Date archives "April 2010"

Commons, Market, Capital and State (6): water commons, community and state (part one)

Massimo de Angelis continues his Andean travels and is know in Bolivia. In an article on water commons in the country, he makes some very interesting general points about the relation between the commons and the state, which we’ll publish in two parts: Part 1: “Commons, understood generally as the autonomous institutions and practices of… Continue reading

Appeal to EU: Patents Inhibiting Knowledge Diffusion For Green Technology

An excerpt from IP Watch, from David Cronin: “Paul David, a member of the Knowledge for Growth (K4G) group, which counsels the European Commission on industrial innovation, appealed to the EU and US not to resort to litigation over patents relating to ‘green’ technology such as that used in generating renewable energy. Arguing that patents… Continue reading

Commons, Market, Capital and State (5): network vs. state

A contribution from Dimitri Kleiner, followed by a discussion which occured in Facebook: “Capitalism depends on the State to impose control into the network economy, to choke relations through authorized channels, and thereby capture value that would otherwise be retained by its producers. Points of control are introduce into the natural mesh of social relations…. Continue reading

Commons, Market, Capital and State (4): a critique of free market ideology

Dmytri Kleiner, a German mutualist activist, who recently published a Telekommunisten Manifesto, argues a free market is impossible under capitalist conditions: “Capitalism depends on the appropriation of value for its subsistence and growth. The disingenuous rhetoric of the “Free Market” is a smoke screen to justify a system of privilege and exploitation, better called the… Continue reading

Introducing a biocultural approach towards Traditional Knowledge Commons licensing

“In August 2009, around 80 traditional healers living in the Bushbuckridge area of the Mpumalanga province in South Africa developed a biocultural community protocol which provided clear terms and conditions for access to their collectively held traditional knowledge (TK).” Report: Imagining a Traditional Knowledge Commons. A community approach to sharing traditional knowledge for non-commercial research…. Continue reading

P2P and the Role of Exclusion II: the case of Wikipedia

A re-post from Golpe de e-Estado One of the crucial characteristics of P2P is equipotency of its participants, in consequence it is not exclusion but non-rivalry or even “anti-rivalry“, with free-riders making positive contributions to production (“outriders”), what is essential (see part I). But exclusion is still present: Wikipedia, one of the mayor successes of… Continue reading

IPN: A Peer-to-Peer Network Approach to Psychological Work

Psychological Commons’ refers to a psychological space where people can find support for enquiries into their particular experience of the human condition. It is a space informed but not dominated by the hundreds of thousands of articles, journals, books, tapes, cd’s and DVDs about psychology, the hundreds of varieties of psycho-practice, plus survivor groups, user… Continue reading

Charles Leadbeater: should the UK go back to the 17th cy Diggers’ sense of community?

The Guardian’s Madeleine Bunting reports on a new pamphlet for the Young Foundation by Charles Leadbeater, Digging for the Future. Excerpt: “Leadbeater takes three aspects of Winstanley’s ideas. The first is the critique of power and his vision of self-organising, self-sufficient communities – the diggers who grew their own food. Leadbeater thinks you can take… Continue reading

The Five Commons- An invitation to 21st Century wealth-generating ecologies

Title: The Five Commons – An invitation to 21st Century wealth-generating ecologies Authors: Paul B. Hartzog, Sam Rose, Richard C. Adler Web: The Forward Foundation http://www.forwardfound.org License: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Ref: FF-2010-4-19 Introduction   The Five Commons constitutes an evolving vision of the emerging 21st Century economy. Each of the five commons represents a… Continue reading

A double review of: The Firm as Collaborative Community

the entire book is filled with really interesting insights. If you’re interested in the transformation of work and work organization, as I am, or if you’re just interested in how macro changes are affecting rhetoric and values, I highly recommend this book. Tom Haskins has been reading this important book, and took extensive notes. And… Continue reading