Video recording of the conference “Economics and the Common(s): From Seed Form to Core Paradigm”, May 22 — 24, 2013 Watch the video here, read Silke’s notes, and find a short summary explanation below: “The prevailing dogma of market-fundamentalism has increasingly been called into question as the predatory dynamics of the market economy became clear… Continue reading
Date archives "June 2013"
Michel Bauwens on the importance of open source innovation
Michel Bauwens was invited for a virtual intervention by Simone Cicero:
State in transition
On April 15, the Dutch television program ‘Tegenlicht’ (Backlight) explored the transition process towards ‘The New Netherlands’. One of the main interviewees was the Dutch professor Jan Rotmans (see short biography below), who’s idea of the facilitating government is – in my opinion – very close to the concept of the partner state as developed… Continue reading
Collective sensing and meaning making for the commons movements
A proposal by George Por, who requests you respond here: “The last day of ECC2013, in his presentation titled “Life, Meaning and Spirituality in the Commons,” Andreas Weber talked about enlivenment as a continually deepening our meaningful connection with nature, each other and life. We all know the feeling of being more enlivened, more full… Continue reading
A London Occupy-er (re)visits the Commons and Economics conference
Tina Bakolitsa‘s, Occupy London, take on the ECC conference, including side events: (version without links and pictures) ” The industrial lift door opens onto a light green corridor lined with posters. “Hack the future of photography.” “Intensive product design course.” “Introduction to 3D printing.” “Let’s have a beta beer. – Free beer while it lasts.”… Continue reading
Tom Atlee responds to Joel Dietz’ commons critique
Tom Atlee writes, responding to Joel Dietz: “(1) I see permaculture as an answer to that question, and I see the inquiry about “social permaculture” that is emerging within the permaculture movement as a pursuit of truly useful answers. I also think that “emergent processes” (Open Space, World Cafe, etc.) and work related to my… Continue reading
Indirect reciprocity and stigmergic polycentrism for commons production
It seems, that Silke Helfrich in her introductory conference talk has a different meaning of reciprocity in mind. She wants to emphasize, that in commons the balance of giving and taking does occur on the level of the commons itself, and not on the individual level like in commodity relationships. The latter is usually called… Continue reading
Towards post-dialectical thinking
Bonnita Roy responds to my question on “grand narratives after post-modernism” The Question Michel Bauwens: “It is often said that post-modernism killed grand narratives yet post-post-modernism is about synthesis, integration and looks a bit like grand narratives … my own feeling with constructing p2p theory is that it was necessary to reconstruct after deconstruction, but… Continue reading
Should we KickStop a SyntheticBiology Kickstarter campaign?
“The ETC group … (is trying) … to block (a) crowd funding project from releasing untested GM plants into the environment“: A public crowd-funding campaign has been launched by a starter Biotech company Genome Compiler, to create bioengineered glow-in-the-dark plants that will be given away to donors. This will be the first organism created by… Continue reading
Commons as new medievalism, the tension between local and global
Excerpted from Anna Seravalli’s review of the Economics and the Conference conference: “The idea of commons seems to be quite close to the idea of Things, which is often used at Malmö Living Labs (editor’s note: for an introduction to Things, see Ehn’s Participation in Design Things). When discussing how to design Things, the concern… Continue reading
Resilient P2P Innovations Means a Thrivable World Is Possible
Producing more locally isn’t just a survival strategy anymore, or a way to get by in an increasingly unstable world. No, producing more locally using these new methods is fundamental shift. A way of living that could change the world if people voted in their billions with feet, minds, hands to adopt this successful approach… Continue reading
Video: the Money Fix documentary
The full-length documentary is available on YouTube, essential for your education, with all the usual suspects: “”Money is just information, a way we measure what we trade, nothing of value in itself. And we can make it ourselves, to work as a complement to conventional money. It’s just a matter of design.” Money is at… Continue reading
Is there a Social Media-fueled Protest Style?
While social-media fueled collective action lacks the affordances of politics and the institutional capital that political parties and NGOs can provide, they can be very good at drawing red lines and organizing and gathering attention to a loud “NO!” (ie., Mubarak, SOPA/PIPA, Gezi Parki demolition). However, such movements seem usually unable to translate their power… Continue reading
First Reactions from Participants to the Economics and the Commons Conference
The co-organizer Silke Helfrich of the ECC20213 conference went through a first batch of reactions, her intro is followed by ongoing commentary. For a better edited and sourced version, go to the original here. “What a conference! It is still flooding my inbox. I guess, it was my first conference (and I’ve co-organized pretty many)… Continue reading
What the Commons Is Missing
A contribution by the “Economics and the Commons” conference attendee, Joel Dietz: “After the “Economics and the Commons” conference here in Berlin, I spent a long time digesting the proceedings here in Berlin. Despite near consensus among interested parties on the importance of the “commons” and “commoning,” I had an eerie sensation that something was… Continue reading
The current state of open knowledge in medicine
Excerpted from Iain Hrynaszkiewicz: “The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the organisation which approves drug license applications from the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, has made important progress towards more open science. They hope to release anonymised data from drug trials online, but are faced with widely divided opinions on how data sharing should happen, as well… Continue reading