Date archives "August 2013"

Problematizing and untangling the concept of ‘competition’

Via From Chapter 11 of Creating Good Work, Theme: going beyond the ‘culture of contest’, from competition to cooperation: “The “culture of contest” that results from this is becoming increasingly maladaptive in an age of ever-increasing social and ecological interdependence. These maladaptive consequences can be seen in the growing disparities of wealth and poverty within… Continue reading

Towards Commons-Enabling Infrastructures (2): some examples / answers …

Second part of a report by Silke Helfrich on what was said and thought on this issue during the Commons and Economics Conference in Berlin last May. “To, both, show where we are at and show what’s possible, here are a few alternative approaches (practices) to infrastructures: 1. Guifi.net – „the open, free and neutral… Continue reading

The first global civil war

Republished from Lionel Dricot: (This post was originally published in French on Ploum.net.) Manning, Snowden, Assange, Miranda, The Guardian. With each passing day, we receive confirmation of a truth that many would prefer to ignore: we are at war. An undeclared, relatively quiet war, but nonetheless a war. Lionel Dricot: “Unlike a conventional war, a… Continue reading

We are on the brink of an implosion of scale!

Excerpted from James Howard Kunstler : “Though the public hasn’t groked it yet, WalMart and its kindred malignant organisms have entered their own yeast-overgrowth death spiral. In a now permanently contracting economy the big box model fails spectacularly. Every element of economic reality is now poised to squash them. Diesel fuel prices are heading well… Continue reading

On the moral economy that existed before the advent of capitalism

Excerpted from John Restakis, in ch. 1 of Humanizing the Economy: “Severing the social dimension of economics, including the role of public institutions such as government, from the supposed “pure” operations of commerce violated both common sense and the traditional operations of market economies since their inception in the 14th century. The role of collective… Continue reading

Openness in the context of an Open Venture Accelerator

Excerpted from Alice Fung: “First of all we talk about radical transparency – because, like we said before, we believe in ‘social by open.’ See the potential disruptive genius of Fairphone – co-invested in by our friends at BGV – who are attacking the socially unjust & environmentally destructive dirty secrets of the smartphone industry… Continue reading

The convergence of alt-labor and the alt-congregations of DIY Judaism

After describing how the emergence of alt.labor and diy judaism is reviving two fledgling movements, Amy Dean focuses on the convergence between both: “These two parallel movements share some history that is worth noting. The Jewish community that once supported the labor movement in both word and deed—“praying with our legs,” as Rabbi Abraham Joshua… Continue reading

Celyia Gruson on Open Science

Hack Your PhD Interview with Brian Glanz More information Join us in person at the Center For Open Science or follow the event via Livestream. The YouTube link will be added before the event Célya Gruson-Daniel @celyagd, Co-Founder of HackYourPhD @HackYourPhD will open with a short presentation of HackYourPhD.  Célya is based in Paris and has been touring… Continue reading

How the free software movement got tamed, and can we do something about it?

* Essay: From Free Software to Artisan Science. By Dan McQuillan.· In the special issue: The Critical Power of Free Software. Journal of Peer Production, Issue #3. Excerpted from Dan McQuillan’s excellent essay: Introduction “My personal journey with Free Software began in the 1990?s when I was working on technology projects in the UK non-profit… Continue reading