Via: You cannot own free speech, argues John Perry Barlow, in this really great oration to the e-G8: (this is one of the must see videos of the year)
Date archives "July 2011"
Peak Oil and the Future of Urbanism
I recommend reading the whole article from James Howard Kunstler, here an excerpt to give you the idea of possible challenges we are facing in rethinking and adapting our cities: “I think the general theme going forward, certainly in the U.S., will be the comprehensive contraction of just about everything. I see our cities getting… Continue reading
Debtocracy: the documentary that is moving Greece
Introduction via The New Significance: “For the first time in Greece a documentary produced by the audience. “Debtocracy” seeks the causes of the debt crisis and proposes solutions, hidden by the government and the dominant media. The film is distributed freely and without usage rights. It will be broadcast and subtitled in at least three… Continue reading
On the history of #spanishrevolution: how the digital turned on the analog
Excerpted from an account by Bernardo Gutièrrez, in OpenDemocracy: “Despite a catastrophic job market, growing unemployment and record corporate profits, a different divide accounts for the #spanishrevolution: the digital one. 92% of Spain’s young people are Internet users (12 points above the European average). But only 10% of Spanish MPs use Twitter. This goes a… Continue reading
Exploring the relations between therapy and p2p: towards a psychological commons
Exploring the vast Peer to Peer (P2P) online community, discussions with a study group of colleagues, and reading widely across political and social history, returned my attention to a notion which I’d had many years earlier; that there was a much bigger context to these regulatory disputes than was being acknowledged. As I had seen… Continue reading
Thesis of the Week: Increasing Local Economic Sustainability through Complementary Economic Systems
Ivan Tsikota has produced an interesting Master’s Thesis confirming that complementary currency systems (broadly conceived) have positive economic effects, and under which conditions these effects can be stimulated. * Master’s Thesis: Complements to Economic Systems: Increasing Local Economic Sustainability. Ivan Tsikota. 2011-05-14. EC9901 Master’s Thesis, 30 hp . Department of Economics , Stockholm University The… Continue reading
The Syntagma movement as a new demand to the state?
Interesting analysis of the Greek movement by Paulina Tambakaki: “Within the past few days much debate has been stirred about the protests in Syntagma Square in Athens. Partly out of fear for their impact on the Eurozone, and partly out of interest in the peculiar figure of ‘the indignant’, who both challenges and practices politics,… Continue reading
Free Technology Community Portal
Maybe you’ve heard it already: we have been working to set up an online community about Free Technology. A community portal hosted by the Free Technology Academy, completely based on Free Software and integrated in its online campus. It’s an informal social networking space where people can participate in (and create) groups to learn, discuss… Continue reading
Telecomix: Hacking for Freedom during the Arab Revolutions and after
Telecomix an ad-hoc disorganization of Internauts who support free communication for everyone, regardless of political affiliation. Comprised of programmers, punks, politicians, pirates, and others, Telecomix believes in person-to-person communication – the original p2p. Great presentation by Peter Fein on Telecomix a global movement helping to preserve the freedom in information flows during popular insurrections: Some… Continue reading
Emerging ‘new economy’ networks in the U.S.
Excerpted from Gar Alperovitz in Yes magazine: (original with many links) “Along with the rapid expansion of small and medium-size businesses committed to building the new economy has come a sense of community and shared mission. Staff, managers and owners at many of these companies are finding more opportunities to share ideas and pool resources… Continue reading
Open design comes of age (3), third of a series by Massimo Menichinelli
Massimo Menichinelli (original source): In two previous posts (here and here), I started explaining that Open Design is now getting out of the underground, since many important design companies, institutions and other actors are now actively working on it. This does not mean that all the problems that we must solve in order to have… Continue reading
The Mesh Potato Village Telco communications revolution in Africa
A really well-done animation showing the potential of autonomous meshworks:
Case study of a community economy: The Alliance to Develop Power in western Massachusetts:
Via (originally from The Nation): Reproduced from Sally Kohn: “From the vantage point of national politics, it would appear that the greedy, inequality-dependent version of capitalism, which just two years ago was teetering at the brink of extinction, has managed to survive, even tightening its grip on our so-called democracy. After all, the most striking… Continue reading
Protecting Freedoms Online: La Quadrature’s Proposals
La Quadrature du Net – For immediate release Permanent link: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/protecting-freedoms-online-la-quadra… Protecting Freedoms Online: La Quadrature’s Proposals *** Paris, June 23 2011 — La Quadrature du Net releases a set of proposals to guarantee freedom of communication on the Internet and allow the network to remain a tool for democracy, culture and socio-economic innovation. The citizen… Continue reading
A revival of the cooperative economy in the U.S. and in the UK
Excerpted from Gar Alperovitz in Yes magazine: (original has many links) At the cutting edge of experimentation are the growing number of egalitarian, and often green, worker-owned cooperatives. Hundreds of “social enterprises” that use profits for environmental, social or community-serving goals are also expanding rapidly. In many communities urban agricultural efforts have made common cause… Continue reading
A Tea Party for the left: the American Dream movement
Van Jones and friends are launching a new political effort dubbed “The American Dream Movement.”, which aims to create a bottom-up coalition for progressives in the U.S. I think the time is right and this may actually go somewhere. Some details from the Washington Post, via Rachel Weiner: “There is some reason to believe that… Continue reading