Walt Patterson, an Associate Fellow in the Energy, Environment and Development Programme at Chatham House in London, UK, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex, and Michel Bauwens contribute their ideas and perspectives on P2P infrastructures to Re-public’s special issue about P2P energy. Patterson proposes that we refocus so-called ‘energy’ activities to shift… Continue reading
Date archives "December 2009"
New Models for Shared Leadership
Beautiful interview, another find from Peak Moment TV: ” Mediator Anne Oliver would have us move back to our wisdom and forward to new social forms that are inclusive, respect all voices, and share leadership. She uses “Appreciative Inquiry” where we tell each other our stories, and out of our successful experiences, find values that… Continue reading
ACTA: A Global Threat to Freedoms (Open Letter)
Via our friends at La Quadrature du Net: The context: “”Non-Governmental Organizations, consumers unions and online service providers associations publish an open letter to the EuropeaN institutions regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) currently under negotiation. They call on the European Parliament and the EU negotiators to oppose provisions of the draft multilateral agreement that… Continue reading
The political economy of P2P energy
“The political economy of P2P energy” is the alternative title that I could give to George Papanikolaou’s, who is a member of the P2P Foundation in Greece, very interesting and thought-provoking text written for the new special issue of the political journal Re-public. The article is called “P2P energy production and the social conflicts in… Continue reading
Monitoring the trend towards open and distributed manufacturing
Some recommendations about using our P2P Foundation material for this: * In the wiki, we have to sections, http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Design (for the open/shared design cooperation aspect), and http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Manufacturing for the ‘making’ aspect. There are mirrored by the two delicious tags, http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/P2P-Design and http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/P2P-Manufacturing, and also http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/P2P-Hardware . I would recommend reading the recommended intro articles on… Continue reading
Francis Ayley on Using Local Currencies for Replacing Scarcity with Trust
Interesting interview via Peak Moment TV: Francis Ayley established over a dozen local currencies in the UK before moving to the U.S. He contrasts our standard, scarcity- and debt-based money system with local currencies in which “there’s always as much as you need.” Local currencies like his Fourth Corner Exchange issue money when members trade… Continue reading
P2P Labor after post-fordism
Part of the extraordinary conference that was organized by Trebor Scholz in New York, i.e. The Internet as Playground and Factory, here’s a 6 minute interview on how peer to peer is related to the theme of the new work culture. I was heavily jetlagged, but it still seems to make sense The Internet as… Continue reading
The story of the Vancouver carsharing coop
Via Peak Moment: “A superb urban transport solution whose time has come. Founder Tracey Axelsson recounts the ins-and-outs of North America’s oldest and largest car-sharing cooperative–membership, online scheduling, vehicle types, usage costs, preferred parking.”
New issue about P2P energy production
From the editorial: “While writing the text of the call for papers for the current issue, our primary aim was to invite contributions towards a critical view of the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy production and distribution. However, a call for papers has always been an open challenge — being unsure of what and where you will… Continue reading
19 Institutions for a transition towards a P2P Civilisation
According to Dave Pollard: “Joanna Macy’s book Coming Back to Life has the following list (the last six items are my own additions):” (we recommend you read the complementary meditation by Jeff Vail about the right balance between hierarchy and equality) 1. teach-ins and peer study groups 2. think tanks and Gaian learning institutions (where… Continue reading
John Thackara on the transition to a green and ethical economy in the countries of the South
Talking to a Sri Lankan audience, and taking the fashion industry as an example, here is John Thackara at the Sri Lanka Design Festival 30 November 2009. A wonderful lecture, saying all that needs to be said. Excerpt from John Thackara: “I will talk today about the emerging green economy – its ethical basis, and… Continue reading
Report from the Open Hardware Camp
Our friend Tia Carr Williams attented the afternoon session at NESTA on “Collaborative Strategies and Challenges of Making Things the Open Source Way“. Here’s her report: “This event was organized by 40Fires in partnership with Nesta. The 40Fires Foundation seeks to develop energy-efficient cars, and other sustainable products, using an open source approach. The Foundation… Continue reading
Green tech as a commons: are patents good for climate change?
An interview with John Wilbanks around the Copenhagen climate summit related theme: are patents good for climate change? John Wilbanks is the Chair of the Science Commons project at Creative Commons. The following interview (originally published in italian by Il Manifesto) is about the role of intellectual property rights in the climate change issues that… Continue reading
Don Tapscott on the Global Citizen Engagement Initiative
Don Tapscott participated in the “Global Redesign Initiative” of the World Economic Forum in Dubai. Called the Global Agenda Summit, 80 Councils composed of a dozen members each, discussed how to redesign our systems for global cooperation for the 21st century. In his report, which makes clear that the global elite understands just as well… Continue reading
Declaration of Open Government by Australia
Glyn Moody reports on his blog Open: The Australian government is emerging as one of the leaders in the sphere of open government. It has now published a draft report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce, entitled “Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0” (hmm, not quite sure about that phraseology). Here’s the central recommendation: A Declaration… Continue reading
Shaping and generating powerful relationships at work
Rune Kvist Olsen, of whom we recently referenced the paper, The DemoCratic Workplace., has published an update paper on our Ning website: * Shaping and generating powerful relationships at work Rune writes that it “differs from the previous paper in the way that this paper gives a more detailed description of the terminology and the… Continue reading