On May the 6th and the 7th 2010, the Journal of Information Technology and Politics organizes the 2nd annual thematic conference. The conference will examine Free/Libre and Open Source Software, the movement surrounding it, and the political issues associated with it. Erik von Hippel and Clay Johnson are the key speakers of this important, for… Continue reading
Date archives "April 2010"
refarm the city :: open source tools for urban farmers
reposted here with permission from Kristy Boyle. Originally published at http://openmaterials.org/2010/03/24/refarm-the-city-open-source-tools-for-urban-farmers/ Refarm the city (aka re:farm) is a collective project started and led by Hernani Dias with the purpose of developing open source software and hardware tools for urban farmers. In its creators’ words, the project is a cross between a good meal (the crop,… Continue reading
The spiritual aspects of permaculture: partnering with nature
From an interview with Starhawk: “Permaculture began as a way to imitate the relationships found in nature in order to design human communities and agricultural systems. As Star tells us in this interview, two Australians — Bill Mollison and David Holmgren — discovered many of the principles of permaculture while studying the Tasmanian rainforest. Their… Continue reading
Funding for creatives in a peer to peer world
My contribution to the Barcelona counter-summit to the Forum on Cultural Industries, March 27-28: Bauwens:Nuevos modelos de negocio, nuevos modelos de beneficio. ES/EN from eXgae on Vimeo.
Apple’s anti-generative strategy creates distorted ecosystem
How threatened might today’s content publishers feel by peer-to-peer apps that let iPhone users trade data from one phone to another? We know the answer to that: enough that they have persuaded Apple to exclude all such apps from the App Store. … If Apple is the gatekeeper to a device’s uses, the governments of… Continue reading
The commons in Europe and Latin America
The first contribution is excerpted from a discussion on the commoning mailing list, by Brigitte Kratzwald. In the second one, Massimo de Angelis of the Commoner blog, reflects back a second time on what he wrote about the “minga” water commons in Ecuador. This is also taken from the Commoning mailing list, which was set… Continue reading
The commonsware publishing model
From an interview with author/publisher Mark Murphy, who publishes technical books around Android. The interview was conducted by email. * Can you explain your concept of commonsware and how it fits in your publishing strategy. CommonsWare’s publishing strategy is fairly simple: try to give readers a fair deal. Digital publishing with a price tag attached… Continue reading
The role of technology in the ongoing protest movement in Thailand
The NYT stresses the link between technology and the ongoing protests in Thailand: “I used to think we were born poor and that was that,” said Ms. Thanida, who grew up in the provinces but now lives in Bangkok and rents out rooms to factory workers in the city’s industrial outskirts. “I have opened my… Continue reading
US Court Decision is Setback for Net Neutrality
Daily Wireless reports on a US court decision that strikes a blow against the concept of legally enforced net neutrality. In an article titled U.S. Court: Net Neutrality Illegal, the site details how a suit of the FCC attempting to force Comcast to grant equal access to its pipes to all subscribers was unanimously dismissed… Continue reading
Roman Catholic Women Priests and A Million Christians for Social Justice: egalitarian movements within the Catholic and Evangelical Churches
1. RCWP This was mentioned in Tikkun, in the context of the current moral crisis within the Catholic Church: “Attempts to transform the repressive authoritarian hierarchy of the Catholic Church have not received publicity. There are such attempts in every authoritarian hierarchy from authoritarian families to religions to educational systems. Since I am writing about… Continue reading
Charles Eisenstein’s new book: Sacred Economics
The motivation of the author, as published in an excerpt on Reality Sandwich: Charles Eisenstein: “Today we associate money with the profane, and for good reason. If anything is sacred in this world, it is surely not money. Money seems to be the enemy of all our better instincts, as is clear every time the… Continue reading
Is the collectivist left guilty of the rise of individualism?
This is the thesis of British conservative, but ‘p2p-oriented’ ‘Red Tory’ writer Phillip Blond, in a long essay for Prospect: (I personally think that the charge against the sixties is wrongheaded, but it is important to understand this mainstay of conservative critique) “To understand why the legacy of liberalism produces both state authoritarianism and atomised… Continue reading
Hilary Cottam: Participatory systems for the partner state
If the 20th century was the era of the global institution–the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the multinational corporation–then the 21st century will be the era of the participatory system. Excerpted from Hilary Cottam: (published for the Harvard International Review on January 1, 2010) “The UK’s Welfare State: An Outdated Institution If we turn… Continue reading
A new platform for dialogue on the commons: Earth Commons Rising
George Por recently launched a new conversation place for commons-related developments, which has become lively in a very short time. The invitation to Earth Commons Rising reads: “This forum is dedicated to facilitate the emergence of self-organizing, collective intelligence and consciousness of the international commons movement and serve as a virtual “stem cell” for its… Continue reading
The crisis of value in stock photography
Very relevant to our recent discussions on abundance and technological unemployment! Paul Fernhout alerted us to the NYT article: “For Photographers, the Image of a Shrinking Path” Excerpts: “Mr. Eich and Ms. Pruitt illustrate the huge shake-up in photography during the last decade. Amateurs, happy to accept small checks for snapshots of children and sunsets,… Continue reading
Open Standards, Open Source , European Interoperability and the EU
Open Standards, Open Source , European Interoperability and the EU Digital Agenda An open letter to Commissioners Alumnia, Barnier, Tajani and Kroes (from Jeremy Bennett) Dear Commissioner, The draft proposals for the new EU Digital Agenda1 indicate a strong commitment to the principles of open standards. This is underlined in section 2.6, which proposes six… Continue reading