On March 4 2010, Gordon Cook was able to interview me in Bangkok. This became the basis for the August-September special issue of the Cook Report, a newsletter that is distributed to telecommunication leaders. It’s the most in-depth profile of our work to date and the first 17 pages, which feature a detailed comparison of… Continue reading
Date archives "September 2010"
Rich Carlson’s critique of Integral Theory as an ideology
This is a reprint from April 2008: It is always great when you feel that you have discovered a ‘soul brother’, someone whom you feel has a similar understanding of the world, even though of course many details may differ. One such person is Rich Carlson, who is an integral/integrative thinker who went through Aurobindo’s… Continue reading
The end of venture capital and the beginning of peer-funded, “slow money” based production using shared designs and low-capital machinery
We’ve made and cited the argument before: In peer production, the interests of capitalists and entrepreneurs are no longer aligned Essentially, in an era of open knowledge, free code and shared designs, the design phase needs less and less capital, and as shared design communities progress, they design not just sustainable products, but a new… Continue reading
The Gordon Cook Interview (4): Peak Hierarchy and Open Agriculture
On March 4 2010, Gordon Cook was able to interview me in Bangkok. This became the basis for the August-September special issue of the Cook Report, a newsletter that is distributed to telecommunication leaders. It’s the most in-depth profile of our work to date and the first 17 pages, which feature a detailed comparison of… Continue reading
A response to the “clicktivism” critique
Ben Brandzel insists, online political organizing goes way beyond clicktivism, excerpt: “First, we should be clear about what ‘online organising’ actually means, and it is simply this: people collaborating over the internet to convert whatever resources we can spare into social, economic and political change. These resources include our opinions, votes, time, relationships, material goods,… Continue reading
The constraining role of IP and Patents (2): case study on why Germany overtook England in the 19th century
Did Germany experience rapid industrial expansion in the 19th century due to an absence of copyright law? A German historian argues that the massive proliferation of books, and thus knowledge, laid the foundation for the country’s industrial might. Der Spiegel discusses a book by Eckhard Höffner that shows that a key reason for Germany’s rapid… Continue reading
The Gordon Cook Interview (3): from the commons to open and distributed manufacturing
On March 4 2010, Gordon Cook was able to interview me in Bangkok. This became the basis for the August-September special issue of the Cook Report, a newsletter that is distributed to telecommunication leaders. It’s the most in-depth profile of our work to date and the first 17 pages, which feature a detailed comparison of… Continue reading
Community vs. Centralized Development, a comparison
On the occasion of MediaWiki’s move from volunteer to professional development, Aryeh Gregor comments on the distinction between the two models: “Let me begin with definitions. I will draw a basic distinction between community development and centralized development. I’ll start with two motivating examples. Firefox is developed by a community. Everything involved in the project… Continue reading
Matthew Taylor on the Ethical Economy as the 21st Cy. Enlightenment
Great and recommended animated RSA video presentation on what is changing and needs to change, in our culture, and how this can be based on the new scientific understandings of human nature. Video:
The Gordon Cook Interview (2): phase transitions, scarcity, and abundance
On March 4 2010, Gordon Cook was able to interview me in Bangkok. This became the basis for the August-September special issue of the Cook Report, a newsletter that is distributed to telecommunication leaders. It’s the most in-depth profile of our work to date and the first 17 pages, which feature a detailed comparison of… Continue reading
Eric Hunting on “The Case For Open-Source Design: Can Design By Committee Work?”
We asked our friend Eric Hunting to comment on the following article about the limitations of free software in terms of designing user-friendly interfaces: The article: * The Case For Open-Source Design: Can Design By Committee Work? (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/09/01/the-case-for-open-source-design-can-design-by-committee-work/) is authored by Mushon Zer-Aviv. Eric Hunting: I found this article rather peculiar. Mushon Zer-Aviv seems to… Continue reading
The resilience of the cooperative model during the financial meltdown
“Available evidence suggests that, with few exceptions, cooperative enterprises across all sectors and regions are relatively more resilient to the current market shocks than their capital-centred counterparts,” Excerpted from “Cooperatives and the crisis”, from the ILO website: “Some of the available evidence he refers to comes from a recent study for the ILO by two… Continue reading
From the digital divide to the data divide?
Interesting intervention and warning from Michael Gurstein: The thesis: “Efforts to extend access to “data” will perhaps inevitably create a “data divide” parallel to the oft-discussed “digital divide” between those who have access to data which could have significance in their daily lives and those who don’t. Associated with this will one can assume, be… Continue reading
The Gordon Cook Interview (1): On the origins of our engagement with P2P
On March 4 2010, Gordon Cook was able to interview me in Bangkok. This became the basis for the August-September special issue of the Cook Report, a newsletter that is distributed to telecommunication leaders. It’s the most in-depth profile of our work to date and the first 17 pages, which feature a detailed comparison of… Continue reading
Paying Attention: Digital Media Cultures and Generational Responsibility
6-10 September 2010 Scandic Linköping Vast, Linköping, Sweden Chaired by: Jonathan Dovey, Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England, UK and Patrick Crogan, Department of Culture, Media and Drama, University of the West of England, UK “Paying Attention” concerns the politics, ethics and aesthetics of the attention economy. This is the social… Continue reading
Sharing Is Contagious: An Infographic on the Rise of Collaborative Consumption
“Sharing is Contagious” charts how we are increasingly growing up sharing files, photos, knowledge, and daily thoughts—and how these collaborative behaviors are moving into other areas of our lives. From bike-sharing to co-working to peer-to-peer rental, a dotted line is forming between “what’s mine,” “what’s yours,” and “what’s ours.” Technology and peer communities are enabling… Continue reading