Reposted from Hearsay Culture, David S. Levine interviews Tim Jordan, a Senior Lecturer in the analysis of digital culture at King’s College London . From the shownotes to the episode: “Lastly, I’m thrilled to post Show #192, August 23, my interview with Tim Jordan of King’s College London on hacking. Tim is (and has… Continue reading
Date archives "February 2014"
Hosting the Commons
Extracted from Percolab, here’s Samantha Slade recounting her experience at last year’s Economics and the Commons Conference. When I received an invitation to attend the Economics and the Commons conference (Berlin, 2013), I was delighted. The commons is alive in me. It is a new/old paradigm that reconnects with, and brings innovative thinking to, the social and ecological… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: Sudo Room
An open, non-hierarchical, collaborative community of humans, including tech developers, citizen scientists, activists, artists … interested in and working towards social change. From the self-description: 1. “Sudo Room is an open, non-hierarchical, collaborative community of humans, including tech developers, citizen scientists, activists, artists–and all combinations in between and beyond!–who are interested in and working towards social… Continue reading
Labor confronts the dark sides of the sharing economy: the Amazon workers’ revolt
It will be a hard fight, but if economic trends are any indication, labor doesn’t really have any other choice. In a growing number of cities, “disruptive” industries have given corporations new ways to exploit workers. Brick-and-mortar schools and universities are threatened with obsolescence by the rise of “MOOCs,” short for “Massive Open Online Courses.”… Continue reading
Video of the day: Michel Bauwens on the FLOKSociety project
This is the first time in history that a state is walking this way, so this is an historical project. A very recent interview with Michel Bauwens conducted by Rosa Roig in Quito, Ecuador. Michel talks about his role as director of research on the FLOKSociety project, his experience in Ecuador, and the various… Continue reading
Amazon and the US book trade
David Bollier recently recommended this article, written by George Packer and originally published in the New Yorker. It is a long and detailed narrative about Amazon’s history thought the nineties, aughts and up to the present. Amazon’s influence has been so disruptive that it also doubles as a history of publishing in the last 15… Continue reading
Honouring Terence McKenna: Advancing to more complexity and humanity’s role in producing novelty
Strongly recommended, wonderful lecture: “Eros And The Eschaton “What Science Forgot”
Project of the Day: Open Funding, a co-funding platform for free software developers
“Open Funding is a co-funding platform for free software. It aims to provide a sustainable business model for free software development and common good production. The idea is to enable free software users to contribute to projects by funding them feature by feature, creating a long term relationship between a project and its community. It… Continue reading
Economix Comix: The Transpacific Partnership and “Free Trade”
Excerpted from economixcomix.com, author Michael Goodwin and artist Dan E. Burr explain the Transpacific Partnership and “free trade” in comic form, full of clever examples and insightful explanations. Be sure to also have a look at their earlier book, Economix. Read the rest of the comic here
Podcast of the Day: Nikos Salingaros on Creating Buildings and Environments That Support Life
Extracted from levevei.no, James Alexander Arnfinsen talks to Nikos Salingaros about human needs, holistic architecture and reclaiming the best qualities from the buildings of the past. http://www.levevei.no/Podcast/Episode-84-Nikos-Salingaros.mp3 From the shownotes to the episode. “In this episode I have the delight of connecting with Nikos Salingaros, who is a Professor in Mathematics, an Urbanist and Architectural… Continue reading
Can the Internet Democratize Capitalism?
1. “The Internet is a wonderful leveller. But democracy requires a great deal more than mere ‘levelling’. Primarily, it requires political institutions that enable the economically weak to have a decisive say on policy against the interests of the rich and powerful.” 2. “The notion that the democratic deficit can be dealt with by some… Continue reading
The Neuroplasticity of the Collective Brain as a Key Factor for Achieving Social Change
Excerpted from Otto Scharmer who reports on a conference held at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute: “During the first panel of the (AEI) event, Jonathan Haidt of NYU suggested that today’s capitalism has three different story lines: (1) capitalism as heartless exploitation, (2) capitalism as the greatest discovery of mankind, and (3) a “more ethical… Continue reading
Video of the day: Charlie Rose interviews Nouriel Roubini, Ian Bremmer on World Economies
In this update on the global crisis, Charlie Rose discusses “the new abnormal” with political scientist Ian Bremmer and economist Nouriel Roubini. Together they explore the global economic and political climate in terms of the rapidly shifting balances along axes of stability/instability and equilibrium/disequilibrium. They discuss the anemic growth in advanced economies and its effects in… Continue reading
Joel Dietz on Bitcoin 2.0
If you have a minute, here’s a minute-long video explaining Bitcoin 2.0, a new idea about evolving the cryptocurrency model as a distributed autonomous society. Excerpted from evergreenthoughts.quora.com, by Joel Dietz It’s a movement, it’s an ethos, it’s a community, it’s the future. What do I mean? I mean that distributed autonomous corporations and organizations… Continue reading
New Documentary on Icelandic Modern Media Initiative – by Paula Lázaro
In a time of mass government surveillance, when journalists and their partners are treated like terrorists. The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), one of the few success stories to come out of the economic crisis continues to raise the bar and set the new standards for media law, offering an alternative vision for the future… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: the Building Man Cooperative
“Building Man is a Multi Stakeholder Co-operative organizing the Building Man festival and incorporated as an Industrial and Providence Society. They’re known as the Somerset Rules, and we couldn’t agree more. Our brand new Building Man Co-operative is community owned and co-operatively organised. We’re 100% participatory and radically inclusive, with an open membership and directors… Continue reading