Date archives "December 2012"

Why is there no support for sharing licenses in Facebook and Instagram?

Excerpted from RYAN SINGEL: “Say you have a gallery of photos of human rights abuses that you uploaded to Facebook – and that you want the world to see, and newspapers to print. Well, there’s no option for that on Facebook. Try to license an Instagram photo via Creative Commons. It’s not that CC isn’t… Continue reading

Marjorie Kelly on the Emergent Ownership Revolution

Can we sustain a low-growth or no-growth economy indefinitely without changing dominant ownership designs? That seems unlikely. Probably impossible. How, then, do we make the turn? How can we design economic architectures that are self-organized not around profit maximization, but around serving the needs of life? * Marjorie Kelly presents her important new book, The… Continue reading

Video of the Day: Clay Shirky on the New Digitally Social Urbanism

Excerpted from Clay Shirky‘s presentation at the Social Computing Symposium 2012 James Brown explains: “Clay Shirky on social spaces and the changing urban environment: The old stores gone out of business are not going to be replaced by new ones.Rather, the space occupied by the building structures are going to be claimed by new groups… Continue reading

Movement of the Day: the CLASSE student movement in Quebec

CLASSE is/was the student movement against tuition hikes in Quebec which obtained a dramatic victory in 2012 Suresh Fernando explains their governance methods, based on conversations with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the ex-spokesperson of CLASSE: “There were a few key points that Gabriel made that I think are worthy of emphasizing: structure is essential if you want… Continue reading

Project of the Day: The Open Structures Project

“While eBay provides a circulation of objects, and cradle-to-cradle provides a circulation of materials, modular construction systems provide a circulation of parts and components. Our ambition is to create puzzles instead of static objects. The system should generate objects of which it is not entirely clear anymore who designed them. An object evolves as it… Continue reading

Video of the Day: Jerry Michalski on Designing Systems on the Basis of Trust

“Many institutions we take for granted are designed from a basis of mistrust. Skip school too often? Go to jail. Run that red light, even when nobody is around for blocks? Ticket. Movements around the world are finding new ways, flipping the model, building practices and institutions based on the initial gesture of trust. Building… Continue reading

Towards a Global Commons of Truth

This is excerpted from a longer and much worth reading editorial by Nicolas Mendoza in Al Jazeera’s Opinion: “WikiLeaks has recently announced the creation of a new organisation called the Freedom of the Press Foundation. The following excerpt from the press release gives a quick description of the new initiative: “The Freedom of the Press… Continue reading

Decentralizing big retailers in a systemic p2p way

Excerpted from a detailed proposal and strategy by Tony Cartalucci: “It was innovative uses of new technology that eventually began the decentralizing of the media monopolies. It will be innovative uses of new technology that likewise begin the decentralizing of big-retail. Imagine, a city block, or several blocks, all within walking distance, where you could… Continue reading

From Vertical Spatiality to Horizontal Spatiality

Historical overview by David Ronfeldt: “Space remains a grand concept that rarely appears explicitly in political analysis. The study of social space and people’s perceptions of it has mainly arisen in writings of political philosophy (Emmanuel Kant, Henri Bergson), child development psychology (Jean Piaget), sociology of knowledge (Georges Gurvitch), and geography (which may be defined… Continue reading

Video of the Day: Seeds of Freedom

Seeds of Freedom is a video documentary on the Enclosure of the Seeds Commons The makers explain: “A landmark film narrated by Jeremy Irons. The story of seed has become one of loss, control, dependence and debt. It’s been written by those who want to make vast profit from our food system, no matter what… Continue reading

Movement of the Day: Shareable Australia

Shareable Australia, launched by Darren Sharp and friends, helps to facilitate and spread the word about Meetups, unconferences, swap meets and the sharing marketplace, and reports on local movements and events. Cat Johnson explains: “The recently-created Australian channel of Shareable Magazine, Shareable Australia acts to create person-to-person connections within the sharing movement. The channel helps… Continue reading

The internet is a threat to human civilization: Julian Assange’s A Call to Cryptographic Arms

The following is excerpted from Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet, by Julian Assange with Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn and Jérémie Zimmermann. OR Books, New York, 2012, Pages 1-7. INTRODUCTION: A CALL TO CRYPTOGRAPHIC ARMS — Julian Assange, London, October 2012: “This book is not a manifesto. There is not time for that…. Continue reading