* Book: A Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policies. By Howard T. Odum and Elisabeth C. Odum. University Press of Colorado, 2001. This book re-edited book from 2001 is not antiquated and will introduce the reader to energy-economics. The summary from the publishers: “Consider the future with less fossil fuel and no new natural or… Continue reading
Date archives "March 2013"
Video of the Day: Share, Unite, Cooperate
Pitfalls of Online Education
Excerpted from a longer critical essay by C. A. Bowers: “What the computer scientists and technologists who write the computer programs are not likely to have encountered in their own education is that words are metaphors, and that the printed word gives few clues to how it’s supposed current meanings were framed in the past… Continue reading
Furtherfield Appeal to raise £10,000 by the end of April 2013
Through their website at furtherfield.org, the Netbehaviour mailing list and gallery space in London our friends at Furtherfield have supported a thriving community of artists, techies and activists since 1997. Please support their work by making a donation and by helping spread the word about this appeal. Furtherfield needs to raise £10,000 by the end… Continue reading
Report: The SPREAD European Sustainable Lifestyles Scenarios for 2050
“SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 is a European social platform project running from January 2011 to December 2012. Different societal stakeholders – from business, research, policy and civil society – have been invited to participate in the development of a vision for sustainable lifestyles in 2050. This process will result in a roadmap for strategic action… Continue reading
Research: How Commons Grassroots Activists Are Shaping the Future
* PhD Thesis: Reclaiming the Commons: a discourse for new politics . How grassroots activists are shaping the future. By Sophie Ball. A summary from the abstract “This thesis draws together a number of examples of activism and protest in order to shine a light on some of the discourses and practices that have emerged… Continue reading
Book of the Day: The ethics and aesthetics of hacking
* Book: Coding Freedom: the ethics and aesthetics of hacking. E. Gabriella Coleman. Princeton University Press. 2013 From the Summary: “Who are computer hackers? What is free software? And what does the emergence of a community dedicated to the production of free and open source software–and to hacking as a technical, aesthetic, and moral project–reveal… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Peer-Producing Alternative Futures
* Article: Foresight in a network era: peer-producing alternative futures. By Jose Ramos, Tim Mansfield, and Gareth Priday. Journal of Futures Studies, September 2012, 17(1): 71-90. This essay is part of the special edition of the Journal of Futures Studies on the Communication of Foresight. A summary from the abstract: “The advent of the network… Continue reading
Climate Justice through the proposed Fee and Divided Carbon Tax
Excerpted from John Bellamy Foster: “It is Hansen who has provided the starting point for a realistic climate-change exit strategy aimed at keeping the increase in global average temperatures well below 2°C. He proposes the creation of a “fee-and-dividend” system whereby fossil-fuel companies would be charged an easily implemented carbon fee imposed at the well… Continue reading
A status update on the advancement of the Bitcoin ecology
Excerpted from Nicolas Mendoza: (the original has many interesting links) “The context in 2013 looks dramatically different to the one during the huge rally-and-crash of 2011. During the last year, the pace of development and adoption by merchants and the NGO sector has steadily accelerated, and the Bitcoin ecosystem in general advanced in many fronts…. Continue reading
An overview of the collaborative economy (in French)
An French-language interview conducted while I was invited by Communautique last year to speak in Montreal, produced by the great video production team of Remixthecommons. It is entitled “Vue d’ensemble de l’économie collaborative avec Michel Bauwens” Watch the video here:
Who cares of Google Reader? Let’s use the P2P alternatives
These days half the Internet is upset because Google Reader is about to quit. I am not. I am really happy about these news, because this is a wonderful occasion for everybody to consider again something that I have been suggesting for a while now. There are open alternatives to services like Google Reader, Gmail,… Continue reading
Research on Co-working: Making Space For Others
“This report tries to understand how the socio-economic factors that spawned coworking will continue to affect our workspaces for the better – and with this create tools to make it happen.” This is well done Master’s thesis on Coworking by Kathy Jackson. Here are a few excerpts. * From the introduction: “The purpose of this… Continue reading
A Critique of 3D Printing as a Critical Technology
Republished from Johan Söderberg: “The third industrial revolution might come with personal or digital manufacturing, when what used to be bought in a shop could be made at home with such tools as laser cutters, 3D printers and computer numerical control (CNC) milling machines. They are all based on the same principle, using software to… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Green Governance, Human Rights, and the Commons
* Book: Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Commons. By Weston H. Burns and David Bollier. Cambridge University Press, 2013 The case for green governance, an excerpt from the introduction: “If the human species is to overcome the many interconnected ecological catastrophes now confronting us, this moment in history requires that we entertain… Continue reading
What monetary reform for the post-growth era?
Excerpted from Jem Bendell: “While more politicians promote new measures of progress, they remain fixated on increasing economic growth. Why this obsession? Do they simply prefer it to other measures of progress? Clearly that can’t be the reason. The answer lies in our current monetary system, which requires economic growth, as otherwise our money supply… Continue reading