* Article: James K. Boyce. “The Environment as Our Common Heritage,” for the Fair Sharing of the Common Heritage Award, February 2011 Strongly recommended, as introduced via David Bollier: “The post below is excerpted from James K. Boyce’s acceptance speech, “The Environment as Our Common Heritage,” for the Fair Sharing of the Common Heritage Award,… Continue reading
Date archives "March 2011"
Steps towards a new legal framework for indigenous communities
A contribution by Carolina Botero of the Karisma Foundation in Colombia: “In 2010 UNESCO recognized Colombia’s Amazon traditional indigenous knowledge as “intangible cultural heritage” (http://www.gaiafoundation.org/content/highlights-2010-and-path-ahead). Without a doubt the latter represents an invaluable move towards the community’s establishment of their own legal framework; empowering them with new tools to fight pounding threats (such as mining… Continue reading
Some thoughts on workplace groups | Netzwerk IT
Posted on March 13, 2011 by OrsanSenalp Collective ideas about self-organised and networked workplace groups, translated by Dave Hollis of Netzwerk IT from German. Translater’s Note To understand the nuances of this document it helps to know what Netzwerk IT is. Network IT, to use its English name, is a platform for the employed and unemployed. Individuals, groups… Continue reading
Participatory Sensing as a new form of P2P Regulation
Excerpted from David Bollier‘s review of the following report: * Report: Participatory Sensing: A Citizen-Powered Approach to Illuminating the Patterns that Shape our World,” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2009 David Bollier’s original has many links to individual projects: “Here’s an interesting idea for changing the political ecosystem of regulation: Use Web 2.0 platforms… Continue reading
Miguel Caetano on the self-organized precarity movement in Portugal
Miguel Afonso Caetano sent this to our mailing list this morning: “Greeting, dear all from Portugal. I know haven’t participated in any way in this list yet but the fact is that generally there is not much happening in a true P2P-sense around here for me to contribute anything of relevance to the list. Until… Continue reading
Elizabeth Eisenstein and Siva Vaidhyanathan on the emancipatory role of the print revolution
In this clip of Steal This Film 2, “Eisenstein describes the conditions of scarcity that characterized the book as artifact in the age of the scribe. Thereafter she describes the printed word’s role in the reformation, and how this served to transform the Catholic church’s view of print – towards which it had initially been… Continue reading
New issue of the International Journal of the Commons
International Journal of the Commons has just published its February issue at: http://www.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/ijc. You will find among other things find a first selection of articles pertaining to a special feature dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons (the second part will be published in August, 2011). Also, we draw your attention… Continue reading
Responding to Dr. Tufekci’s article on leaderlessness
Project Chanology has never had a hierarchy and in fact almost by definition of the group cannot have one. So right away I have this example of a group that has never had leadership for three years. Why does Tufekci think this is not possible? A contributrion by Jeff Jacobsen : “Dr. Zeynep Tufekci is… Continue reading
P2P University accepting course proposals
The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) wants you to get involved in organising the next cycle of courses for 18 April. If you’ve got an idea for a course, study group or workshop you’d like to participate in, simply create a course plan or view existing course drafts to see how fellow organisers are planning… Continue reading
Berkman Center launches the Digital Public Library of America
The Berkman Center will convene a large and diverse group of stakeholders to define the scope, architecture, costs, and administration for a proposed Digital Public Library of America. This initiative was launched in December 2010 with generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Planning activities will be guided by a Steering Committee of library… Continue reading
How Developing Countries Can Manage Intellectual Property Rights to Maximize Access to Knowledge
“Access to Knowledge” project has undertaken research and supported initiatives at the domestic and multilateral levels aiming at promoting access to knowledge as a tool for development. The main project activities have been twofold: (1)policy-oriented research in the areas of IP law, knowledge governance and media convergence, and (2) technical assistance and capacity-building activities provided… Continue reading
Interview: On Marvin Brown’s ‘Civic’ Economics of Provision
Paul M. Davis, Neal Gorenflo of Shareable and I sent questions to Marvin Brown, author of our book of the year at the P2P Foundation, i.e. Civilizing the Economy: A New Economics of Provision. Excerpted from the edited version at Shareable: “Michel Bauwens: The key topic of your book, as I see it, is the… Continue reading
The role of citizenship, institutions, and the state in social change
We can’t stand by and leave political institutions to those who want to be free of the pressures of the power of self?determining citizens. We need to occupy those institutions where we can while at the same time organising to replace them The following is taken from an interesting dialogue between John Holloway and Hilary… Continue reading
Fight Back!: exploring the horizontalism of the UK anti-cuts movement
A number of themes cut through the different sections of the book. One underlying theme is the importance of forms of organizing based around fluid networks and consensus decision-making (see the chapter by Guy Aitchison and Aaron Peters). A related theme is the importance of social media in coordinating action within these networks. Fight Back!… Continue reading
Academic Knowledge, Open Access and Democracy: A Call for Action
Arcadia has submitted a paper to the Hargreaves review on IP that presents an evidence-based case for Open Access. They believe that publicly-funded research should be available online and free for scholars and the public alike, and the paper recommends the steps needed to be taken by government for a fairer and more democratic access… Continue reading
The Solar Commons in Phoenix: where the sun shines for everybody
Reproduced from David Bollier‘s excellent Commons-dedicated blog: “A small group of innovative commoners in Phoenix is closing in on an innovative breakthrough: a commons-based revenue model for photovoltaic solar energy development in cities. It’s called the Solar Commons, which sports the tagline, “The sun shines for everyone.” The idea is to use the public rights… Continue reading