David Wiley have recently published a new article about Open Educacional Resources, this one specially focused on its value: I’ve finally made some time to contribute another installment in my ongoing conversation with Steve Carson about the value of open educational resources. I think OER are like toothbrushes. Once upon a time there was a… Continue reading
Date archives "March 2011"
Clay Spinuzzi reviews “Networks and States”
* Book: Networks and States. The Global Politics of Internet Governance. Milton L. Mueller. MIT Press, 2010 Spinuzzi’s site remains one of the best sources for detailed reviews of internet and p2p related books. An excerpt from his review of Milton Mueller’s excellent book on the network form: “He’s interested in the question of global… Continue reading
The Debate of Copyright and Job Creation
There are been suggestions that by not protecting copyright, jobs are being lost. As a counter to that claim, Rick Falkvinge writes that given that open and free content drives demand for electronic devices and given the jobs this area creates, it’s better to be less rather than more restrictive on copyright: Executive summary: for… Continue reading
Gordon Cook on the Fragility of the Current Internet
An assessment of the realism necessary to undertake efforts towards a more Autonomous Internet. This contribution appeared in the building-a-distributed-decentralized-internet mailing list. By Gordon Cook: “Unless we all go back to dial-up USENET or FidoNet of the 1980s, the Internet of 2011 in reality is far more fragile than most people realize. Sending and receiving… Continue reading
Research Suggests that File Sharing has a Positive Effect of Film Audiences
This is an interesting bit of research, adding to the growing body of data trying to understand the positive or negative impacts of P2P downloading of films and the like. (The US General Accounting Office did a huge survey of the reseach in 2009 and were unable to conclude a positive nor negative effect either way.) This… Continue reading
Corporations are not Persons
This is a follow-up video to the “Story of Stuff”, which focuses on how corporations are distorting the democratic process, in the U.S. now to a unprecedented degree after the “Citizens United vs. FEC” decision of the Supreme Court, which allows unlimited political funding by corporations. This stimulating animated video argues that it is time… Continue reading
Factors and counterfactors that make social media crucial for successful uprisings
According to Sarah Logan, the existence of a growing and educated youth bulge is the crucial factor for the side of the protests, while a regime’s technical sophistication is crucial for incumbents to hold on power. Excerpted from Sarah Logan: “Two factors influencing the likelihood of the current unrest spreading which these reports overlook: the… Continue reading
Interview with Michel Bauwens in Argentina
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Why cutting public services is not really necessary
Great agitprop from a UK campaign: Cut Benefits to Bankers, Not Public Services (One Good Cut)
Kevin Kelly on How Value Is Generated in a Free Copy World
Kevin Kelly explains 6 important trends (in the forms of verbs) that are affecting what has value in our society, one of them for example being the move from being ‘people of the book’ to becoming ‘people of the screen’. Brilliant exposition, well worth watching:
Debating the role of the state and civil society in P2P Theory
A in-depth contribution by Jean Lievens, who addresses a number of important issues in our p2p approach. The full version of Jean’s contribution is here. You can also join the debate in our Ning forum here. Jean Lievens: “The very idea of changing society has suffered an enormous blow because of what happened after the… Continue reading
What Egyptians learned from social media coordination, and how this can be used for further governance
the need for centralization of decision making and control in a post-revolutionary environment stems from the need to counter the ever-lurking forces of the old regime as well as to prevent stabilization and reversion to pre-regime change norms. The difficulties of communication and of maintaining solidarity and trust precipitate processes of centralization of decision making,… Continue reading
From Weak Ties to Organized Networks, Institute of Network Cultures
Winter Camp 2009, Report; From Weak Ties to Organized Networks – Ideas, reports and Critiques. About the publication: In March 2009 the Institute of Network Cultures brought 12 networks to Amsterdam for a week of getting things done. Aim of Winter Camp was to connect the virtual with the real in order to find out… Continue reading
Campesino to Campesino: the ‘p2p’ farmers to farmers movement
Over the last thirty years the farmers in these networks have demonstrated their capacity to share information and knowledge. Their commitment to agroecological practices has resulted in a body of agrarian demands specific to sustainable peasant agriculture. It is now common among these farmers to hear the term food sovereignty. This description comes from an… Continue reading
Free Culture Forum – Organization/Action
P2P as a planetary spiritual transformation, born out of darkness
1. For the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive… The resulting global political activism is generating a surge in the quest for personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world painfully scarred by memories of centuries-long alien colonial or imperial domination… The… Continue reading