Excerpted from Andrew Leonard: “Here are eight prime reasons why the sharing economy is just a cover for Silicon Valley greed. 1. When sharing becomes gouging Uber made plenty of headlines during a huge winter storm in New York in December, when riders found themselves paying three times the normal price to hail a car… Continue reading
Date archives "February 2014"
Book of the Day: Factories of Knowledge
Avoiding the use of the factory as metaphor, Raunig nevertheless argues that the university retains three crucial qualities that also made the factory a key site of social struggle in previous generations. He argues that the qualities of condensation, assembly and re-territorialisation make the university a ‘becoming factory’ of new economic and social assemblages today…. Continue reading
How grassroots P2P technologies are empowering favella dwellers and other citizens in Rio de Janeiro
Excerpted from Jonathan Watts : “Inequality, poor transport systems and excessive bureaucracy remain major obstacles but at the grass roots technology is arguably being used in the most innovative ways to address social problems. The expansion of wifi and 3G networks into the favela shantytowns has widened the access of residents to information, as well… Continue reading
Andreas Antonopoulos on the Power of the Bitcoin Protocol, Not the Currency
Very powerful explanation of the power of the Bitcoin protocol:
European Commission Public Consultation on Copyright: La Quadrature du Net’s Answer
The European Commision has extended the date for submissions on it’s public consultation on copyright reform to March 5th. This is an opportunity to make your voices heard, however as highlighted by La Quadrature Du Net the commissions questionnaire leaves much to be desired. SOURCE :https://www.laquadrature.net/en/european-commission-public-consultation-on-copyright-la-quadrature-du-nets-answer Paris, 14 February 2014 — The European Commission’s public… Continue reading
Video: Charlotte Hess on Crafting New Commons for Collaboration, Participation, and Sustainability
Watch the video via http://vimeo.com/80359813
Debating nine pre-P2P perspectives: 2) Alternative Development
Jose Ramos and myself will be debating nine different political perspectives and how they relate to peer to peer. Today we discuss: Alternative Development Part 1: Summary by Jose Ramos: Practices of colonialism were supported by theories of economic development first developed by Adam Smith (Campbell, 1997, pp. 41-43), later buttressed by an ideology of… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Indigenising the Curriculum
* Article: Indigenising Curriculum: questions posed by Baiga vidya. By PADMA M. SARANGAPANI.Comparative Education Volume 39 No. 2 2003, pp. 199–209 Abstract “The Baiga are a small tribe inhabiting the forested regions of Central India. They are known for their extensive knowledge of forests and healing. A local pedagogic tradition supports the transmission of this… Continue reading
Seeking a truly egalitarian P2P framework using the blockchain
Republished from Adam Lake, who is asking for comments and answers: “First, to be clear, this is not about Bitcoin, it’s about the blockchain and its potential as a framework on which to build egalitarian P2P networks of all types. Ethereum seems to be making great strides in this direction saying their platform will be… Continue reading
The case of Goteo: from Crowdfunding to Cloudfunding to expand resources for the Commons
Original Text from Goteo Team of Goteo.org Although the limits of Internet’s scope are increasingly aknowledged, also is its potential for activating innovation, empowerment and common causes. The idea around the democratizing power of the Internet seems to be also growingly extended in the academic world as well as in the activist environment, and its… Continue reading
Video: Paul Lewis on Crowdsourcing the News
“When every cellphone can record video and take pictures, everyone is a potential news source. Reporter Paul Lewis tells two stories that show us the future of investigative journalism. (Filmed at TEDxThessaloniki.)” Watch the video here:
Movement of the Day: the Open Food Foundation
“The Open Food Foundation has been established to accumulate and protect a commons of open source knowledge, code, applications and platforms to support the proliferation of fair and sustainable food systems in Australia and beyond. In this interview founders Kirsten Larsen and Serenity Hill explain how they’re applying the principles of open access and peer… Continue reading
Debating nine pre-P2P perspectives: 1) Reform Liberalism
Jose Ramos and myself will be debating nine different political perspectives and how they relate to peer to peer. Today we discuss: Reform Liberalism. 1. Summary by Jose Ramos: “In sharp contrast to the alternative development discourse, which seemed to have been swept aside by the onrush of ‘globalisation’, the highest profile advocates for an… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Occupy London’s Little Book of Economic Ideas
* Book: Little Book Of Ideas. Occupy London’s Economics Working Group, 2013. Summary: “A small handbook which explains complex economic terms and theories in simple language, to help everyone understand what has caused the economic mess, why it’s still continuing, and enable them to engage in the debate about what needs to be changed for… Continue reading
Studying Commons Based Peer Production, ‘an expanding new frontier’
CCCB LAB // P2Pvalue: Producció col·laborativa en xarxa. Mayo Fuster Morell (VO En) from CCCB on Vimeo. Review by Monica Garriga of IGOPnet “This is a new frontier and this frontier is expanding in quite an impressive way”, Marco Berlinguer (IGOPnet) opened the roundtable discussion at the first public presentation of the P2Pvalue Project, which… Continue reading
Call For Abstracts on Peer Production, Open Collaboration and Hacking
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Protospace,_a_Hackerspace.jpg Dear researchers, We invite you to submit an abstract to our session on the relevance of peer production, open collaboration and hacking to Science and Technology Studies. The panel is organised for the 4S/ESOCITE conference in Buenos Aires, 20-23 August 2014. You are welcome to get in touch with us to discuss abstracts informally…. Continue reading