Agora 99 was a meeting of European social movements preparing for the November 14 general strike call. Excerpted from Ter Garcia: “Participants detailed their experiences and goals in their efforts relating to public education, health care, direct democracy, housing rights and more. Gonzalo Mosqueira, of the Italian organization Cantiere, explained in a session on housing… Continue reading
Date archives "November 2012"
Video: How the Park Slope Food Coop works
The Future of Retail: Park Slope Food Coop from Maaike Holvast on Vimeo. A short portrait of the Park Slope Food Coop made by fim-maker Maaike Holvast as part of a research project on The Future of Retail. The video was commissioned by Out of Office who in their turn were asked to do this… Continue reading
KEEP CALM AND #LOTE2!
Source: Edgeryders KEEP CALM AND #LOTE2! DECEMBER 6-9, BRUSSELS. SEE YOU THERE! Friends, old and new. There has never been a better time to come together, support one another and get things done! Edgeryders 1 is complete. It’s generating a set of recommendations that you can read (and poke holes into) here and a Handbook… Continue reading
The role of money in a human economy
Money has a role in a post-capitalist society. Excerpted from Keith Hart: “To call the economy ‘human’ is to insist on putting people first, making their thoughts, actions and lives our main concern. Such a focus should also be pragmatic: making economy personally meaningful to students or readers, relating it to ordinary people’s practical purposes…. Continue reading
Beyond Philosophy
Source: Suresh Fernando What is philosophy? If it is anything it is the domain that aims to answer the most substantial questions in a foundational way. It attempts, for example, to provide an account of Truth or Knowledge in a manner that answers these questions in a way that can be understood as ‘scientific’. The… Continue reading
The Henry Ford moment of physical peer production: Wikispeed’s Xtreme Manufacturing Methodology
WikiSpeed does not have the ambition to become the 21st century General Motors and produce tens of thousands of cars, even locally. As a matter of fact, at first Joe Justice tried to make Wikispeed an NGO, but the application was rejected in the U.S. under the argument that designing and producing highly efficient cars… Continue reading
Report by the Green Europe Foundation: Comanaging Community Owned Resources
* Report: The commons : (co)managing commonly owned resources. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM OF 9 MARCH 2012 IN BRUSSELSÉTOPIA | OIKOS | GREEN EUROPEAN FOUNDATION, 2012. By DAVID BOLLIER, ISABELLE CASSIERS et al. “The publication (of the Green Europe Foundation) brings together a number of contributions that were made at a day-long seminar held in… Continue reading
Debating the Partner State (6): Hilary Wainwright on emerging participatory approaches
ANDREW HETRICK reviews Hilary Wainwright’s book, ‘Reclaim the State‘: ““My argument is that the views of knowledge developed in practice, if not in theory, by the democratic social movements of the late 1960s onwards have an unrealised relevance today. They provide some otherwise neglected tools to provide an alternative to the social-engineering state other than… Continue reading
Video of the Day: Don Tapscott on the Taxonomy of Networks
Don Tapscott offers a nine-fold taxonomy of multi-stakeholder networks:
The Anthropology of Unequal Society
Excerpted from a review by Keith Hart of David Graeber’s book: The First Five Thousand Years of Debt: “Modern anthropology was born to serve the coming democratic revolution against the Old Regime. A government by the people for the people should be based on what they have in common, their “human nature” or “natural rights”…. Continue reading
Introduction to German Open Source Ecology Initiative
Factor E-Farm initiatives are spreading beyond the US, including in Germany. Video about an Open Source Ecology initiative in Germany https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftc8wSREQKU introduced by Nicolay Georgiev . For selecting English or Spanish subtitles, click the “Captions” button in the YouTube player. Interest for supporting this initiative can be expressed on: http://wiki.opensourceecology.de/wiki/Unterst%C3%BCtzen/en to subscribe to the German speaking newsletter : http://wiki.opensourceecology.de/wiki/Newsletter They are also… Continue reading
Joe Justice explains the importance of Wikispeed as a model for a new type of economy
Joe Justice explained the import of the Wikispeed experience before a Ouishare audience in Barcelona. Read the analysis of Benjamin Tincq here as well. Watch the video here: OuiShare Talk – Joe Justice Team Wikispeed at FabLab Barcelona from OuiShare on Vimeo.
Book of the Day: What Comes After Money?
* Book: What Comes After Money? Essays from Reality Sandwich on Transforming Currency and Community, edited by Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan. EVOLVER EDITIONS/North Atlantic Books, 2011. Contributors to this collection of essays include economist Bernard Lietaer, media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, musician Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky), theoretical physicist Amit Goswami, Larry Harvey (founder… Continue reading
Dmytri Kleiner: Bitcoin can’t serve the necessary Public Function of Money
Excerpted from Dmytri Kleiner (with whom I agree on this issue): “I want to write a bit about the public function of money, especially as compared to the market function of money, in light of some of the recent discussion about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is already a very useful technology due to the fact that it… Continue reading
Ask Michel Bauwens Anything Part 2 (audio)
This is the final part of the audio version (see video version here) answering your questions to the P2P Foundation Reddit page: redd.it/11d4m7 based on the Synthetic overview of the collaborative economy report by the P2P Foundation and Orange Labs. James Burke gathered together the questions and recorded a converstion with Michel Bauwens to provide more… Continue reading
Fred Turner on Burning Man as the Cultural Infrastructure for Commons-Based Peer Production
A Google talk: “Fred Turner discusses his opinions on the social phenomenon of Burning Man and how he thinks the ideals of the festival apply to the marketplace that is evolving in our society, specifically in the Silicon Valley.”