Richard Sennett explains: “The theme of the lecture addresses a question: how can we design spaces in the city which encourage strangers to cooperate? To explore this question, I’ll draw on research in the social sciences about cooperation, based on my book, and relate this research to current issues in urban design.”
Date archives "April 2012"
Book of the Day: Foundations of a Love Economy
Book. Dare to Care. A new foundation for economics and finance. Louis and Sandra Bohtlingk. The video introduction by the author of the book is followed by an excerpt from the foreword, which contains an appreciation of the book’s approach by Hazel Hederson. 1. Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOr0SLsh1F8 Read the foreword by Hazel Henderson: “My… Continue reading
Documenting the rise of P2P Labour Unionism – Part I
Movement-Space-Movement cycle & Linkages between Zapatista-WaterWar-Seattle-WSF-ESF-[JSC-ALTERSUMMIT] and Arab Spring/ 15M /OCCUPY – I First post of a series of key documents that trace back the efforts have been made for the creation of a Globally Networked -preferably in a p2p distributed way- and reinvented Labour Movement, what we call on this blog Social Network Unionism. Below video is the… Continue reading
#OccupyWallStreet: Spring 2012 Status Assessment by Kalle Lasn
Founder and editor of Adbusters magazine, Kalle Lasn is largely credited for conceptualizing and starting the Occupy Wall Street protests. From an interview by Solutions journal: How do you feel about how the protests ended? Did they flame out, or was it a success? What lessons were learned? It was a huge success. A lot… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Copyright, Ethics and Theft
“I argue in my article, copyright is essentially a means of allowing people to take what they’ve borrowed from elsewhere (like Paul Simon did in ‘Graceland’) and stamp the label ‘Theirs’ on it. Virtually nothing is completely original, but copyright acts as though the whole work was. It allows people to steal from the ideas,… Continue reading
From Occupy MayDay to Occupy the World: #15M Global Transition Strike
What is the plan? Take the Square 1/ BACKGROUND AND GEOGRAPHIC EXPANSION 2/ PRINCIPLES AND DEMANDS, AIMS OF THE MOVEMENT 3/ 15M GLOBAL STRIKE AND SYSTEMATIC EXPANSION 1.1 Arab Spring: One goal, One strategy The Arab Spring was sparked by the first protests that occurred in Tunisia on 18 December 2010 following Mohamed Bouazizi‘s self-immolation in protest of… Continue reading
Poor Man’s Nanotechnology Research in Thailand
The work being done by researchers from the Centre of Excellence in Nanotechnology at the Asian Institute of Technology is nothing short of astounding. With extremely limited and unreliable funding, the group is applying techniques from nature (biomimicry) to pioneer what they call ‘poor man’s nanotechnology’. Areas of application include the development of dye-sensitized solar… Continue reading
Jodi Dean’s Critique of #OccupyWallStreet’s “Tactics as a Brand” Strategy
OWS should not use the same strategies as ‘communicative capitalism’, argues Jodi Dean: “The movement brings together a variety of groups and tendencies—not all of them compatible. Many in the movement see that as Occupy’s strength. They see Occupy as an umbrella movement capable of including a multiplicity of interests and tendencies. For them, “occupy”… Continue reading
Open Source Hardware Goes to Washington
Source: Shareable The future of open source hardware is bright. Making designs available to the public encourages innovation, builds community and drives commerce. From desktop 3-D printers to small-scale wind turbines, open source hardware has the potential to transform us into a society of designers, makers and sharers. Michael Weinberg is working to make sure… Continue reading
A Free Irresponsible Press: the battle for and against Wikileaks
A brilliant essay, in draft form, in which Yochai Benkler also focuses on the systemic countermeasures undertaken by Empire agaomst Wikileaks, and the mechanisms of distributed defense that were employed by the latter’s supporters. David Bollier has a commentary on the text here. Benkler Wikileaks Current
An introduction to reputation currencies
Clear explanation on the need for reputation currencies using the relational framework of David Ronfeldt and the monetary insights of Bernard Lietaer. A prezi presentation by Gael van Weyenbergh: “
Open Call: Technoscience as Activism
Website: http://www.3helix.rpi.edu/?p=2102 Call For Papers This conference seeks new approaches to interweaving social justice and science/technology. Some that are already known include DIY and “maker” communities, Open Source Science, “Technologies for Non-violent Social Change,” and other new hybrid forms of collaboration that put technoscience in the hands of non-experts, local communities, indigenous groups and the… Continue reading
The way forward: Iceland forgives mortgage debt
Via TeleSUR: “The government of Iceland has forgiven the mortgage debt for much of its population. This nation chose a very different way of stopping the crisis from the rest of European countries. It decided to hear the requests of the population and to put politicians and bankers on the bench of the accused three… Continue reading
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund’s update
News from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which enables communities to defend themselves against corporate enclosures: “Last week, Las Vegas, New Mexico’s City Council took historic action, adopting the Las Vegas Community Bill of Rights and Local Self-Governance Ordinance banning shale gas drilling and fracking. This is the first CELDF-drafted ordinance passed in New… Continue reading
Creative Commons Version 4.0 – License Draft Ready for Public Comment
Source: Diane Peters, Creative Commons We are pleased to post for public comment the first discussion draft of version 4.0. This draft is the product of an extended (and unprecedented) requirements gathering period involving input from CC affiliates, community and stakeholders. Thanks to all of you who contributed your valuable time and energy in the… Continue reading
Grid Beam: a p2p construction system for the maker movement
Eric Hunting explains why: “The Grid Beam building system is the contemporary incarnation of one of the earliest purposely-designed DIY building systems. One could argue that it is one of the founding roots of what has become the Maker movement. The system originated with the work of designer Ken Isaacs in the 1960s who, being… Continue reading