From a stimulating essay by Catherine Marie Simpson on the decline on car culture: Catherine Marie Simpson: “Car sharing shifts the dominant conception of a car from being a ‘commodity’, which people purchase and subsequently identify with, to a ‘service’ or network of vehicles that are collectively used. It does this through breaking down the… Continue reading
Date archives "November 2009"
US Steelworkers team up with Spanish/Basque cooperative Mondragon
We missed this announcement a month ago, but it is still significant. Carl Davidson: “Oct. 27, 2009–The United Steel Workers Union, North America’s largest industrial trade union, announced a new collaboration with the world’s largest worker-owned cooperative, Mondragon International, based in the Basque region of Spain. News of the announcement spread rapidly throughout the communities… Continue reading
The “Inner Democracy” of Leadingship
Rune Kvist Olsen has published a new paper, entitled: * The DemoCratic Workplace. Empowering People (demos) to Rule (cratos) their own workplace. Organizing Individual and Group Decision Processes through Personal Competence-based Authority. By Rune Kvist Olsen, 2009 It distinguishes leadership from leadingship, and traditional forms of representative democracy, considered as an “outer democracy”, including in… Continue reading
Measuring p2p Networks (Hint; It’s not easy!)
There have been recent reports about the supposed decline in p2p traffic and also talked about the difficulties in measuring p2p networks. There is an interesting paper by Stutzbach et al entitled ‘On Unbiased Sampling for Unstructured Peer-to-Peer Networks‘ – now the paper has some fairly technical bits in it, but you can still get… Continue reading
What is the impact of open education on the university?
Via: An interesting special issue of IRRODL on Openness and the Future of Higher Education is available now at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/issue/view/38. Please note the article: Peer-To-Peer Recognition of Learning in Open Education. By Jan Philipp Schmidt, Christine Geith, Stian Håklev, Joel Thierstein From the introduction by David Wiley and John Hilton: “Once considered to be mostly… Continue reading
A Design for A Peer Comments System
I’ve had a read of ‘Robust vote sampling in a P2P media distribution system‘. It is a very interesting research paper. The idea that grabs me most is the one about using gossip-based network systems to decentralise metadata. Let me explain; if you think of a book on Amazon, it comes with lots of additional… Continue reading
Africa: the return of the Commons
Via Pambazuka news: (excerpt from original article which has references) Korir Sing’Oei: “I argue here that the choice of Ostrom for this important award is perhaps more significant for Africa’s poor than the recognition bestowed upon president Obama, our collective pride for the latter’s international respect notwithstanding. Since the 1960s, the predominant policy prescription for… Continue reading
Free Software and Free Culture in Brazil
Brazil is truly progressive in its embrace of Free Culture and Free Software. At the 2008 Forum Internacional Software Livre Brazil’s Ministry of Education unveiled the numbers for their ongoing Proinfo Project which aims to create 53,000 Free Software Labs by the end of 2009 supporting digital literacy and Internet access for up to 52… Continue reading
Book review: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America
John Curl, For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2009). Curl’s history of cooperative and communal movements in America is set against the backdrop of one overpowering trend: the transition from an almost completely self-employed work force at the time of Independence,… Continue reading
The peer funding of green ventures
We asked some questions to Marc Dangeard, founder of the Entrepreneur Commons: “Q: Some people suggest that there is already too much capital chasing green technology and renewables, that it is the next bubble in the making, yet we clearly need to move massively in that direction. How does this contradiction in perceptions arise? MD:… Continue reading
The new cellular economic theory points to an economy of sharing
A low-level web of constant relationships, circular, cellular systems where shared, collaborative contributions are the norm, is developing. Here, the value resides with relationships, not transactions. Maybe, instead of buying and selling more and more in a mad race for grabbing the most growth, the future will be about a collaborative, community-oriented regenerative growth model…. Continue reading
The Emergence of Commons Trusts as Policy Framework
The poster below is an update to our announcement on the creation of a UN Lobby for Global Governance of the Commons by the People. This poster is used by James Quilligan, co-founder of the lobby.
Launch of the Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge
A huge international coalition has come together to campaign for respect for the civil rights of citizens and artists in the digital era. Today they will be launching internationally the “Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge”. This initiative constitutes the beginning of an unprecedented offensive of civil society in defense of the fundamental… Continue reading
Distributed energy infrastructure and alternative economies for social and cultural networking
Via Rasa Smite: ORGANIZED NETWORKS – Renewable Network Meeting and Workshop Programme Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5, 2009, 10.00-18.00 * Themes and Working Groups will include: “sustainable networking” – discussing politics, strategies and models of building sustainable network (with on-line participation of Ned Rossiter, author of the book “Organized Networks” ) “design for… Continue reading
Needlessly expensive patent funding may derail climage change efforts
Europe’s institutions seem to have pledged support for green IPR protection. Even environmental groups seem to agree money paid to big business in licenses — even if these are questionable — could be crucial in pushing toward a climate deal in December. Western governments are ready to shackle innovation through the promotion of useless patents… Continue reading
Maia Maia: A Coupon Currency for Carbon Reduction Initiatives and the Failure of Micro-initiatives
A contribution by Ryan Lanham: “A person inclined to follow P2P really wants to like the Maia Maia project, and I do, in principle. I really hope it works, but it won’t–in practice. The idea is fairly simple: Implement a carbon reduction club and thereby earn a standard amount of “booyas” which are a currency… Continue reading