Date archives "May 2012"

Brazil’s copyright societies indicted for fraud, new law demands efficient, transparent collecting societies

Source: BoingBoing Ronaldo sez, “I am writing because something relevant happened in Brazil two days ago regarding the local copyright collecting societies (analagous to Ascap and BMI in the US). After more than 6 months of investigation by a Senate special inquiry commission, 15 directors have been indicted for various types of fraud and crimes…. Continue reading

Dale Carrico responds to Cory Doctorow: “Technology” Is Not a Force for Either Liberation or Oppression

Reposted from 22nd July 2010 Futurists want you to think there is such a thing as “Technology in General” which is going somewhere in particular that only they know about because only they understand the language in which “Technology in General” declares what it wants. In short, they are just another cohort of bamboozling Priests… Continue reading

Project of the Day: OurGoods

Website: http://ourgoods.org/ OurGoods is a peer-to-peer online network that facilitates the barter of goods and services between artists. The site matches barter partners, provides accountability tools, and offers technical assistance resources to help artists complete their barters and their projects successfully. OurGoods emerges in response to the current economic crisis. To some extent, the arts… Continue reading

Video of the Day: Michael Hudson on “Debt: The Politics and Economics of Restructuring”

Michael Hudson, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics, University of Missouri, Kansas City at the panel entitled “The Challenge of DeLeveraging and Overhangs of Debt II: The Politics and Economics of Restructuring” at the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s (INET) Paradigm Lost Conference in Berlin. April 13, 2012

Project of the Day: Open Personal Genomics

Website: http://opensnp.org/ A central, open source, free-to-use repository which lets customers of genotyping companies upload their genotyping data and annotate them with phenotypes. Discussion Bastian Greshake and Philipp Bayer: “We’ve created openSNP, a central, open source, free-to-use repository which lets customers of genotyping companies upload their genotyping data and annotate them with phenotypes. OpenSNP provides… Continue reading

How Bitcoin may undo the Apple/Facebook 30% sales tax

The new Bitcoin magazine is out and looks quite interesting. The following is excerpted from Vitalik Buterin‘s article on social media virtual currencies: “Apple … requires all apps sold for their platform to go through Apple’s centralized payment system, which generates considerable revenue as they take a 30% cut of all revenues. Some developers tried… Continue reading

Book of the Day: Ethics for the Information Age

Book: Ethics for the Information Age (5th Edition). Mike Quinn. Addison Wesley. 2012. Overview From the publisher: “This book is appropriate for any standalone “computers and society” or “computer ethics” course offered by a computer science, business, or philosophy department, as well as special “modules” in any advanced CS course. In an era where information… Continue reading

Graphics of the Day: P2P Product Cycle

Simone Cicero: “Production is in fact, you will forgive the term, tribalizing: it is increasingly self-consistent within a niche containing all production stages. The act of consumption itself becomes the act of economically and emotionally supporting your favorite crafter, artist or creative, their communities, their niche and their tribes. However, crowdfunding is probably only the… Continue reading

Freedom Tower and the Autonomous Internet – Peer to Peer User-Owned Communications and Computing Infrastructure

In a comprehensive report, Gordon Cook brings together a collection of articles and interviews, specifications and outlooks on the subject of the user-owned mesh communications infrastructure that was experimentally introduced and run by Isaac Wilder at Occupy Wallstreet’s Zuccotti Park. Isaac is also one of the initiators of the Free Network Foundation, a non profit… Continue reading