“Immanuel Wallerstein argues that in the context of systemic crisis, the challenge for intellectuals is to see clearly what is at stake intellectually, to measure clearly moral implications and assert moral preferences as well understand what is going on in the political sphere and how we can implement our vision of the true and the… Continue reading
Date archives "November 2010"
Interview with an engaged fashion designer
Recommended: read the whole interview of Otto Von Busch, author of Fashion-able, by Zoe Romano at OpenWear. Short excerpt on ‘participatory design’: Otto Von Busch: “What I call classic fashion design, what is still mainly taught at fashion schools and what we meet in media, is still very much based on the cult of the… Continue reading
From an era of transmission to an era of communication
The following is excerpted from a rather brilliant lecture on the state of the media in the era of the digital revolution, by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, which also compares the strategy of the Guardian to that of the Times (paywall): Excerpts “I want to discuss the possibility that we are living at the end… Continue reading
Can state services ever be transformed into a commons?
These comments reviewing a dialogue by 30 intellectuals on networked politics held in Berlin in 2008 (by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation), are still of interest. Hilary Wainwright (excerpt): Can state services ever be transformed into a commons? “The idea of the commons refers to how shared resources are managed, implying open access, collaborate self-management by… Continue reading
The Microfinance Fallacy
The impending collapse of the microcredit sector in India, in the context of lender and farmer suicides, makes it imperative to review the critiques of the model. Thanks to J. Martin Pedersen for the suggestions. 1. Hans Schuhmacher: “Microfinance attracted considerable attention in recent years, not least due to the conferment of the Nobel Prize… Continue reading
The next “five year plan” of the P2P Foundation: constructing livelihood through phyles
Towards a strategic relationship between the P2P Foundation and Las Indias Regular readers of our blog will have noticed that I have paid substantial attention to my discovery of the Spanish-language network developed by lasindias.net, which I hadn’t previously encountered. Las Indias, is a cooperative, a neomedieval ‘neo-Venetian’ guild structure that was rooted in cyberpunk… Continue reading
Researching the Self-Provision Model for Online Community Platforms
We are all dependent on corporate platforms for most of our networking needs, and often the call is heard, why not build our own services, with quite a few projects being developed to answer this call. But self-provisioning of social platforms has been done before, for example, by the Social Forums connected to the Alterglobalization… Continue reading
A general public license for seeds?
Context from Sepp Hasslberger: “The same multinational corporations that are putting their proprietary, genetically modified plants into the envorinment and onto our tables are also well on the way to establishing a monopoly …on seeds. They have purchased the majority of commercial seed companies and the choices for farmers to use non-GM seeds are getting… Continue reading
Discussions beyond the dichotomy of ‘downloading is theft’
Discussion of paper: Peer-to-peer-based file-sharing beyond the dichotomy of ‘downloading is theft’ vs. ‘information wants to be free’: How Swedish file-sharers motivate their action. Jonas Andersson (2010) Goldsmiths, University of London Jonas Andersson’s study of p2p based file-sharing, uses a methodology of combined interrogation of the technological structures, an examination of the aggregated group dynamics… Continue reading
Seeks: P2P Search – Do we need it?
With Google, Bing, Yahoo and lots of smaller search engines scouring the internet for content and arranging it for us to see at the push of a button, do we really need to worry about internet search any longer and what’s more – does P2P search have a place in the future of the internet?… Continue reading
Bringing the discussion on The Commons to Dakar In February 2011 at the World Social Forum
By Frederic Sultan: The World Social Forum and the World Forum on Science and Democracy will be two opportunities for the commoners to interact with other civic and social movements. Discussion on the Commons in the World Forum on Science and Democracy (WFSD) The World Forum on Science and Democracy (WFSD) will be held on… Continue reading
Shifting the tax burden from buildings to land
the shift of taxes from buildings (products of human effort) to land (product of natural forces), the oldest of these three tax shifts, has worked well wherever tried. It broke up latifundia-sized ranches in California and Australia, spurred impoverished Taiwan into the developed world, erected affordable housing in New York, granted Danish workers the biggest… Continue reading
Short video introduction to the Threadless crowdsourcing/manufacturing process
Despite the corporate viewpoint and shrill presentation, still of interest:
Common Ground in a Liquid City: the Commons in the City
* Book: Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future. Matt Hern. AK Press, 2009. From a double review by Chris Carlsson: “Two books I read in the past month overlap with each other in useful ways. The first, Commonwealth by Toni Negri and Michael Hardt, is the third volume… Continue reading
10 hypotheses about abundance and the commons
The following is from a really remarkable keynote speech by Roberto Verzola, Abundance and the generative logic of the commons, which was a keynote for the International Conference on the Commons, Berlin, Germany, Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, 2010. For the complete version with added commentary, go here. Roberto Verzola: “I will present my talk… Continue reading
My Agenda and Emphasis for the Icelandic Constitutional Assembly – Smári McCarthy
My Agenda and Emphasis for the Icelandic Constitutional Assembly Smári McCarthy [email protected] November 19, 2010 1 Direct democracy & distribution of authority Representative democracy is, topologically speaking, an advanced form of dic- tatorship. To put into the hands of few the ability to make decisions that effect the whole can at worst be the prelude… Continue reading