. By Jonathon Porritt. Earthscan, 2007 According to Jonathon Porritt: “There are five types of sustainable capital from where we derive the goods and services we need to improve the… Continue reading