Date archives "March 2010"

Langdon Winner: from cyber-libertarianism to cyber-communautarianism?

Paul Fernhout unearthed this older piece from Langdon Winner: “One especially foggy area in cyberlibertarian rhetoric is its depiction of matters of power and distribution. Who stands to gain and who will lose in the transformations now underway? Will existing sources of injustice be reduced or amplified? Will the promised democratization benefit the populace as… Continue reading

Mobile vs. Internet for the Global South: continuing the debate

The Community Informatics mailing list has a continuing debate on whether the diffusion of mobile broadband is sufficient to replace the internet in developing countries. One of the best contributions is from Parminder Jeet Singh of IT for Change: “PC/Internet versus mobiles is one of the most important policy issues in ICTD today. It is… Continue reading

Is Our Monetary Structure a Systemic Cause for Financial Instability?

Here is a paper by Bernard Lietaer and others which points to some important parallels between the (monetary) economy and natural eco-systems. The authors come to a rather surprising conclusion: Increased efficiency is not in the interests of a well working economic system. There rather should be a balance between efficiency and resiliency, and one… Continue reading

Innovating through commons use: community-based enterprise

Via Frank van Laerhoven: Editors-in-Chief Frank van Laerhoven and Erling Berge are pleased to announce the publication of Volume 4, Issue 1 (2010) of the International Journal of the Commons. Our newest issue contains a special feature called “Innovating through commons use: community-based enterprises” that was prepared by Iain J. Davidson Hunt and Fikret Berkes…. Continue reading

Are digital books as good or better than physical books at protecting you and your rights as a reader?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has produced a very handy checklist to ask yourself how much reading rights you are giving away when accepting DRM restrictions on the new generation of eBooks. Here’s the intro: “After several years of false starts, the universe of digital books seems at last poised to expand dramatically. Readers should view… Continue reading

Financial Crisis—Environmental Crisis: the link with ‘green money’

The Ecopolitics Online Journal 3, Spring/Summer 2009: Green Economics, is dedicated to the following important topic: * Financial Crisis—Environmental Crisis: What is the Link? Co-editor Molly Cato writes: All economists are looking on in horror as they see the slow motion car crash that is befalling the global economy. But green economists have a particularly… Continue reading

The emergence of the radical homemakers movement

Another sign of the strong cultural shift that is taking place. Below is an excerpt from Shannon Hayes’ newest book, Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity From a Consumer Culture, Left to Write Press, 2010, which was previously published in Yes magazine (CC license) Shannon Hayes: “Many of us born in the mid-seventies learned from our parents… Continue reading

Debate on the for-free economy

The “for-free economy” was the subject of one of the four daily debates held Jan. 26-28 at the seminar to assess the WSF’s first 10 years in Porto Alegre. Maria Osava reports: “The field of “the gratis economy” or “freeconomics” is “expanding dramatically” with the rising importance of knowledge as a major component in goods… Continue reading

Adrian Chan on the new paradigms of streamtime sociality

Interesting meditation on the new peer socialities, in which Adrian Chan recognizes two major shifts. This is followed by a related meditation from Rob Horning (Generation Bubble blog), who wonders whether the new corporate-funded social networks are not designed to create ‘capital-friendly’ identity formation. Adrian Chan on the first shift “The way I see it… Continue reading