Date archives "April 2011"

Markets without Capitalism as part of P2P economics (2): Kevin Carson’s transition proposals

This is a follow up on yesterday’s post, arguing that the idea and practice of markets, should be divorced from their present embeddedness in an unsustainable infinite growth system such as capitalism. Today, we look at the ideas of mutualist Kevin Carson. I will follow this up in a next installment by some of my… Continue reading

Introducing the … Klerotarians: reviving democracy the Athenian way

Athenian democracy, whose material techniques are so brilliantly described by Julian Dibbell, was largely based on the random selection of citizens to play certain roles. The Kleroterians are an informal group which aims to reinvigorate this tradition of deliberate use of randomness (lottery) in human affairs. In the world of governance, politics and elections, this… Continue reading

The Recombinant Ladder of the Pirate Party’s Policy Making

We’ve been talking about Privacy, Culture and Knowledge for a while. But as it turns out, it’s more than that. It’s also Transparency, it’s Process of Law (summarized below as Humanity), and as we saw the other day, Swarm Economy. All in all, it seems to fall into eight headers. These eight, together with observations,… Continue reading

Managing City Domain Names as Neighborhood Commons

There are an estimated 248 to 305 distinct neighborhoods in New York City. Imagine if neighborhoods could form their own governance systems for acting as stewards of “harlem.nyc” or “westvillage.nyc.” The city could stipulate that any neighborhood steward of a dotNeighborhood domain name would have to provide, at a minimum, a website with a neighborhood… Continue reading

Student-led teaching in 12th Century Italy: the case of the University of Bologna

Excerpted from Roderick Long: “In the 12th century, Bologna was a center of intellectual and cultural life. Students came to Bologna from all over Europe to study with prominent scholars. These individual professors were not originally organized into a university; each one operated freelance, offering courses on his own and charging whatever fees students were… Continue reading

Contesting Abundance: Shared for the Common Good or Monopolized for Private Profit?

By Roberto Verzola Full post with footnotes here It is hardly news by now that digital technologies have made available an abundance of information and knowledge on the Internet and the Web. New technologies have created a global digital infrastructure, which, in turn, has become the basis for a new information economy, whose most obvious feature… Continue reading

Symbionomics video interview with Rachel Botsman on shared infrastructures for collaborative consumption

Via: “Rachel Botsman is a social innovator who writes, consults, and speaks on the power of collaboration and sharing through current and emerging network technologies, and on how it will transform business, consumerism and the way we live. She is the co-author of the influential book What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption Is Changing… Continue reading

Replacing Cap and Trade and Carbon Taxation with Cap and Reward systems

Cap and Trade and Carbon Taxation won’t work, because there is an immediate cost but no immediate benefit. What is needed are Cap and Reward programs that directly reward virtuous behaviour, argues green computing expert Bill St. Arnaud. Bill St. Arnaud: “Roger Pielke has argued, as I have, that we need climate policies that provide… Continue reading

Jose Arguelles’ Manifesto for the Noosphere

* Book: José Argüelles. Manifesto for the Noosphere: The Next Stage in the Evolution of Human Consciousness. Evolver Editions/North Atlantic Books, 2011. This book of the recently deceased Jose Arguelles will be published in October this year. Reality Sandwich pre-published this excerpt from the introduction. by Jose Arguelles: “We must enlarge our approach to encompass… Continue reading