Date archives "November 2013"

Movement of the Day: the Radical Commons Working Group

“The Radical Commons Working Group seeks to address two gaps in our understanding of the commons: (1) An unwarranted gap in the political philosophy of the commons: a lack of conversation between the Tocquevillian associationalism favored at the Ostrom Workshop and the Marxist autonomism explored by a global network of commons practitioners and theoreticians. (2)… Continue reading

Open Source Hardware needs ethical and sustainability-oriented communities!

“empowering innovation” that expands access to technological innovations in waves, to new segments of society. My argument at this point is exactly this: open source hardware (open source in general) or more properly an innovation that is actually based on the commons can have this role today, that of giving us the opportunity to extend… Continue reading

Essay of the Day: Imagining a Self-Organised Classroom

* Article: Imagining a Self-Organised Classroom – Some of Gilles Deleuze’s conceptualisations. Giorgio Bertini. Abstract: “This paper uses complexity theory as a means towards clarifying some of Gilles Deleuze’s conceptualisations in communication and the philosophy of language. His neologisms and post-structuralist tropes are often complicated and appear to be merely metaphorical. Howevertheir meanings may be… Continue reading

Resilient Agro-Food Consumption in Sant Cugat del Vallès

Details in the article: * Agro-food consumption patterns to favour social and economical resilience. The case of Sant Cugat del Vallès. By Pere Losantos and Ricard Espelt. Abstract: “Currently, we can distinguish two different approaches to agro-food consumption. The main model follows the value chain nutrition rules and it is focused on establishing the quality… Continue reading

Project of the Day: Commons in a Box

Commons in a Box = a free, distributable, easy-to-install package to create a (digital) commons site ; “each component of CBOX contributes to an organizational “Commons”. “Commons In A Box (CBOX) is a free software project aimed at turning the infrastructure that successfully powers the CUNY Academic Commons into a free, distributable, easy-to-install package. Commons In… Continue reading

The Economist on the growing anger at the ruthless netarchical capitalists

Geeks have turned out to be some of the most ruthless capitalists around Excerpted from Adrian Wooldridge: “A few years ago the new economy was a wide-open frontier. Today it is dominated by a handful of tightly held oligopolies. Google and Apple provide over 90% of the operating systems for smartphones. Facebook counts more than… Continue reading

Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond sentenced to 10 years

Anonymous Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond has received the maximum sentence of 10 years for an act of Civil Disobedience, hacking into the networks of the private intelligence firm Stratfor. The data from the hack was subsequently released in February 2012 by Wikileaks as the Global Intelligence Files http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html While Hammond plead guilty to the charges, the… Continue reading

In Hamburg, Germany: Municipal Buy-Back of the Power Grid

Excerpted from Giles Parkinson: “One intriguing result of the election included a referendum in the state of Hamburg to buy back the lower power grid from Vattenfall, and turn it into a local municipal-based public utility. The proposal gained a majority, despite active campaigning and a lavish budget against it by most major parties, including… Continue reading

Project of the Day: Data Commons Cooperative

Data Commons Cooperative “People everywhere have been organizing a more ethical economy, but they work in relative isolation, fragmented by geography, sector, and even organizational form. Many organizations collect information about a small piece of these efforts. In every situation, there is another organization for which that information overlaps. In every case there is an… Continue reading

Public Information as a Commons: The Case of ERT and the P2P Prospect

Eighth of a 10-posts-series on P2P Lab’s 2013 publications. Full reference: Kostakis, V. & Giotitsas, C. (Forthcoming). Public information as a Commons: The case of ERT and the peer-to-peer prospect. International Journal of E-Governance. Summary This article deals with a new understanding of the public character of information, based on the alternative modes of property… Continue reading

Cook Report: The Right to Telecommunications Self-Determination with Examples from Spain, USA, Argentina and France

This November-December COOK Report explores the free network movement literally across continents and hemispheres – from agrarian villages nestled among the foothills of the Pyrenees to urban inner-city neighborhoods in America’s Heartland. As a follow on to the March April 2013 exploration of guifi.net and Isaac Wilder’s Kansas City work, it looks at these networks… Continue reading