Thus far all of the major space programs have been led by national governments in conjunction. There are a few others that are being run by either huge corporations and/or individual billionaires. Needless to say that at the moment the space-race is not one for the rest of us. Until now. Into the arena comes… Continue reading
Date archives "October 2010"
Towards Radical Urban Resilience: Toolbox for Sustainable City Living
I met the co-author Scott Kellogg during a conference in Stavanger, Norway, had the book in my hands, read the intro, and it is really special, strongly recommended for city folks ‘in transition’. The book’s intro is worth reading, via Scribd: toolbox
File Sharing Grows Up and Grasps the Economics of Content
One of the back-and-forth arguments around file-sharing is that those indulging in the practise are just taking (some would say stealing) from the creators and offering nothing back. The riposte is that the activities of file sharers act to promote the films rather than destroy their income. Here’s one example: The story of Jerome Bixby’s… Continue reading
On Open Education and Market Forces: Education is not a commodity but a vital social good
Excerpted from a contribution by Stephen Downes: “Education is not something that is simply bought and sold, as a commodity, but rather something a society does to advance its own objectives. That it is, therefore, something too important to be left to the whims of the marketplace. And that the content of an education cannot… Continue reading
Join us at the Oxcars and Free Culture Forum in Barcelona
Great trailer:
Dean Shareski on the Shariness Factor and Sharing as a Moral Imperative
Below is a much talked about presentation from Dean Shareski on sharing for a K12 conference audience. Stephen Downes comments: “”Sharing is the threat. Not just a threat. It is the whole of the thing. A photo taken on a mobile now becomes instantaneously and pervasively visible on Flickr or other sharing websites. This act… Continue reading
Peter Lipman on the pitfalls of the Big Society
Rob Hopkins reports on a Transition Network conference dedicated to the Big Society: (excerpt on introductory lecture only) “Peter Lipman, Chair of Transition Network (who I don’t think will mind my attributing these particular words to him…), gave an overview of the Big Society to frame the discussions for the day. He said that he… Continue reading
Social Enterprises in the Transition
Via: “Here is a great short film made by Harvest Creative for EMSSE (East Midlands School for Social Entrepreneurs) about the exciting overlaps between Transition and social enterprise.” Video:
Umair Haque on the new leadership
Excerpted from a longer critique of U.S. corporate culture, and its linkage to macho dominance. Umair Haque: “Maybe strength in the 21st century isn’t about dominance. My hunch is that it’s about the very opposite — it’s about the capacity to evoke. It’s about the willingness to serve a bigger purpose than yourself, the capacity… Continue reading
Neal Gorenflo: Catalyzing the shift towards a new peer economy
Messr. Gladwell, I agree with you. Social media isn’t changing the world, but it is helping to create a new one that will obsolete the old. Viva la evolucion. Neal Gorenflo of Shareable has his own reply to Malcolm Gladwell’s article on twitter activism: Excerpts: “From my perspective as publisher of Shareable, Gladwell’s article and… Continue reading
A Brief History of P2P Urbanism
P2P (peer-to-peer) Urbanism joins ideas from the open-source software movement together with new thinking by urbanists, into a discipline oriented towards satisfying human needs. P2P-Urbanism is concerned with cooperative and creative efforts to define space for people’s use. This essay explains P2P-Urbanism as the outcome of several historical processes, describes the cooperative participation schemes that… Continue reading
Peer Journalism Steps-up and Covers the Congo Civil War
What is the deadliest war of recent years? Afghanistan? No. Iraq? No. Colombia? No. Darfur? Not yet – but you are getting closer – estimates of the dead from this war are 300,000. Add a zero and some – to around 3,900,000 and you approach the dead toll of the bloodiest war since the Nazi’s… Continue reading
The Problem of Funding Early Stage Social Ventures
Suresh Fernando is starting a series of posts examining the systemic issues with funding “social ventures” (which would include peer production projects): FIRST VIDEO: The Systemic Problem of Old Style Financing Explained “There exists a systemic problem preventing the flow of capital to early stage projects that deliver social value. This problem has to do… Continue reading
Book of the Week: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
“Collaborative Consumption occurs when people come together through virtual and real-world communities to share, barter, trade, rent, gift, lend, and swap to get the same pleasures of ownership with reduced personal burden and cost and lower environmental impact.” * Book: What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers… Continue reading
Open Notebook Science: Interview with Jean-Claude Bradley
Via Richard Poynder: Jean-Claude Bradley is an organic chemist at Drexel University in Philadelphia. As with most scientists, Bradley used to be very secretive. He kept his research under wraps until publication and frequently applied for patents on his work in nanotechnology and gene therapy. However, he asked himself a difficult question 5 years ago:… Continue reading
Top Ten Constituents of New Commons Economy
The puzzle of the constituents of a new economic systems are slowly emerging. Check out the links for extensive documentation in our P2P Foundation Wiki. As Sam Rose comments: P2P and commons paradigms are essential theoretical frameworks for emerging localized economies. People in emerging local economies are searching for plausible ways to operate that do… Continue reading