Once a family’s download speed reaches 4Mbps, average earnings rise by $322 a month (£201) in the 34 richer nations, including the UK, that are part of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The increase is £75 a month for households which double their speed from 4Mbps to 8Mbps, enabling high-definition video and… Continue reading
Date archives "October 2013"
Autistici/Inventati: Italian hacker collective builds and maintains large privacy protecting network
“We do not conceive our structure as an answer to state control, but in general terms, it is the only decent thing coming to our mind that could guarantee freedom of expression and avoid uncontrolled profiling by companies and governments”. “Freedom and rights? You have to sweat blood for them! On the internet, too.” Infoaut… Continue reading
No Middlemen Cost Cutting Networks in Greece
According to the TEPSIE report (see the full citation and more info about it at the end): cheepest cialis “These are mainly citizen networks focusing on fair transactions between producers and consumers. In particular, these networks aim to cut costs for consumers by organising and distributing products – mainly agricultural – without the involvement of intermediaries…. Continue reading
Discussing the Myth of Barter
Excerpted from David Graeber: (the full and longer essay, a discussion with austrian economists, is well worth reading) “First, the history: 1) Adam Smith first proposed in ‘The Wealth of Nations’ that as soon as a division of labor appeared in human society, some specializing in hunting, for instance, others making arrowheads, people would begin… Continue reading
Donnie Maclurcan: "Not-for-profits as game changers"
In his talk last July at Open Government Melbourne Meetup, Donnie Maclurcan explains why Not for profits will take over For profits and change the game. To relate to Michel’s notion of ‘For benefit’, and the recent post on cooperative accumulation. These are the highlights of the talk: The not-for profit model is one… Continue reading
Dark Matter by Gregory Sholette: Mass Artistic Resistance to the Neoliberalization of Everyday Life
Review By Molly Hankwitz Finally, a history of collective precarity from a politicized artist. Author/writer Gregory Sholette, in the final paragraph of Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture, at last clarifies the frequently cited metaphors of “zombies” and enormous digital casts, with which the likes of Annalee Newitz have been… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: Equo
Excerpted from Silvia Hernando and María Comes: “A political party named Equo has just been born in Spain. Not that big a deal, some might say. But in the current democratic landscape, where two parties — the center-left wing PSOE (in office for the last 8 years) and the right wing PP (probable winners of… Continue reading
On the Relationship Between Individual Tasks and Collaborative Engagement in Two Citizen Science Projects
“In this study, we explore the relationship between individual and collaborative learning activities as they occur in two online citizen science projects, Seafloor Explorer and Planet Hunters. Trace ethnography is suggested as a methodology suitable for investigating this relationship. Preliminary findings identify relationships between four types of activities that emerge which support individual and collaborative… Continue reading
Scientists who share data publicly receive more citations
Scientists who share data publicly receive more citations A new study finds that papers with data shared in public gene expression archives received increased numbers of citations for at least five years. The large size of the study allowed the researchers to exclude confounding factors that have plagued prior studies of the effect and to… Continue reading
Honest Beef's Bitcoined Cows of Disruption
Excerpted from Stilgherrian: “During the 1960s and 1970s, all manner of technology arrived more or less at once. The herringbone milking shed and then the rotary milking shed made it possible for a farm worker to milk more cows. Rural roads were paved, and diesel trucks became bigger, faster and more reliable. Bulk handling equipment… Continue reading
The myth of immaterial growth and ‘infinite happiness’
Republished from Andre Reichel: “When discussing the growth issue, especially from the perspective of #degrowth, one argument comes up regularly. This argument can be termed “infinite happiness” and it goes something like this: economic growth might be restrained or needs to be restrained for various reasons but surely no one wants to put an end… Continue reading
Exchange and Virtual Currencies Networks in Greece
According to the TEPSIE report (see the full citation and more info about it at the end): “Exchange and virtual currencies networks refer to activities organised by groups of citizens in specific regions or across the whole of Greece, where transactions are taking place without the use of money. They are based either on the… Continue reading
A new vision on the Provision of Housing
By Marvin T. Brown: “Housing, like food and water, is a basic right. Providing housing also echoes the original meaning of economics: household management. Housing is also particularly relevant today because of its role in the economic crisis of 2007, which continues into the present. This crisis has been called a housing crisis and a… Continue reading
Kevin Carson’s Response to John Michael Greer
John Michael Greer (“The Flight to the Ephemeral,” The Archdruid Report, Oct. 2) was kind enough to address an earlier post of mine on this blog a few weeks back (“When Ephemeralization is Hard to Tell From Catabolic Collapse,” P2P Foundation Blog, Sept. 19). Here are my responses, in no particular order of importance.
Movement of the Day: Informal Citizen Networks in Greece
* Report: Informal Citizen Networks. The Case of Greece. Tepsie, 2013 A very interesting report, and we’ve asked our Greek friend to report on some of the movements that are described here. But first, general excerpts from this fascinating survey: Introduction “Since 2009 Greece has experienced a severe financial recession and the government has adopted… Continue reading
On the importance of the post-capitalist imagination
A quote from David Harvey, chosen by David Bollier: ” it has been drummed into our heads for a considerable period of time that there is no alternative. One of the first things we have to do is to think about the alternative in order to move towards its creation. The left has become so… Continue reading