Excerpted from a story by Scott Timberg: 1. The Crisis “For many computer programmers, corporate executives who oversee social media, and some others who fit the definition of the “creative class” — a term that dates back to the mid-’90s but was given currency early last decade by urbanist/historian Richard Florida — things are good…. Continue reading
Date archives "October 2011"
Michael Hudson on #OccupyWallStreet: “Wall Street has become a Criminal Organization.”
Really worth listening to:
The Social Return on Professions: bankers destroy £ 7 of social value for every pound they generate
– City bankers destroy £ 7 of social value for every pound they generate. – Top advertising executives destroy £11 of value for every pound they generate. – Tax accountants destroy £47 of value for every pound they generate – For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of… Continue reading
Scenario 2030: Open Designs and Distributed Manufacturing
Excerpted from John Robb: “Here’s what the simplistic model for the what most manufacturing will look like in twenty years is: 1) Design everywhere. Branded design. Amateur design. Design networks. Crowdsource design. 2) Platforms to standardize the design/quality and match demand with supply. This is where Cloudfab is. 3) Manufacture everywhere/anywhere it is convenient/inexpensive (download… Continue reading
A critique of the #OccupyWallStreet tactics: Leaderlessness does not mean a lack of direction
Participants in Occupy Wall Street, and the other viral snowclones that emerge for it, would be doing themselves a service by critically approaching this central question: there are no shortcuts, there are no easy victories. The Financial-Industrial complex that rules the USA, the crumbling Empire that feeds it, the nuclear deterrent that holds the world… Continue reading
The Slow Business Manifesto
Excerpted from Jerry Stifelman: “As the Slow Food movement fights to bring back real food, real tradition, real flavor, and real pleasure. As the Slow Travel movement aims to reclaim the concept of the journey being as important as the destination. As Slow Money advocates argue that relationships and consequences are as important as rates… Continue reading
International Open Data Hackathon 2011: Better Tools, More Data, Bigger Fun
from the David Eaves blog: Last year, with only a month of notice, a small group passionate people announced we’d like to do an international open data hackathon and invited the world to participate. We were thinking small but fun. Maybe 5 or 6 cities. We got it wrong. In the end people from over… Continue reading
John Charney on the Chilean Winter and the persistence of the Student Revolt
Republished from ROAR, by John Charney: “Originally baptised as the Chilean Winter, the student movement in Chile has demonstrated that it is far from being the consequence of a seasonal emancipating spirit. After four months of continuous and massive protests for the establishment of a fair and integrated educational system, the movement has achieved what… Continue reading
The Diminishing Prospects of Science after Peak Oil
Excerpted from John Michael Greer: “The core problem is that scientific research was necessary, but not sufficient, to create today’s industrial societies. Cheap abundant energy was also necessary, and was arguably the key factor. In a very real sense, the role of science from the middle years of the nineteenth century on was basically figuring… Continue reading
The Brooklyn Bridge case: how the police adapts to leaderless resistance
By criminalizing the movement, in other words, by equating active participation with the possibility of being processed criminally, the same “preventative” logic of policing is imposed on political speech. The idea, however, is not to prevent gang violence or other crimes, but to prevent political speech that questions the groundwork of the State. Leaderless resistance… Continue reading
What happens when talent trumps capital?
Excerpted from Chris DeVore: “With the hard costs of starting a software business rapidly approaching zero, the best creatives would rather start their own company than work for someone else — they don’t need anyone’s permission to get in business, and the worst-case scenario is that they fail and have to take one of the… Continue reading
Namasté Solar – Energy Cooperative with a new twist
Operating in Colorado, Namasté Solar is an employee-owned cooperative that plans, constructs and maintains solar PV installations for private and business clients. The company has had an impressive growth rate – 2000 % in three years, according to an article in renewableenergyworld.com The company is controlled by the members of the cooperative, which are employees…. Continue reading
Does #OccupyWallStreet need an alternative ‘protest’ currency?
Matthew Slater thinks it does and has a concrete proposal. (please note Devin Balkind is also part of a working group working on a currency for OWS occupiers. For more details, see also here). Before Matthew’s editorial, a general remark: do what degree is such a currency necessary, when the community is small enough to… Continue reading
Peer Production in Art: Matrioska
As promised with this post I would like to announce that Matrioska, one of the first peer production artistic projects, is officially on-line and in a few weeks on the bookstores (book+CD) as well. Matrioska is a manifold work of a large creative team spanning 6 cities and 2 countries, coordinated with the aid of… Continue reading
Building Digital Commons – Barcelona, 29-30 October 2011
Registration now open – register here On & Off Welcome!!!! Benvinguts i benvingudes!!! Why / What? The Building digital commons (online & offline) event aims to create entrance doors and give projection to collaborative communities building digital commons, encourage the mutual learning and support between digital commons critically following similar values and principles, building bridges between action… Continue reading
Three conclusions on the global importance of #OccupyWallStreet
We start with two videos, a remix by D.C. Douglas reminds us why people are there; and a great atmospheric video on the self-governance and mutual aid at Liberty Plaza; then, a number of texts: an excerpt from the important editorial by Naomi Klein; the analysis by Jimmy Higgins; and as the third text item,… Continue reading