“There are a number of basic features that are associated with this magnificent event that are key, I think, to understanding not just the Egyptian Revolution but also the emerging Arab uprisings of 2011. Those features include the power of marginal forces; spontaneity as an art of moving; civic character as a conscious ethical contrast… Continue reading
Date archives "February 2011"
J. Martin Pedersen on Information Exceptionalism
Last month J. Martin Pedersen published, on the P2P Foundation Wiki, a summary of his article “Property, Commoning and the Politics of Free Software.” As I understand his argument, Martin objects to what he calls “information exceptionalism,” or the belief that information is uniquely qualified to be free because of some fundamental distinction (in terms… Continue reading
Egypt: the second revolution without representation (1)
(Tunisia of course, having set the stage being the first one) This is excerpted from a longer article by Chris Carlson, which contains links to the quoted material. Chris Carlson: ” A fantastic essay appeared in The Asia-Pacific Journal by Mohammed A. Bamyeh, which he datelined Al-Qahira, The City Victorious, February 6, 2011. …in every… Continue reading
The water commons approach as an alternative to the water resource wars
If relatively poor people confronted with extreme scarcity in arid regions can create a stable, collective, and nonhierarchical common pool system, then certainly we can find ways to do so as well with all of the tools at our disposal. Water is growing short and military theorists predict increased conflicts over this resource. But there… Continue reading
A 3-point critique of Zeitgeist, Moving Forward
The message of Moving forward is quite simple: no money, no exchange, no capital, no state. To put it in one word: Communism. Isn’t that quite astonishing? Amidst the terminal crisis of capitalism and the upcoming reorganization of elites to prolong their domination, without any visible movement that tries to reach beyond, people suddenly begin… Continue reading
The state of the access to knowledge movement
From an interview at the Soros Foundation blog with Vera Franz: “What is the A2K movement, and what issues do its members seek to address? The access to knowledge (A2K) movement first came together in 2004 to respond to a crisis, namely the increasing imbalance between privatized knowledge (that which is controlled by the intellectual… Continue reading
The logic of the market versus the logic of the commons
Excerpted from Silke Helfrich: Today, the commons are often excluded from policy discussions and commoners are often disempowered. This tendency is enforced by the dominant political thinking, which is used to thinking in dichotomies. Here the market, there the state, here the private, there the public, here the teacher, there the pupil, here competition, there… Continue reading
In Iran: economic reforms usher in a de facto Citizen’s Income
By Hamid Tabatabai, in the Citizen’s Income Newsletter, Issue 1, 2011: “The concept of a Basic or Citizen’s Income is virtually unknown in Iran. In nearly three years of discussion and debate over the government’s new economic reforms, there has been no mention of it at all in political, academic or media circles. And yet,… Continue reading
Interview with Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey
Must see interview: (Interview with Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey from MSNBC — this was uploaded at the request of Mr. Salem himself. The original source is here: http:// www . msnbc . msn . com /id/ 21134540 /vp/ 41464342#41464342)
The third form of property: public, private, common
Excerpted from an editorial by Michael Hardt: “Too often it appears as though our only choices are capitalism or socialism, the rule of private property or that of public property, such that the only cure for the ills of state control is to privatise and for the ills of capital to publicise, that is, exert… Continue reading
University cuts, creative industries, and the digital economy: a conversation between Tiziana Terranova and Jussa Parikka
This interesting conversation/interview about the crisis of the universities in Europe, and particularly in the UK, was published in the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto on 14 November 2010 in Italian. The interview: Tiziana Terranova: In Italy, we have been facing substantial cuts to the public education sector for a few years now – cuts that… Continue reading
Open letter to President Dilma Rousseff in support of the work of the Brazilian society and government for the cultural commons
(please note: add your signatures to this appeal by confirming to silke.helfrich@gmx.de) February, 2011 This is an open letter to President Dilma Rousseff signed by international organizations, academics and activists in support of the work of the Brazilian society and government for the cultural commons We are hopeful that the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, MinC,… Continue reading
Patents are Hindering Cures For Paralysis, Diabetes And Blindness
President Obama’s suggestion that we’re more innovative because we get more patents is completely off the mark. Via Techdirt (excerpt): “We’ve talked a lot about how patents actually hinder the rate of innovation in many research areas. That’s because nearly all innovation does not work on “the one big breakthrough” theory, but on incremental improvements… Continue reading
Understanding the logic of ‘intervallic periods’, i.e. periods with riots, not revolutions
While the events in Tunisia and Egypt can ellicit the sympathies of emancipatory movements and all those who care for human freedom, they do as yet not propose an alternative, only the desire to get rid of authocracy, and achieve the levels of insufficient democracy that we have in the Western world. Such ‘riots without… Continue reading
Manufacturing consent in architecture
A little investigation reveals why the situation in architecture is so terribly polarized. Currently, architects go through an educational system that instills conformity to ideology, and which trains young architects in a way of thinking that accepts no revision of certain pre-formed beliefs about their discipline. The professional milieu is no better, as it continues… Continue reading
International Forum on Access to Culture and Knowledge in the Digital Era – Organization and Action (FCForum)
The FCForum is an international arena in wich to build and coordinate action around issues related to free/libre culture and access to knowledge. Against the powerful lobbies of the copyright industries, the FCForum is a space for the construction of proposals arising from civil society in order to strengthen citizen’s positions in the debate around… Continue reading