Republished from Michael Hudson: (no source, received via Tadit Anderson) “I have just returned from Rimini, Italy, where I experienced one of the most amazing spectacles of my academic life. Four of us associated with the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) were invited to lecture for three days on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)… Continue reading
Date archives "February 2012"
Occupy Wall Street and the Peer-to-Peer Revolution: a discussion with Michel Bauwens Part III
Source: Action Foresight This is part three, and the last segment, of this series. In this final and short response to questions about the future, Bauwen’s discusses two possible futures for the development of peer to peer society globally, the ‘High Road’ and ‘Low Road’. (Listen to Part 1 here & Part 2 here)
How Barter Followed and Did Not Precede the Creation of Money
David Graeber lays bare one of the key myths of economists, i.e. that money followed and simplified barter, while the historical and anthropological evidence shows the opposite: “1) Adam Smith first proposed in ‘The Wealth of Nations’ that as soon as a division of labor appeared in human society, some specializing in hunting, for instance,… Continue reading
Metal, code, flesh: Why we need a ‘Rights of the Internet’ declaration
By Nicolas Mendoza: Click on Image to Enlarge Chiang Mai, Thailand – “OH $%#@!”, reads the caption under the image depicting a group of protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks and holding both humorous and denunciatory signs, “The internet is here”. The caption not only conveys the sentiment that drove US congressmen to drop their support… Continue reading
Video of the Day: David Hales on P2P Currencies
Very good explanation for the Max Keiser report, describing the difference between Bitgcoin (payment system), Ripple (credit system), and the need for different ‘commons ecologies’ that compete with each other:
Richard Stallman: ‘Social inertia the main obstacle’
Source: PRASANTH RADHAKRISHNAN Interview with Richard M. Stallman, founder of the GNU project. RICHARD M. STALLMAN has been an indefatigable campaigner for the cause of free software for nearly 29 years now. Stallman founded the GNU project in 1983 and established the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in 1985, and was the brain behind the GNU… Continue reading
Do P2P-driven Economic Practices Need Business Models and New Value Chains To Thrive?
Excerpted from Paul Lightfoot, CEO of hydrophonic greenhouse producer BrightFarms: “To truly shake things up in a market, innovations also need new business models as well as what Christensen calls “value networks” – new supply chains, channels to market and so on. Without such support, established leaders can squash or co-opt new players, sometimes killing… Continue reading
Trend of the Day: Autonomous Drones
Source: Global Guerrillas It’s an autonomous aircraft/drone that has a full weapons bay (4,500 lbs). Say that word again: autonomous. That’s the breakthrough feature. This also means: It can make its own “kill decision.” Again and again and again. That decision is going to get better and better and cheaper and cheaper (Moore’s… Continue reading
Resource Sharing – Grounding the 21st Century Economy
Title: Resource Sharing – Grounding the 21st Century Economy Authors: Paul B. Hartzog, Sam Rose, Richard C. Adler License: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Ref: FF-2010-2-1 Introduction Twenty-first century wealth-generating ecologies need to remain robust and flexible in order to allocate resources quickly and efficiently, and to mitigate the effects of constant fluctuations and redistributions…. Continue reading
Singularity University’s Concentric Circle Educational Delivery Model
If you want to know the future of an institution, look at those starting today. Excerpted from Nilofer Merchant: “A mark of a good university was to have hired leading-edge researchers into full-time tenured faculty roles, in big buildings. Impressive facilities were a way of showing off the power of your wealthy alumni. Singularity University… Continue reading
Spanish Supreme Court to Review Sinde Law
Source: Mike Palmedo – InfoJustice The Spanish Supreme Court has agreed to review the Sinde Law, which the Association of Web Users has challenged as unconstitutional. The Sinde Law creates a government commission to review allegations of copyright infringement, which can order internet service providers to block access to websites hosting infringing content. The Association… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The Third Industrial Revolution
Jeremy Rifkin. The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World, Palgrave Macmillan 2011. The Industrial Revolution, powered by oil and other fossil fuels, is spiraling into a dangerous endgame. The price of gas and food are climbing, unemployment remains high, the housing market has tanked, consumer and government… Continue reading
The Social Business Revolution within Enterprise: a conversation
Excerpted from a conversation between Christian Finn and Andy Mulholland. “What requirements are needed for organizations to become “social businesses”? Mulholland: In common with many others who have experienced using social networking in their day to day activities I believe the change is as much cultural as organizational, telling people to use a social network… Continue reading
Song for the Net Neutrality
I would like to present this great hip hop song by Lonnie Ray Atkinson called “Net Neutrality – Hands off the Internet”. Just push play: Song info and lyrics Melody and Lyrics: Lonnie Ray Atkinson Vocals: Lonnie Ray Atkinson Music Track: Instrumental (The Absolute) by Anitek Lyrics verse one: narration: “so what up bird, what’s… Continue reading
Video of the Day: “Copy Culture”
Joe Karaganis’s Presentation at the O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference. “With the takedown of Library.nu (formerly Gigapedia), the major US and UK publishers are joining the war on file sharing. This is a subject we’ll be paying a lot of attention to in the next couple years. Coincidentally, I gave a talk more or less… Continue reading
Critique of Kickstarter as a Scam
“This new collaborative, cooperative ethic promises to bring social change, and posits itself as a threat to the capitalist status quo. This is based on a naive analysis of the world where greedy, selfish, power-hungry people build institutions that embody their corrupt values. Once we get the right people in charge, things will be different…. Continue reading