The Android open source mobile operating system which has been developed by Google really turns out not to be quite as free and open as many imagined. According to this Businessweek article, the source code for the latest version of the software designed to run on tablets, is not being given to programmers just yet…. Continue reading
Date archives "October 2011"
Why default is not a catastrophe: the example of Argentina
Here is a key fact: From 2002 onward, Argentina grown nearly twice as fast as Brazil, and has sported one of the highest growth rates in the world. Its success is not dependent on a commodities boom. It has increased social spending from 10.3% of GDP to 14.2% of GDP. Inequality has fallen. Poverty and… Continue reading
Occupy Wall Street – Organizing a Better Society
Sarah Jaffe reports in AlterNet on how the protesters at Wall Street are taking a route that differentiates them from any earlier protest movement. The article is titled Occupy Wall St. Prepares for Crackdown — Will Bloomberg Try to Tear It All Down? What Bloomberg may be preparing to “tear down” is a fairly articulated… Continue reading
Mark Ruffalo explains Occupy Wall Street
Net Neutrality Resolution Adopted in EU Parliament
La Quadrature du Net – For immediate release Permanent link: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/net-neutrality-resolution-adopted-in-eu-parliament Net Neutrality Resolution Adopted in EU Parliament *** Paris, October 20th, 2011 — The “Industry” Committee of the EU Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution on Net neutrality. Through this vote asking the European Commission to promptly assess the need for further legislative action, the Parliament… Continue reading
Michael Gurstein: rethinking the linkage between online and offline through the #OccupyWallStreet mobilizations
There is the rise of community as a step beyond networked individualism and as the basis for resistance and ultimately transformation in the corporate structures and exploitative processes of a neo-liberal dominated society now appears possible. And overall there is the need to recognize that the Information Society is not condemned to be a place… Continue reading
In Norway: Comparing Dugnad Community Volunteering to P2P
Excerpted from a student research paper by Sissel Hegvik: “The tradition of community volunteering has been strong since pre-industrial times, though in a variety of forms. The idea is that a community helps one another in solving a common task, where this cannot be done as quickly or efficiently by the single individual. (Bhroin 2011,… Continue reading
What the UNDP can do about ‘re-thinking property’ and the land question in the South
The following is excerpted from the keynote talk by Ramaswamy Sudarshan (UNDP.org) at the “RE-THINKING PROPERTY: pathway to a Well-Being Society” conference in Bangkok, in August 2011. Ramaswamy Sudarshan, Policy Advisor- UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre: “There are a wide range of roles the UNDP can and does already play concerning land and land rights. In… Continue reading
Reflections on Occupy Wall Street and Contactcon (part 1)
I arrived in NYC in the afternoon to attend http://www.contactcon.com (an intense one day conference hosted by Douglas Rushkoff http://rushkoff.com working with Venessa Miemis emergentbydesign.com and http://www.laureadeocampo.com/ ). Since I could not connect with anyone from the Contact event, I headed to the Wall Street area, and spent the rest of the evening participating in… Continue reading
Money and Slavery, Debt Obligations and Hierarchy
Very interesting quotes of a review of David Graeber’s book on Debt, by Matt Cropp: “Initially, he notes, most human societies recognize that their constituent individuals cannot be truly bought or sold, and, as such, things such as dowries and bride wealth were paid in a special kind of currency (which he refers to as… Continue reading
John Hagel: how value moves from content to context
Excerpted from John Hagel: (we strongly recommend that you read the whole article in full) “In our digital world, content providers progressively chunk up their offerings to provide more choice and easier access. Music is now available by the track rather than packaged onto a CD. Sure, we will continue to watch movies and TV… Continue reading
The P2P-driven fall in transaction costs and the coming Micro-Ownership Revolution
THIS IS A MOST IMPORTANT ARGUMENT AND CRUCIAL ASPECT OF THE ‘P2P Revolution’!! While we should always be weary of technological determinism, the article above makes a very cogent argument about how changing ‘p2p-driven’ transaction costs drive new distributed ownership models. It’s one of the best takes on the subjects I’ve seen and makes a… Continue reading
What’s the cause of the Great Recession: debt or a fall of profit?
I like the economist Steve Keen, and others like the ‘Georgist’ economist Michael Hudson, and have little knowledge of contemporary Marxist economics, but this critique of Keen by Michael Roberts convinces me they still bring useful insights to the table. (context: British marxist economist Michael Roberts attented a conference featuring the views of Steve Keen… Continue reading
Umair Haque: at the heart of the eudaimonic life and economy stands meaningful and impactful engagement
Excerpted from Umair Haque: “If you want to live a meaningfully better life, you’re going to have to make the dangerous choice to dissent. A life lived meaningfully isn’t denominated by digital friends, designer logos, or wads of paper notes. It’s denominated by what you’ve lived, what it’s worth to you, and what that’s worth… Continue reading
Moving from a sharing to a solidarity economy
“It’s the difference between doing something that is good and doing something that is just. It’s the difference between friends helping each other and social justice.” Republished from Cheyenna Weber in Shareable magazine: “We all recognize that sharing is good. Sharing, lending, and borrowing help connect neighbors, encouraging isolated individuals to create community by consuming… Continue reading
Grace Boggs on Detroit as the exemplar of the Next Revolution
Boggs sees Detroit as the forefront of changes sweeping the industrialized world. Once the front line of industrialization, Detroit could be the model of what the future of the deindustrialized world looks like. That thought has led her to work on seemingly small projects in Detroit neighborhoods. For instance, she sees urban gardening as the… Continue reading