The depth and dimensions of the event are simply astounding. People from the whole town bring food and materials every day. They come to work for a couple of hours after their jobs. The place explodes with ideas. There is no one flag, no one party, no one ready-made discourse seen or heard anywhere -not… Continue reading
Date archives "June 2011"
Analysis of Blue Labour: From Individual Morality to Ethical Institutions
Blue Labour is an attempt to revitalize the British Labour Party through a community-orientation, as proposed by Maurice Glasman. Here are excerpts from an analysis by Alan Finlayson: “Glasman is what political philosophers call a ‘virtue-theorist’. For him, generalised moral rules make little sense. What matters is the quality of all of our actions in… Continue reading
Scenarios for Future Transitions: A P2P response to Global MegaCrisis scenarios
This was written as a response to an Invitation to respond to “Global MegaCrisis: Four Scenarios on the Future of Progress”, for a Special Issue, Journal of Futures Studies, Dec 2011, upon request of Jose Ramos. Michel Bauwens: “The world today is confronting not one crisis, but possibly several at the same time. Each crisis… Continue reading
Tahrir Square as a meme uniting the new cycle of struggles
We can think of the internet as a bank of ideas, and the really successful meme occurs when one of those ideas chimes massively with the population it encounters, summing up a shared or individual experience or viewpoint to the extent that users wish to perpetuate it as somehow representative of their position, often amending… Continue reading
#SpanishRevolution on multistory
Mark O’ Cúlar has been curating reports about the #SpanishRevolution on multistory. Multistory is an alternative news service with a focus on investigative journalism and news which the mainstream doesn’t give much attention to. It also aims to be a place where analysis is given on the failings of mainstream media. Check out the posts… Continue reading
Tummelvision – engaging and collaborating in a networked age
Tummelvision is a weekly salon-style podcast about the art and science of engaging and collaborating in a networked age. Each week we explore how to connect and create a world that puts people at the centre of business, technology and culture with the smart folks creating this new world. Check it out here
P2P Pattern Discoverers
To celebrate the importance of patterns, The Imaginary Foundation released the Pattern Seekers Trading Cards, each one highlighting a unique “patternist” who has made a profound impact on the world by discovering a “metapattern”. Upon reading about these guys, you’ll see the “meta-pattern” that defined their life and thinking. We selected those names from the… Continue reading
Michael Hudson on the Autonomy of the Financial System and Accrued Interest
” The ECB demands that governments (“taxpayers”) in Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal take full responsibility for making good on the bad loans and reckless speculation of banks, so that wealthy and institutional investors who placed their credit and fortunes behind such schemes would be saved from having to take any loss. In such cases… Continue reading
The state of free culture, 2011: Towards Institutions for the Cultural Commons
Felix Stadler has written a very readable overview and introduction to the Free Culture Movement, focusing on its historical roots and developments, and how it is now in the phase of experimenting with appropriate institutionalization: “The Free Culture Forum released the Declaration on Sustainable Models for Creativity in the Digital Age in February 2011 following… Continue reading
Egypt and beyond: Skype not secure as an activist tool?
Egyptian security services had the ability to listen in to Skype conversations, says this report. Excerpted from Salem Muhammod: “Skype was the method of choice for secure communications among anti-government organizers in Egypt during this past winter’s uprising, believing that Skype “cannot be penetrated online by any security device.” However it turns out the protestors’… Continue reading
From #spanish to #european and #globalrevolution
Latest post by Amaia on the situation in Spain and beyond: [View the story “From #spanish to #european and #globalrevolution ” on Storify]
The Shanzhai Electric Car Revolution in China
In China, you can get Shanzai (‘knock-off brands’, i.e. the illegal but tolerated version of open and shared design) electric cars for about $3,000, less than a tenth of the price of normal ‘IP’-augmented electric cars. Eric Hunting writes: “Very nice video discussing the explosively growing phenomenon of ‘shanzhai’ electric cars in China. I learned… Continue reading
What is open design thinking?
Watch this video in which a variety of young designers express their feelings and thinking on open design: Chasing the Buffalo from KS12 on Vimeo.
Kachikachi – Quantum dosimeter radiation detection
The kachikachi project by Leopold Zyka in Vienna is a proposal to promote the application of a quantum dosimeter chip, a CERN related patented invention described here for distributed radiation measurement. The technology is more simple and potentially cheaper than the Geiger counters available today, and it could be used by anyone concerned with levels… Continue reading
The continued role of cyber-activism in Egypt
Excerpted from a report by Al Jazeera, where Monica Villamizar spoke with Ramy Raoof: “It feels like there is something wrong; it’s hard to tell if the army is with the revolution.” Raoof, 24, is among a group of influential characters in the Egyptian youth movement. He has just helped organize a day to blog… Continue reading
OKCon 2011 – Update
The following post is from Hauke Johannes Gierow who is on the [OKCon 2011] organising team, and is a Community Coordinator at [OKF Deutschland]. At the Open Knowledge Foundation we work towards an open society with open content, open data, and free/open source software all over the world. We work with developers, designers, civil servants,… Continue reading