Interesting presentation by Richard Douthwaite of FEASTA, with recommendations on how to avoid the mistakes made by most local money schemes, in the context of a post Peak-Oil transition. Amongst the important topics discussed is: 1) the design of trading currencies for local communities; 2) the need for energy bonds that are paid back in… Continue reading
Date archives "January 2011"
P2P as the theory of the new class of knowledge workers
A sub-group of the ‘information proletariat’ are sometimes called ‘knowledge workers’, that is, those who jobs require high level of knowledge input obtained from advanced schooling. They are now about one third of the workforce in the US, more than twice as numerous as the manual factory proletariat. * I have long harboured the intution… Continue reading
Towards social accounting
Tom Walker: “What I see as strategically vital is a counter-mentality that redirects the irresistible momentum of technological development toward other ends. Werner Sombart described the concept of capital as something that “did not exist before double-entry bookkeeping.” “Capital,” he wrote, “can be defined as that amount of wealth which is used in making profits… Continue reading
The Ten Best P2P Books of 2010
This year, the crop of books on p2p related themes has been so overwhelming that I find it impossible to limit myself to the classic list of just ten books. I therefore have organized the list as a series of 10 clustered themes. The order of the listing is influenced by the quality of the… Continue reading
David Bollier on Framing the Commons
Part of the Remix the Commons series, which contrasts various ways to conceive and frame of the Commons. Here well-known commons’ advocate David Bollier: Framing the Commons: David Bollier in Berlin from Remix the Commons on Vimeo. David Bollier also has written an extensive interpretative summary of the Berlin Commons Conference, available here, of which… Continue reading
New ministerial appointment a setback for free culture in Brazil
Volker Grassmuck analyses the most likely very negative impact of the new Brazilian Minister of Culture: ” After five and a half years under Gilberto Gil and two and a half years under Juca Ferreira, the Ministry of Culture (MinC) will be headed by Ana Maria Buarque de Hollanda. This might mean the end of… Continue reading
Why Do Open User Interfaces Suck?
People know me as an advocate of free software, which is an ethical and political view, but at the same time, I’m a fairly non-technical user and hence often drawn to commercial software which is geared towards consumers. For example, I have used Windows XP for many years, even as I made presentations on peer… Continue reading
Book of the Week: Dark (Art) Matters, Radical Social Production in the Contemporary Art World
The majority of art world participants are in fact being groomed for failure through a managed system of political (small “p”) underdevelopment. Only those who believe that talent (like noble birth) inevitably determines one’s individual fortune would describe this as natural. And yet that is typically how the art market is described, as a natural… Continue reading
Comments on P2P Urbanism
The Furtherfield “P2P” interview by Lawrence Bird contains a passage about the critique of and by the emergent practitioners of ‘peer to peer urbanism’. Michael Mehaffy, co-author with Bio Urbanism founder Nikos Salingaros, of an essay on Geometric Fundamentalism, has written commentary on that passage. Here is a repeat of the Q & A first,… Continue reading
How Wikileaks has exposed the existence of a ‘dissent tax’
The main lessons of the Wikileaks affair: the increasing control of (relatively) unaccountable corporations and states over the key components of the Internet, and their increased willingness to use this control in politicized ways to impose a “dissent tax” on content they find objectionable. Ability to disseminate one’s ideas on the Internet is now a… Continue reading
OpenWear: Report on Sustainability, Openness and P2P production in the world of fashion
Via Bertram Niessen: “We are proud to announce that after nearly one year of research and discussions the research report of the EDUfashion project “OpenWear. Sustainability, Openness and P2P production in the world of fashion” is finally on-line. We hope that it will ignite discussions, actions and further researches about sustainability, sharing and micro-economies. You… Continue reading
Documentary on ‘local living economies’
The PBS documentary, Fixing the Future, is well worth seeing for its focus on local economic alternatives already practiced today. It also features thinkers such as David Korten. “Brancaccio travels across America uncovering innovative community and small business projects pioneered by inspirational personalities.” Watch the full episode. See more NOW on PBS. Here is also… Continue reading
Evo Morales on Climate Change
Some statements by the Bolivian president on the occasion of the Cancun climate summit: “On the need to discuss the rights of nature: “In past decades, the United Nations approved human rights, then civil rights, economic and political rights, and finally a few years ago indigenous rights. In this new century, it is time to… Continue reading
The New Year’s Message of the P2P Foundation: What Digital Commoners Need To Do
The following is a meditation on the strategic phases in the construction of a peer to peer world What have we been doing in the last few years, and what should we be doing next? Here is a list of major undertakings, some well under way, some barely begun. All need to be done, are… Continue reading
Silke Helfrich on Framing the Commons
Part of the Remix the Commons series, which contrasts various ways to conceive and frame of the Commons. Here German commons’ advocate Silke Helfrich: Framing the Commons: Silke Helfrich in Berlin from Remix the Commons on Vimeo.
Assessing the goals and strategies of the A2K movement
Excerpted from a long and really interesting interview of Yann-Moulier Boutang, conducted by Gaëlle Krikorian , and which appeared in the book: Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property. GK: In the fight to abolish slavery, the ultimate goal could be articulated clearly and simply. In the case of A2K, how is the… Continue reading