Date archives "February 2010"

Pharmaceutical industry questions whether maximalist IP is in its own interests

Open innovation thinking gains a foothold even within the large multinationals, reports IP Watch, in a summary of the annual BioSquare meetup: “On a panel on open innovation, Ludo Lauwers, senior vice president for Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals, said that the current innovation model is not sustainable for the pharmaceutical sector, and companies should seek… Continue reading

Mark Rutledge for Cap and Share models for sustainable energy commons

Via Feasta: “Cap and Share: mechanisms to share scarce resources and provide economic incentives for renewable energy and efficiency investment. Mark Rutledge, an environmental consultant, argues that the adoption of Cap and Share, Feasta’s proposed framework for a global climate treaty, is a necessary tool for dealing with peak oil and the current world recession…. Continue reading

UK Labour to choose mutualism as core political message?

Something’s brewing in UK politics, where both parties are embracing cooperative approaches, writes the New Statesman. Excerpt from the report by James Macintyre: “Strategists have settled on a big idea … – the idea of mutualism. Labour is focusing on the best-known modern example: the John Lewis model, in which every employee is a “partner”… Continue reading

Pirates and Piracy: special issue of darkmatter journal

“Debates about piracy have long featured certain telling contradictions. At different times, pirates have been seen as both violent monsters and colourful folk heroes. They have been cast by historians and cultural critics as both capitalist marauders and militant workers fighting for a restoration of the commons. The pirate has become a compelling symbol of… Continue reading

Ludwig Schuster on the need for a New Monetary Pluralism

Ludwig Schuster talks about A New Monetary Pluralism: from a recombination of regional economic circles to investing in a sustainable future. Recorded on day two of The New Emergency Conference: Managing Risk and Building Resilience in a Resource Constrained World. Held on 10-12 June 2009, All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, Ireland This conference was… Continue reading

A collaborative approach to funding early stage social ventures

Our mission is, in part, to solve the systemic problem that impedes the flow of capital into social ventures because we believe that the development of an infrastructure that supports social ventures would be beneficial to humanity. Suresh Fernando presents his OpenKollab Ecosystem Pooled Fund: (it’s written as a letter to funders) OpenKollab’s is developing… Continue reading

Is free software private property?

In a 2003 essay, BENJAMIN HAK-FUNG CHIAO makes the startling claim that FOSS is actually Private Property, not in the legal sense, which creates a fictional Common Property, but in a economic sense, as individuals and companies can effectively exclude others from using it, thereby achieving one of the key characteristics of private property. See:… Continue reading

The prehistory of open source: episodes in collective invention

I found this April 2003 paper, which details historical examples of shared design in the industrial era: * Essay: Episodes of Collective Invention. Peter Meyer. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Office of Productivity and Technology, 4 August 2003 The author seems to suggest that in the past, such open periods were temporary, and of course… Continue reading

Call for papers: International Journal of Internet Research Ethics (IJIRE)

The International Journal of Internet Research Ethics (IJIRE) seeks papers from researchers describing best ethical practices in the investigation of online communities. This special issue, edited by Aleks Krotoski, aims to create a compendium of case studies and theoretical frameworks which future scholars will reference when designing their own analyses of populations and practices in… Continue reading