The role of open manufacturing in “community bootstrapping”—i.e., the bottom-up economic development in struggling communities, using their own local resources—has been discussed more than once on the P2P Research and Open Manufacturing lists. Experiments in commons- or cooperative-oriented local economies have also been a topic of interest. Most recently, my post on the cooperative economy… Continue reading
Date archives "April 2010"
The Future of Money
The March issue of Wired Magazine carries an article titled: The Future of Money: It’s Flexible, Frictionless and (Almost) Free. For anyone advocating changes to the current monetary system, local currencies or an internet-based alternative to bank-issued money, the article is a bit of a disappointment. What is discussed is all about how to move… Continue reading
Machiavelli 2.0: The Four Fundamental Principles of the Network Society
Because of this four-way assault on our existing societal institutions, even as good followers of Machiavelli, we have to expect dramatic shifts in how we do things in collectivities from the local to the global level. Many societal communities are already functioning according to such principles, most notably in open source development, global terrorism, political… Continue reading
Sharing economics in Haiti
A statement by 17 progressive Haitian organizations read, “These spontaneous organs of solidarity must now play a central role in the reconstruction and planning of our national space… [A] collective approach in seeking common responses to our problems” could “build a real and viable alternative based on popular democracy.” Excerpt from a report from Haiti,… Continue reading
New Journal: Critical Studies in Peer Production
This project is still in project stage, more info here. Provisional call for submissions: “Critical Studies in Peer Production (CSPP) seeks high-quality contributions from researchers and practitioners of peer production. We understand peer production as a mode of commons-based and oriented production in which participation is voluntary and predicated on the self-selection of tasks. Notable… Continue reading
The state of digital manufacturing
Where are we at, right now. Excerpt from a review by Albert Wegner: “So how far are we along this path? It is early days. Probably a little too early to declare that atoms “are” the new bits. But progress has been rapid and it feels distinctly as if we are at the cusp of… Continue reading
Obstacles to open source hardware (3): the MakerBot derivatives controversy
This was recently published in the MakerBot blog, and has interesting comments by the community after the original article. It is entitled: Open Source Ethics and Dead End Derivatives “Open Source Hardware is hardware that has an open license. You can copy it, develop it, and even sell it yourself. You must provide attribution to… Continue reading
How new currencies can change the world
Excerpts from an interview by the Integral Leadership Review, where Jordan MacLeod talks about his book: New Currency: How Money Changes the World as We Know It: JM: New Currency establishes money as a leverage point for economic and broader social transformation. It examines the historical evolution of money and economic systems and their interdependent… Continue reading
With whom can we work together: is it possible to ally progressives and conservatives around P2P themes and priorities?
With whom can we work together: is it possible to ally progressives and conservatives around P2P themes and priorities? In my contribution yesterday, I called for a grand alliance of and for the commons. Today I would like to ask a second question: how broad can such alliance potentially be? Can it include forces from… Continue reading
Maja van der Velden: An appeal for cognitive justice in the Wikipedia
On the occasion of the Wikipedia CPOV conference in Amsterdam last week, Juliana Brunello interviewed one of the best presenters, Maja van der Velden: ““You have written about cognitive justice, meaning that all kinds of knowledge should be equally valid. In this sense, do you believe that Wikipedia is biased? Wikipedia is as biased as… Continue reading
The grand alliance for the commons: the task of 21 cy. politics
In my writings on P2P Theory, I have a rather simple, but I believe true, formula to describe the crisis of the global system of neoliberal capitalism. Namely, – i.e. based on a false belief that nature is infinitely abundant as a resource to be used by humanity, without regard for the finitude of our… Continue reading
Cooperative Economy in Salinas
Massimo de Angelis of the editor’s blog has a fascinating story about the cooperative economy in the Salinas region of the Ecuadorian Andes. The Salinas area, a region centering on the village of the same name, includes some thirty communities comprising a total of around six thousand people. The area economy is a network of… Continue reading
The problem with pharma patents, and the solution
Excerpted from the Guardian: Philip Soos: 1. The problem “Why is a 15th century medieval economic system being used to finance R&D in the 20th and 21st centuries? Could there be better alternatives? The problems generated by this system are legion, but only two economists have analysed the costs and distortions in depth and proposed… Continue reading
Obstacles to open source hardware (2): IP, lack of adequate open licenses, patents
Howard Wen’s article on the mainstreaming of open source gadgets, reviews some of the roadblocks on the road to more open hardware, and yesterday, we excerpted his comments on the lack of open source culture in component makers. Today, excerpts from his review on IP related issues. The original article has many links. Howard Wen:… Continue reading