Alain Ruche argues: ‘Economy of scale is a myth’. “When he was head of strategy planning at the UK Cabinet Office Geoff Mulgan commissioned a study into the evidence for economies of scale in public-sector reform. The study found none. It was not published. Economists say that if we keep moving to the right –seeking… Continue reading
Date archives "June 2012"
Person of the Day: Charles Eisenstein, ‘sacred economist’
For an economics that is rooted in a sense of sacred partnership with nature and all living beings, look no further than the work of Charles Eisenstein. Shareable writes that: “Charles Eisenstein is the author of The Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics. He graduated from Yale with a degree in Philosophy and Mathematics and… Continue reading
P2P Radical Subjectivity as the new historical actor?
Referring to Macchiavelli’s The Prince and to the thought of Gramsci, Orsan Senalp interprets the new p2p-driven social movements as the key emerging historical actor to achieve fundamental change. The first half of the article, not reproduced here, is a summary of the organisational evolution of the Occupy/Indignado movements. Excerpted from Orsan Senalp: “‘‘the Newest… Continue reading
Cheap computers and conflict minerals
Excerpted from Eugene Tisselli: “Powerful computers are getting unbelievably cheap and small: It’s a fact we witness everyday. Many of you may have heard about the Raspberry Pi: a $25 “credit-card sized computer” that plugs into a tv and a keyboard. it uses an ARM processor and comes with a GNU/Linux OS. According to the… Continue reading
Using the virtual to expand physical public space
Republished from Sarah Wanenchak (Cyborgology): “Last week, cell phone footage emerged on Youtube that purports to be taken by a Saudi Arabian woman in a mall, of her clash with the Saudi religious police. The woman is righteously indignant, insisting that they have no right to harass her, that it’s “none of [their] business if… Continue reading
David Graeber on the lessons from Occupy Movement
The discussion topics, at the Berlin Biennale, include his experiences with Occupy Wall Street, strategies and tactics of new social movements, the crisis of capital and ways to move forward with the global Occupy Movement(s).
The Desktop Regulatory State Chapt. 2: Systems Disruption
[This is the fourth installment in my serialization of the first three chapters of my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Desktop Regulatory State] IV. Systems Disruption The dynamics of competition between networks and hierarchies lead to what John Robb calls “systems disruption.” Networks, despite much smaller resources than those which hierarchies can field, are able to leverage… Continue reading
Spain and the tragedy of the declining optimal scale of production
Via David de Ugarte and Lasindias.net, another provocative thesis: (the original article has many links) “The data on the Spanish economy is significant: the data on the balance of payments and the strength of the export sector can only be explained by an rise in productivity with an effect that is equal to or greater… Continue reading
Life in a Network for Survivors (Part 4)
Life in a Network for Survivors: The Thermonuclear Apocalypse and the Protocols of Freedom A text on the impact of Cold War era apocalyptic fantasy today. A search for the missing ideological history of internet protocols. An essay by P2P foundation’s Nicolás Mendoza, presented this week in four daily parts. The final version of… Continue reading
Towards a self-regulated Lex Mercatoria for Bitcoin conflicts?
Lex mercatoria is Latin for “merchant law” and it is the body of commercial law used by merchants throughout Europe during the medieval period emphasizing contractual freedom and alienability of property. Excerpted from Jon Matonis: ‘Large financial system websites are some of the most lucrative online targets and bitcoin has the added dimension of a… Continue reading
Details on the Local Motors Crowdsourced Design Methodologies
Details on the first commercially available crowdsourced car are excerpted from Eureka magazine: 1. The Use of Open Competitions “Another part of Local Motors’ business plan lies in holding open competitions among its community to design particular parts or products. The DARPA vehicle, for instance, came about as a result of a challenge to create… Continue reading
Life in a Network for Survivors (Part 3)
Life in a Network for Survivors: The Thermonuclear Apocalypse and the Protocols of Freedom A text on the impact of Cold War era apocalyptic fantasy today. A search for the missing ideological history of internet protocols. An essay by P2P foundation’s Nicolás Mendoza, presented this week in four daily parts. The final version of… Continue reading
The ‘Hammond’ study: P2P Filesharing Improves Music Sales
* Report: Profit Leak? Pre-Release File Sharing and the Music Industry. Roger G. Hammond, 2012 The Toronto Sun summarizes the conclusions of this study: ‘On the music side, an American economist found that having albums leak to file-sharing websites before the official release date can actually improve sales of the official copy. While Robert Hammond… Continue reading
The economics of intimacy and their financial valuelessness: divesting from the money economy
A quote from John F. Kavanaugh, Following Christ in a Consumer Society, on the economics of intimacy: “Let us suppose that you are a married person with children. If you are relatively happy with your life, if you enjoy spending time with your children, playing with them and talking to them; if you like nature,… Continue reading
Max Keiser on the war against Europe
I cannot stress enough the value of this interview on the mechanics of the asset-stripping of Europe and how it is a effectively planned process: (interview conducted by Infowars on the occasion of the Bilderberg conference)
The new triarchy: the commons trust, distributed enterprise, the partner state
(republished from August 2010) Michel Bauwens: At the P2P Foundation, our central concept is peer to peer, i.e. the ability to freely associate with others around the creation of common value. More specifically, we call this, according to the structural anthropology of Alan Page Fiske, communal shareholding, i.e. the non-reciprocal exchange of an individual with… Continue reading