As proposed (excerpted) by Umair Haque: “So here’s the question: if the challenge is raising societies up to higher levels of prosperity — meaningfully well lived lives — then what are the levers that are powerful enough to begin doing do so? Here’s a quick take: six steps I believe advanced economies will have to… Continue reading
Date archives "August 2011"
The emerging cooperative counter-economy in the U.S.
Mira Luna writes in Shareable: “While mainstream America is hoping for federal economic reform, some social justice organizations have a radically different idea, and are organizing low-income communities to build a new economy from the grassroots up. Tired of asking for change from the top down, they are taking their economy into their own hands…. Continue reading
Why is Nike moving towards open corporate data?
Excerpted from a report by Francis Irving, on why Nike hired Ward Cunningham for ambitious open data efforts: “Why do they want this person? You can piece the broad picture, but not the details, together from the job advert and an article in Forbes. They’re terrified. Not terrified of bad PR due to human rights… Continue reading
John Michael Greer on Resilience vs Efficiency
Excerpted from John Michael Greer: “The rise of this term to its present popularity in green circles has a history worth noting. A year or two ago, the word “sustainability” began to lose its privileged place in the jargon of the time, as it began to sink in that no matter how much manhandling was… Continue reading
David Li on the merger of open hardware with Chinese Shanzai manufacturing
The following is quoted from a long conversation at the Institute for the Future: David Li: “The shanzhai sharing have become more business-like in form of readily available designs, boards, molding and others. Also, design houses working with Shanzhai vendors all offer open BOM options. “Open parts”are public available cases, panel, boards, battery and etc… Continue reading
Sharing as the Creed of Material Spirituality
Allen Butcher: “As human beings, our nature includes both physical and spiritual aspects. Each person must find for themselves their own balance of material and of spiritual values, and from the understanding of that authenticity then find or create a circle of friends or community expressing that balance. Material spirituality affirms the intent of making… Continue reading
Mushin Schilling on the (Ethical) Economy 3.0
Excerpted from an interview with Mushin Schilling on the occasion of the Berlin Change Days: Interview of Mushin Schilling: “Economy 3.0 is also the theme of your keynote speech. What do you mean by this? Economy 1.0 was based on direct trade in goods, and this had been the prevailing systems for 1 to 1… Continue reading
Esko Kilpi on the Knowledge Commons and the new Network Inequality
Excerpted from Esko Kilpi: “According to simplistic management thinking stimulus and response processes control human behavior: you get what you measure; you get what you reward. This means that people are understood as having no real connection to what they are actually doing. A somewhat more modern way of thinking states that human beings actively… Continue reading
On the relation between declining energy an debt
Excerpted from an interview of Nate Hagens (editor of the Oil Drum) by Chris Martenson: “CM: However we look at it, money [is] a great proxy for energy, so let’s use that. Energy’s going to become more expensive going forward and there’s going to be slightly less of it. Those are two pieces of the… Continue reading
The urban aspects of the Spanish 15M movement
Excerpted from Andrés Jaque: “In order to understand what happened at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, it is important to take into account facts that have not been sufficiently considered. From the very first day, the camp has been carefully kept neat and well-ordered. Infrastructure, communication strategies, and victualling committees were created. Within them, protocols to… Continue reading
Understanding the financial crisis (2)
Anyone who thinks that austerity is the way to go, on the basis of simplistic analogies to the situation of a household having to balance its budget or the like, should watch the presentation below by Richard Koo. Watch the video here: For extra background, read what Steve Keen writes: “Government policies have the potential… Continue reading
From Open Book Management to Negotiated Coordination
This is an exercise in imagination of how a peer production-centered economy could work. First, imagine that shared design commons, are closely linked to enterpreneurial coalitions who share common licensing and open book management, i.e. they share their production data so that they can more effectively adapt to supply and demand requirements; imagine then the… Continue reading
Marc Pesce: Please Mr. Cameron, pull that master switch
Excerpted from an editorial by Mark Pesce, about unassailable network power: “For you see, the network isn’t the wires, the towers, or the mobiles. The network is people. And people don’t like being spied upon. People will grow increasingly frustrated with the restrictions you place upon their activities, and from those frustrations will come a… Continue reading
Balancing Individualism and Communitarianism
Allen Butcher: “Much is being said about values today by the media, by government, by religious groups, by social organizations and others. Conservative rhetoric challenges the teaching of “moral relativism” as a cause of social decay, while liberal litanies of cultural demise decry the individual’s focus upon what Gregory Bateson termed the “skin encapsulated ego.”… Continue reading
Yochai Benkler’s conference at Wikimania 2011 Opening session
Yochai Benkler’s conference at Wikimania 2011 Opening session: See the used slides here.
Marching for Democracy #15M #3meses
View “#15M 3 months on – Still Marching for Democracy” on Storify