Gordon Cook has published an extraordinary and in-depth report on the work of Eva Waskell, pioneer of the Election Integrity Movement: Report: The Privatization of Democratic Elections via Computer Technology, on Eva Waskell and the Election Integrity Movement. Cook Report, February 2010 Full report at http://www.cookreport.com/eva.pdf Intro via http://www.cookreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=38%3Acurrent-issues&id=253%3Aapr-may-2010&Itemid=73 Excerpts “Waskell: “The most important political… Continue reading
Date archives "June 2010"
Do-It-Yourself: Building a homemade nuclear reactor
In an article titled Extreme DIY: Building a homemade nuclear reactor in NYC the BBC is reporting on a Brooklyn web designer who spends his free time working on a nuclear fusion reactor. Mark Suppes with his fusion reactor “Mr Suppes, 32, is part of a growing community of “fusioneers” – amateur science junkies who… Continue reading
Onwards to a ‘third’ Group-Sharing Resource-Based ‘Economy’
Interview of Stephanie Smith, founder of the We Commune software project, by Allison Arieff of Shareable magazine: Interview: “AA: Explain the idea of the Third Economy. SS: The Third Economy is a group-based resource-sharing economy. I coined the term in order to give shape to the informal exchanges that are beginning to happen as a… Continue reading
The Value of Nothing, book review by David Bollier
Book: Raj Patel. The Value of Nothing. How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. 2010 = new book on the fallacies of conventional economics and the rise of the commoners. Review excerpt from David Bollier: “The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy is a spirited, well-written account of how… Continue reading
Community Currency Design Workshop in Scotland
Via John Rogers On The Money: A Local Money Design Course at Findhorn in August Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland is hosting ‘On The Money – a Vision Quest to the Heart of Local Money’, a five day workshop for local currency designers from August 14-18, 2010. Why now? Local money will play a critical role… Continue reading
A tale of two tomatoes: the rationale for proximity-based urban farming
Video by Mike Yohay of Cityscape Farms : (via Shareable magazine who carries a full interview) Excerpt: “Mike Yohay, the founder and CEO of Cityscape Farms, is on top of the world. Or rather, his business is. This fall, he’ll begin realizing his dream of urban farming- on commercial rooftops. Cityscape Farms’ mission is simple:… Continue reading
Understanding Michael Ruppert’s Collapse Scenario
This video is worth watching and pondering: Los Angeles based Michael Ruppert, author of Confronting Collapse, speaks on the tangible steps that must be taken to confront the grave global reality of our oil dependence. Rupport calls for a global lifeboat movement and in the beginning of this video he gives an impressive list of… Continue reading
PeerBook: Student develops new social networking software
Via PhysOrg A Scottish student who became worried about the lack of privacy on sites like Facebook has come up with a solution – he’s developed his own social networking program. St Andrews University Computer Science student Benjamin Birt was so concerned about the way some sites collect and trade in personal data that he… Continue reading
The Great Reset, book review by John Hagel
I have no doubt we are in for a new Kondratieff and a new “reset”, as I have argued on occasion myself. But will it take the form described here by Richard Florida and John Hagel, who are just assuming a continuation of “globalization as usual” and do not take into account any energy and… Continue reading
David Ronfeldt’s continued investigations of governance and state forms
“Blond and Bauwens do not lack academic or other credentials, but their orientations are far more philosophical and ideological, deliberately political, even theological and spiritual, than I normally see in searching for future speculations that bear on TIMN. This too makes them interesting to review together, as a change of pace. Each in his own… Continue reading
The open core business model is NOT open source
Henrik Igo (excerpts) in debate with MySQL: 1. Open Core is NOT Open Source “In short, open core is a model where a company produces a product that is mostly available as open source, but then there are some closed source components around the open source “core”. The point of the model is that it… Continue reading
Cognitive Surplus, book review by Evgeny Morozov
“The Internet will not automatically preserve—never mind improve—the health of democratic politics. Yes, a wired future might look good for democracy if some of the social functions currently performed by traditional media are taken up by new Internet projects. But that outcome needs to be demonstrated—perhaps constructively aimed at—rather than assumed. For populists such as… Continue reading
Introducing the food justice movement
Excerpted from Robert Gottlieb : “One of the most significant forms of innovation and change resides in the food sector, led by groups that have embraced the cause of what they are calling “food justice.” These include groups like the Holyoke, Massachusetts Nuestras Raices organization that links inner city community gardens, environmental justice organizing, and… Continue reading
Superfluid – exchange goods, services or simply favors…
Superfluid’s Quids are a stand-alone, non exchangeable currency intended to facilitate the trading of goods, services or … favors. The aim seems to be to build a community around a currency, rather than to impose an alternative currency on an existing community. Superfluid has created a commercially oriented currency, in the sense that it’s privately… Continue reading
Open Source Banking Software – MyBanco
MyBanco is free, open source software for banks to handle customers’ accounts. It is an alternative to commercial banking software. Their target public of MyBanco are banks, who normally have to acquire or pay for the use of proprietary software to do what this open source package does – handle customer accounts. MyBanco apparently only… Continue reading
On oil spills and natural resource commons
1. One major lesson is that our natural capital assets and other public goods are far too valuable to continue to put them at such high risk from private interests. We need better (not necessarily more) regulation and strong incentives to protect these assets against actions that put them at risk. While the Obama administration’s… Continue reading