This is only the introduction to the dialogue, see the original article for the full version. See also the earlier treatment of the same issue here. Rafter writes: “I’ve written before about the challenges faced by permaculture enterprises. Farms, like other land-based permaculture projects, are faced with the formidable task of regenerating ecosystems and communities,… Continue reading
Date archives "September 2013"
A Currency Proposal for Liquid Ownership
A proposal by Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis: A currency proposal This is a currency proposal that tries to block the accumulation of money to a few people. During the last years, people all over the world have witnessed the destruction of their livelihoods while at the same time a few people became richer and richer. That had… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: Is the X Party the ‘Party of the Future’?
X Party: The only party that does not want to represent you. There is a whole wave of Internet-Based Political Parties, especially in “Latin” countries, on which our friend Bernardo Gutierrez devoted an article, “How Net Parties Are Changing the Rules of the Political Game“. The essence is that this parties are non-representational and choose… Continue reading
The Emerging Collaborative and Sharing Mentalities of the Millenial Generation
Dan Schawbel, expert on millennials in the workforce, interviewed by Jeremiah Owyang: (excerpts) * Jeremiah: Is it true that Millennials seek access to goods and products rather than owning them?. What impacts does that have to brands who’re trying to sell to “Consumers”? What should brands do? Dan: A lot of industries are having a… Continue reading
Phonebloks – a mobile phone that can be configured, upgraded, repaired: An idea whose time has come?
Phonebloks is an idea. A mobile phone that can be configured, upgraded and repaired. No one is making it yet, but a campaign for its existence is about to launch… a thunderclap (https://www.thunderclap.it/) is planned for 29 October. Certainly, having a phone like that would cut down electronic waste in landfills and recycling bins. It… Continue reading
Project of the Day: the Panera Bread Pay-What-You-Can Store
Excerpted from Amy Sullivan: “Look closer and you’ll notice something unusual for a restaurant chain that brings in more than $3 billion each year. There are no prices listed next to items on the menu boards and no cash registers. Instead, donation boxes sit on the counter, with signs telling customers: “Take what you need;… Continue reading
Post Growth’s Institute Formula for a For-Benefit Future
The Post Growth Institute is an international network of activists committed to analysing the underlying causes of the mess we find ourselves in and to building a broad global movement to create global prosperity that is not dependent on economic growth. Their crowdfunded book, “How on Earth? Flourishing in a Not-for-Profit World by 2050”, describes… Continue reading
Towards a blue economy?
A Chiang Mai based friend, Jens Kremer, has written a very readable introductory on the Blue Economy, the concept and practice proposed by Gunther Pauli: 1 – The Blue Economy by kev.flanagan
An argument for a Global Profit Tax
Republished from Ben Chu: “The cascade of revelations in recent months showing multinational companies doing a huge amount of business here and yet paying virtually no corporation tax has provoked widespread public demands for something to be done. But people tend to be rather hazier on what that “something” should be. To define a solution… Continue reading
Towards T-Corporations: Do we need a new legal, cooperative regime for sharing companies?
The companies made one fatal error: You can’t truly remedy today’s economic problems by using the same business structures that created the economic problems. Because of their current ownership structure, Airbnb, Lyft, Über, and TaskRabbit could be bought out by ever larger and more centralized companies that won’t necessarily care about the well-being of people… Continue reading
Introducing BioCurious and the Community Biolab model
Entertaining video introduction to the activities of a DIYBio lab community, BioCurious: (for info on the ‘community biolab model’, see here)
Project of the Day: Jai Ranganathan on Engaging the Public, Improving Your Science
Jai Ranganathan interviewed by Celya Guson-Daniel – Engaging with the Public, Improving Your Science We chose three of the podcast interviews by Celya Gruson-Daniel to present to you. Celya Gruson-Daniel has just finished a tour of the United States interviewing more than 60 people on their views about science, open source and reproducibility. Essentially this is a user’s… Continue reading
Project of the Day: the JFloat collaborative consumption self-insurance platform
Some time ago, the UK-based auto insurance company, jFloat launched a “collaborative consumption self-insurance platform“: “jFloat users come together and pay the majority of their premiums into collective pools of 100 people called “floats,” which consist of extended family members and like-minded people who fill out a survey on the company’s website. The cohort can… Continue reading
Video: Sustainable Models for Open Manufacturing
Watch the video here: “What does it mean to build a new production process that is decentralized, local and open for everyone? How will this new form of production (from supply chain to workers, from facilities to infrastructures) emerge? What are the major signs that this will be possible? And the major constraints? “ Jacopo… Continue reading
When software eats the world, do we need post-capitalist solutions?
I’m a huge fan of capitalism. But I can’t shake the thought that in a decade or two we may need to move to what I call post-capitalism. Whether that means a basic income (endorsed by Milton Friedman!) or something else — and whether it has to happen the hard way, via some kind of… Continue reading
Open Hardware Startup Survey, 2013
Excerpted from Mathilde Berchon: “Open Hardware startups are primarily based in the United States: 68% of them have their headquarters in the US. Europe comes as secondary hub with 19%, followed by Asia with 7%. If you get a closer look at the United States, you’ll notice that startups are mostly based on the coasts:… Continue reading